What age would you expect a child to read...

[Xuli]

By themselves, with little assistance (as in, what a word means) something like The Lorax or George's Marvellous Medicine?

Just curious as this is our first DC and I have no experience of reading bands or reading expectations, interested to see vaguely whether they are reading at vaguely the right level

A few children in year 1 and 2 will do this... So around 6. Year 3 (7-8) would be more usual.

It's much more important for them to be comprehending what they are reading than read chapter books they can decode but can't tell you what's going on.

really depends on the child, DS read George's Marvellous Medicine before starting school, DD is year 4 and in all honesty would probably lose interest long before finishing the book (she can read, she just gets bored really quickly and rarely actually finishes a book, it's really annoying).

From a school point of view, If your child is enjoying reading other books at home that's a fantastic thing. Some of the reading scheme books are dreadfully boring so it's better to have shorter books to practice reading out loud and showing expression, comprehension etc and then let them enjoy reading stuff they actually enjoy at home at their own pace. Reading levels are done on more than just being able to read the actual words.

I don't think there are many schools where the top table is at least at level purple at the beginning of year 1.

Turquoise at the beginning of year 1 would be top table for our four-form school with highly educated parents. There was a separate year 1 group of top students pulled across the four forms that was either purple+ or gold+, but that seemed to be four kids out of 80 or 90.

I think DS had just turned 6 when he read GMM and the other Roald Dahl books. DD is 7 (y3) and probably a better reader than he was but not really interested in the Rad Dahl books, but loves all things fairy and pixie (especially Enid Blyton). I distinctly remember reading The Hobbit at 7 but I know there were things I didn’t understand and in retrospect I was way too young.

I'm astonished at the poster who won't let her children read independently, because they might mispronounce words. Surely the most important thing is that children enjoy reading for their own pleasure?

My brother was a voracious reader by 5 or 6 and would often mispronounce words he'd only ever come across in print. Two memorable ones were Gribble-ater (Gibraltar, we still use his version in the family!) and denny (deny). But he soon sorted them all out and his vocabulary was increased by his understanding of meanings in their written context.

Having worked in primary we had five or so that could have done this in year one, quite a lot that could have read this in year two and most could have in year three.

I would advise against pushing. Dc was one of those irritating children reading full chapter books in reception. School thought this was amazing and pushed and pushed and now dc hates reading and won't read at all.

Surely you do both. DS2 is in Year 6 and still has to read aloud due to the fact that it is necessary to help them with pronunciation of words they have only ever seen written down and also to ensure that they are not skim reading and are taking everything in. We have to sign his homework diary to say he's done it each evening.

That doesn't mean he doesn't also read independently though.

I’d say any age between 4 and 8 would be totally normal - for me DD1 was reading “chapter books” independently from the age of 4 (she was an August baby though so had already been at school for 6 months or so), DD3 from the age of 5, while DS1 and DD2 weren’t really interested until they were 6/7.

My Y1 class range in ability from pink all the way to orange level (book band system). The top set are reading green band (a couple do read orange band) but the bulk of the class are reading yellow band.

My DS came home with 'Weather Report' and 'Is it Dark' (Collins Big Cat). He read each sentence on the page fluently, quickly, no enthusiasm and declared it was easy. He then asked; "Why am I getting easy books to read?" I am fed up of telling his teacher in person and in his reader that he read every book with no problems, little phonic use (if at all!) and he is (again!) being turned off reading. He is currently coming home with words such as 'oyster' to spell but reading is limited to phase fucking 3 of Letters and Sounds.

I am at the point of giving up on his school to teach him to read and have begun bringing him home books from my own school.

If anyone is familiar with 'Dandelion Readers/Launchers' and 'Collins Big Cat', he was reading CCVCC words with several sentences per page in reception and has suddenly reverted back to 'It is dark' and 'It was sunny' sentences per page!

I think there’s three or four purples in ds’ year one. They won’t let them past purple though but outside his school books ds can read the more complex early readers and now reading basic chapter books (upto about grey book band for ks2)

Btw there is no way Roald Dahl is purple.

Banging (and others with children in Y1) - when DS was in Y1 we were explicitly told, by the head teacher and by the literary coordinator, that Y1 was NOT about learning to read, but rather about phonics. (Their phrasing, not mine; I for one understand that phonics and reading are not mutually exclusive - on the contrary, phonics should always be taught alongside comprehension and such). We were told that any 'reading' instruction and practice (as opposed to phonics instruction & practice) would be postponed until after the phonics screening at the end of Y1.

Maybe that's kind of what's happening at your children's schools too? Maybe not so explicitly, but that the main emphasis is on phonics/decoding?

(Don't get me wrong, I'm a firm believer in SSP and totally against mixed methods. I just think good reading instruction should include phonics AND comprehension etc. Instead, our school has chosen to exclude comprehension until end Y1 but still doesn't do the phonics right - they use old-style 'look&say' books for phonics practice...)

I’m not sure how you can avoid comprehension when children are reading frankly the head is an idiot!

norestformrz you just read thesauruses.

I'm also astonished at pp who stops her DC reading independently. Mainly because I can understand how!! My kids are fairly complient but my y1 devours books, how would I stop her reading in her head? Half the time I don't even realize she IS reading.
I never thought I was a lax parent until school said I'm supposed to write down everything my yr R and y1 read. The y R still reads out loud, but once they can read in their heads it feels a bit thought policey to monitor their reading to that extent (they don't have access to completely unsuitable books, but I'm not going to dictate what they read so long as it is within boundaries of acceptability). So I just write down some stuff she reads and miss out the rest. If they can read, and enjoy reading, it really isn't a problem.

I never thought I was a lax parent until school said I'm supposed to write down everything my yr R and y1 read

Did they give a reason? we've never done this, indeed we never mention anything but the school books which are a tiny minority.

I think it's to make their parental engagement look good for Ofsted.
My kids think it's so they get to go on an end of year treat! They can't get more than 7 points a week though, so I just put something each day.
I got the impression it's to encourage reluctant readers, as in ok you haven't read a book but you read the lyrics to 'let it go' on you tube karaoke, have a point. You read something in a religious ceremony. You read the shopping list. You read active threads list over your mum's shoulder. There's a terminal velocity for this though!

“norestformrz you just read thesauruses” words have meaning. They don’t need to be in a sentence.