He needs to "discuss the book" ... hmm ...

[NotQuiteCockney]

Ok, DS1 is reading well, and enjoying his ORT books. But one repeated complaint from his teachers is that he's not discussing the book enough.

Now, I can see that they need to be sure he's really understanding the book, not just reciting the words. Fine. But these books are so simple, there really is just the pictures to discuss, which seems to be what they want ... but what's the point?

How do I motivate myself to remind him to discuss the pictures? They've moved him up a level because he's got better at the discussing, but I'm sure this will still be an issue ...

read the back of the books they have some games / questions, don't they?

Don't think so .. will check ...

They want him to discuss it while reading, iyswim, anyway ...

It's so tedious isn't it?

First get him to just look through just at the pictures and ask him what he thinks is happening in the story. Read through. Was it different? Can he think of an alternative ending? Has anything like this happened in real life? If he had a dog/rabbit/sister like in the book what name would he like them to be called? Is he allowed to do what the children are doing in the book? Are they well-behaved/not?

Can't think of anything else!

This site is quite useful.

Ok, lots of good ideas, both here and on the BBC site, thanks.

I'm glad (although not surprised!) to hear other parents find it tedious, too. I like the reading, I like helping with that, I like explaining the 'rules', such as they are, for of English phonetics, but discussing these very simple plots is mindbogglingly tiresome.

I refuse to 'discuss' books with mine unless they want to - I leave that to school. I mean, how offputting is it to be asked all the time "What do you think will happen next? What else could have happened?". I wouldn't want to be interrupted all the time in my books.

I will ask the boys if they know what words mean, if I think they probably don't, but that doesn't apply to early reading books.

Ha! My ds has picked up all the phrases. When he's reading the book he'll say "now, why do you tink he did that then Mummy?" and "what do you think will happen now?" before he turns over the page.

What singersgirl said. I think the discussion may be helpful for children who haven't grown up looking at books and being read to, but for the 'literate' early reader, I think it's pretty redundant.

Wait till you get to the stage where the school (in lieu of setting homework that actually requires some thought and planning) require the fluent early reader to write a review of every book they read...

I find it quite tedious too with my five year old, and agree that it interrupts the flow of the story - I might sometimes at the end of a story say something about it and we might have a quick 'discussion' about what we liked or thought was funny, but not very often. I can see the teacher's point though, comprehension is key to reading.

Ask him to look for the hidden glasses and the nosy neighbours in the pictures.

I've never done this by the way .. just read with him

'Discuss the book' is a very vague term. When I do guided reading with my class we have quite a few exercises which could fall under this but are much more specific and varied so everyone knows what they're doing and it's not repetitive.

I quite strongly disagree with the idea of stopping midway through reading to ask/answer questions. It does nothing to encourage a child's enjoyment of the book. They will never have read so much that they can't answer questions such as,'why do you think ... happened?' at the end of the reading.

I'm unsure how old your son is but I can think of at least 5 varied and interesting activities which can show the teacher that a child has understood the text without the child being asked the dreaded question, 'so tell me about the book!'

Frogs, book reviews have their place, especially if they are collated and made available to other kids to help them choice a book they may be intersted in. Reading that your peers have enjoyed a book and found it really funny can be quite motivating for a 10yr old.

choose not choice.

Discussing it at the end, I could cope with. But breaking up the flow of the book to comment, vaguely, on the pictures, is annoying.

This is ORT Stage 3, I think? Really, there's not a lot going on.

Oh, and he's five, and he's meant to be discussing the book unprompted. I mean, I'm meant to hassle him to do it when he reads to me, but he's meant to do it of his own accord at school.