Reading bands

[Itsallfuckery]

Just wondering what reading band your year 2 children are all on? My dd is coming home with lime books since moving from white, but I’m sure with dd1 we jumped from white to free reading in year 2. These books seem so blinking tedious!

Children in any year level will all be working at a range of reading levels. Quite frankly, I hate the concept of giving children a level because it doesn't take into account all of the skills that a person needs to be a good reader. I have students who could read every word in any book I gave them, but still understand none of it, and certainly not be able to answer questions about what they have read, or apply inference to what they have read. Fortunately, our school has decided to do away with levels altogether.

Talk to your child's teacher. They are the only person who can tell you why they are sending home the books they are sending.

Thankyou. Yes I have noticed that the children in the class are reading at all levels. I’m hoping that we will move on soon so that enthusiasm isn’t lost as that’s the way it seems to be going. I like the idea of doing away with the levels, as like you say, there is so much more to reading than just recognising the words.

Don't forget that the reading books that are sent home aren't the be all and end all of reading, nor are they compulsory. As long as they are reading in some way shape or form, I'm not going to get upset if the school readers aren't used.

I didn't bother with the readers that were sent home for my son, so much so that the teacher doesn't even bother sending them anymore as he knows I'm doing enough at home. Reading can also be helping make dinner by reading a recipe and working out what ingredients are needed. You can ask comprehension and inference questions about anything - a toy catalog, comic, tv show, movie. It can be watching someone reading a story aloud on youtube and then answering questions about it. One of my son's favourite games is to read a page of a book, then we write post it notes about what we think will happen and put them in the book. We then go back at the end and see if our predictions were correct.

Midnite I’m stealing your idea!! I love that.

Midnite I think you are brilliant! These are great ideas. We do read our own books at home, but admittedly that’s limited to the standard Roald Dahl, David Walliams etc which I presumed would encourage extended reading, but I hadn’t thought of different ways to incorporate reading into everyday life. I’m definitely trying the post it idea

I don't think school reading scheme is that bad for children in the long run, tbh. My ds's school uses online reading scheme, and it only goes up to lime in KS1.
My ds was lime in reception. So he read 100+ books in lime levels more than once. He was voracious reader and read books for pleasure all the time at home, but he never complained about reading easy books assigned to him tbh.

Wow, irvine, lime in reception is spectacular! I don’t know of any children at our school reading at that level so young. Very few children in our year 2 class have even got there yet, hence why it all feels so easy.

So if you known that few children in your year are on lime and your ds is, does this make this thread just a boast thread?

One of mine was free reading in year 1, the other won't be. They all vary. Eldest is in year 4 and it's mostly evened out by then with few knowing who "Got off the reading scheme first."

I have been helping with reading in years 1 and 2 for 8 years and this year I don't have anyone on lime at the moment.
Most of the teachers I have worked with don't allow children to race through the levels as reading just becomes decoding, so we spend a lot of time on comprehension, reading with expression, looking at how punctuation works and reading different types of text. I also work mainly with children whose first language is not English.
Midnite has some brilliant ideas.

The criteria for book banding is basically the higher the band the more words per page and more pages per book not on actual reading difficulty.

DD1 refuses to read the books from school
Because they were all so boring. She remained on a low colour while reading the likes of Harry Potter at home!

At lime level there's no real need for school reading books. Just read what you like. If school are fussy about it, read the school book once or twice a week too, it won't take long if it's so easy.

They don't actually do reading levels in year 2 at our school. I'm not sure this is a good thing as I think some kids need it, and it means they're choosing from the same (poor) selection all year. So with or without, we're basically down to choosing and finding our own books.

Shanghai - another reason these threads are pointless as schools vary so much in their criteria. There's usually a couple of year 1s and the top group in year 2 in our school. I doubt the reading is different just different approaches.

I think the plus side of the reading scheme books is that they have variety of different genre. I could have told my ds to ignore school books, but I didn't. He read whatever he liked at home. But scheme one included the ones he wouldn't normally choose. That will definitely broaden his reading.
Another thing is, if your child is truly into books, they would read anything with letters on it, either it's too easy or too hard.
I would question if the child has phonics knowledge to read lime but given yellow books or whatever, otherwise, books are books, there is something to gain from any books, imo.

No Cappuccino, it’s not a boast. It’s a genuine question as to whether things have changed. My first dc, 4 years ago went from white to free reading in year 2, this time we seem to have had a lime level introduced. I was purely asking if anyone knows if this is a new level, rather than bothering the teachers with a silly question when they have so much else to do.

Shanghai, I believe you are probably right in that it’s the comprehension, expression, punctuation etc that the teachers are looking at and this is why free reading may be introduced a little later. But as you are doing Herat, we are reading our own too.

No it's not a new level. If you Google reading scheme colours you can see some go on for ages!

Different schools stop at different stage. Some reintroduce ks2 levels at junior school bizarrely.

I agree Irvine. We don't use book banding but do allocate books so that children don't have a constant diet of Dahl , Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, David Walliams etc and read more widely.

Op the banding system continues past lime.

We have Project X Alien Adventures books at lime and thereabouts. Both DC read and re-read them because they find them fun, though both are well past that level in terms of reading ability. So perhaps it's more an interest level than a reading level thing. (Or perhaps it's just a poor quality and unengaging scheme books thing.)

www.mumsnet.com/learning/reading/what-do-reading-levels-mean

Or this one goes further

You'll probably find in year 3 they're onto free reading anyway, lots of schools only have bands in the infants. They they'll be picking their own books to read. If you think your dc is bored and finding the books too easy can you ask the teacher for something a bit more challenging? School reading books can be very repetitive anyway, just keep up the free reading at home.

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I think the schemes are fine until school says the children can’t go past certain points in certain years. Sadly, this is happening to my son.
Lol, although in retaliation I just read library books as well as the school books now.

Btw I asked the teacher to make an exception as he was the level he has to stay in by about June last year and was told no. One of many issues with school though.

I would hope all parents are reading more than the reading scheme books. They are intended to consolidate learning not to be the sole reading experience.