Bloody bloody bloody ORT books and reading homework

[HuwEdwards]

DD1 is on stage 8 ORT - and these mommas have 30-odd pages in.

We're asked to make sure some reading is done ach night and school leave it up to us to change the books as and when we feel.

Thing is they're so bloody long, she reads half one night and half the next, but has absolutely no interest in reading it again as she already knows the story.

So my question to you is, is reading it through once sufficient d'you think.

(yes, I know I should ask the teacher, but it's always so chaotic in the mornings, I forget)

My kids loved Biff and Chip as well, but they didn't just read ORT they had a big selection to chose from. DS hated the Billy Blue Hat (very ancient reading scheme I did in the 60's) and used to hide them, so his teacher just said he didn't have to read them and gave him something else.

You certainly don't need to read them twice

DD's school has a mix too. Started with the Ladybord (Peter and Jane) ones, to stage 3, then some others, then ORT from L1+. And then after the 18 books at each level, we have other books added in. DD now finished ORT L4, and been given some Ginn Fables from Aesop ones - the latter seem a backward move to be honest as much shorter, less words and not as challening.

Have to say the mix is good though as it gets a bit much once we have read the 18 ORTs so ready for a change. Makes it slower through the ORT levels though.

NS - there are some ORT poetry books available. Not sure what level they start at.

I love ORT. I have just finished reading a splendid story involving traps, bears, Native Americans, pioneers, and primitive fishing and firemaking methods. However, once through is certainly enough. Can't she read fewer pages and then spread them out over the week?
OR read the whole lot at once and then be done with it for the rest of the week.

DS is in Y1 and they have their own mixed reading scheme, but he is always really chuffed when he brings home a Biff and Kipper book. He even persuaded his teacher to let him bring home Paris Adventure which his teacher had been sent as a promotional thing but is below his level in addition to his reading book. I only make him read his book through once. Once we were past the one sentence a page books, we stopped re-reading.

Might I just add that I was not reading this edifying story for my own benefit but for that of dd2.

WE don't re-read books at all. DD reads them at school with her teacher or TA, and then we read them again at home that night. New book next day.

Do you read a full book every night hula? How many pages is your DD on just now? DS's current one is 32 pages and they have quite a lot of text on each page. We read half last night, and then up to page 27 tonight and will hopefully finish tomorrow, but don't know because it is football practice. His previous one was 32 pages and he read it all in one sitting on Saturday to his Auntie.

Yes, full book a night. Just finished ORT L4 yesterday, wich were 24 page slong IIRR. The new Ginn ones are really short - only 8 pages. As I said before seems a bit of a backward jump, but I assume they are in there for a purpose.

Lucily DD enjoys reading the books and is generally happy to read every night.

YOu shouldn't have to reread it at home. Just carry on from where the TA or teacher finished.If she finishes it at school then just get the next book when you collect her.

Maybe just to give the parents a break, hula.

DS would read a full book every night, but would then complain about not having time to play etc. On days I am not working we can sometimes manage it or we can finish it off in the morning.

Not the way it works at our school from what I can gather. They reread to ensure they know the new words. Seems to work well for DD anyway.

Luckily the books are not taking too long at the moment. Tonight's book only took a couple of minutes as so short!

Think you are right bout giving us a break from ORT!

Ds4 (Y1) would be furious if I made him reread a book. He's on ort level 7 and can easily read a whole book in about 10 mins if we don't spend too long chatting about subplots etc. Prefer ort to some of the other books, certainly my children seem to, and ort certainly has poetry, playscripts etc available,

I think they should move onto other books once they stop enjoying ORT. Luckily, our school is quite sensible about this.

We liked Biff Chip and Kipper in this household. Unfortunately the dds moved school last year and new school doesn't have ORT. We are stuck forever not knowing what happened at the end of the series.

there is a worse scheme does anybody remember the roger red hat series with percy green being the naughty boy who put the cat down the well

I have to be honest I was quite surprised by this thread. I teach in an infant school and have taught all years form R - 2 and I've only had 1 child who didn't like ORT! We have mixed schemes at our school so books from many schemes are levelled by our Literacy Co-ordinator and the children read a wide selection. All the children get very excited when they get onto a new set of ORT books and I thought children everywhere loved them - I am really surprised. They always seem to be the ones the parents prefer too as they are closer to the children'sown lives than most. I sympathise with anyone reading Ginn, I think they are awfully boring.

Agree GINN are pretty boring on their own, but in combination with a couple of other schemes they are worth their weight in terms of vocabulary for the kids. We have had ORT only kids transfer into the school who couldn't read a line of a GINN book without help. Definitely think combining schemes is a great idea.

My son loves the magic key Oxford Reading Tree books. They might be a bit corny, but he is enjoying them. However these are stage five books.

My son's school changes his books about once a week. We only read them once and on other days we read different stuff.

I hated the earlier stages of Oxford Reading Tree, but I think once you get to stage 4 they get a little bit more interesting. ORT is certainly an improvement on what I had at school.

Hydrophobia
I have already mentioned the Roger Red Hat/Billy Blue Hat scheme. DS (11)really hated it , thankfully the school had lots of different books and let him read something different.

I did Roger Red Hat at school and I am 44, so it seems to have been going a long time.

I don't think ORT is that bad. Dd read a book a day and never read anything twice.

My ds's had the Roger Red Hat books - dear lord, they are so awful! Ds1 had a big fear of trolls for ages after reading those wretched books.

We love ORT in fact I have bought many of the series as we moved the Canada and the schools here don't have reading schemes or send books home (still don't understand how they learn to read?)
But anyway - Noodle - ORT DOES have poetry - there's a whole set of poetry at all the levels- it's just that your school hasn't chosen them. Maybe you could speak to the teacher and ask them to broaden the range??

On re-reading - I wouldn't expect them to re-read after level 4/5 once they get to that level they should be reading for pleasure and to find out what happens in the story. Sounds like you have the choice at your school so change after one read IMO.

agree about roger red hat I'm so glad i don't have to do those again (bloody village with no corners!!!!)

Yes, I can see why later on you wouldn't reread a book, but can fully understand it at the early stages, Makes a lot of sense really as they are consolodating their learning, and proving they can actually retain and learn new words, especially those that are not easy to simply sound out.

The Ginn ones we have at the moment are the Aesop Fables ones.