how to help improve dd6 reading

[wavesandwellies]

dd6 has just started year 2. she's currently on yellow bookbands in school and last year had 1-1 help to bring her reading up. I read to her most nights and she reads to me at least 3/4 times a week.

in her reading book this week the teacher wrote that she read well and they focused on using eyes for tracked reading. at home she reads well, is able to blend words and decipher tricky words. she does sometimes just look at the 1st few letters and guess what the word is. shes able to retell the story and answer questions about it. she does struggle with putting expression into her reading at the moment.

so my question is, how do I help her improve her reading and what do teachers look for while assessing pupils before moving them up?

Teachers focus on fluency, expression, phonics knowledge, and comprehension when determining a child's level at our school.

That said, a higher level isn't the goal of a child's reading. She'll develop better expression as the reading becomes more automated. If she's decoded a lot verbally still, that breaks the flow. More practice will help her decode more quickly in her head and eventually help her automatically recognize the words so that she doesn't need to decode any longer.

The best way to improve is then indeed to practice, practice, practice. My kids love library books, so they have a continual supply of new books, which they enjoy looking through. My youngest gets blue books at school, so not far off from yellow, and he looks at pictures and reads bits to himself.

Another idea is to let her help out while listening to you read to her. My kids would help me with the titles of books, or chapter headings, or with speech bubbles in funny books. Of course, this wasn't to detract from reading out loud, but to just add a bit of extra practice in.

Can you write her notes to find? Let her help you reading recipes? Any opportunity for reading helps, and if you can find more time in the day (I know, it's hard) to listen to her read books on her level, that would be ideal.

I wouldn't focus on improving any aspect of reading unless the school is weak. Practice, practice, practice is what will develop her reading skills more than anything.

How did she do in the Y1 phonics check?

Sounds like she's on track but just needs to keep practicing. Maybe tracking with a finger could help with making sure that she looks at all the letters in the word? (Unless school were saying tracking with eyes to move on from tracking with finger?)

For expression, when you think she's ready for it, I asked DS to read through the sentence in his head before he said it aloud. Fixed it pretty much overnight. But they can't do that till they're quick and automatic at decoding or a sentence is too much to hold in their heads.

Just keep practising. Every day if you can for 5-10 minutes (I used to finds mornings better than evenings at that age).

My ds was a good decoder but not a good reader. He needed example shown to him. So I did. I did read with OTT expressions and voices to him.
He was asked to read in the class on day, and copied what I did, from what I heard from the teacher. He was applauded and and that changed everything. He felt so confident after that one incident, and wasn't afraid to read aloud to teacher anymore.

Hi wavesandwellies, my DD's just gone into year 2 and she's just gone onto turquoise books but doesn't enjoy reading or rather doesn't at home. Her first book of this year it was a nightmare to get her to read it. This book she is a little more enthusiastic but just reads in a flat voice.
Your DD sounds similar to my DD that often if a word is unfamiliar she will guess rather than breaking it down using her phonics. She is very good like yours at retelling a story and told me the other night all about the good story that she read in guided reading! She will pick up books of her choice and attempt to read to me every so often so we are going to go to the library more often so that outside of biff, chip and kipper school books she is getting to read books that she thinks may be interesting or she likes the cover on them.
I agree with BarbarianMum that mornings seem to be better for DD, it's not always possible to do mornings but I'm trying to do reading of school books a couple of mornings a week.
I think with my DD a lot of it is lack of confidence, she often knows the words and could read better but is fearful of mistakes. I was very similar as a child and would not want to read out in class incase I got it wrong. I'm always telling DD it's fine, just try but see a young me :-(

thank you all for your replies!

since I've posted I've made sure she's read something to me every day, she came home from school today with a book that she read with a teacher and I must say I'm super impressed her memory skills as she knew it word for word, even the tricky ones! she did read with more expression though!

I've also started reading in the mornings and found that's better.

DD's just gone into year 2 and she's just gone onto turquoise books but doesn't enjoy reading or rather doesn't at home.

I don't think that many children enjoy reading until they get to the point where it's second nature and they can read books they really like. Ploughing through reading books when you are 6 is hard work I think. Dd1 started enjoying reading in year 3, dd2 Y1 doesn't like it yet either.