Oxford Reading Tree - help needed!

[backofthewardrobe]

Could someone please explain this reading scheme to me and why some parents are so obsessed with the various coloured levels.

I keep hearing “He’s reading pink books he should be on red books he’ll never get to gold books!” in the playground and I realise that the books get “harder” but the children have been on be same level that started at all year, when do they change?

Are there different levels within the coloured bands? Does it actually matter as long as your child is reading?

TIA

It's got nothing to do with different experiences just facts.

Backofthewardrobe you may find this useful since your school uses banding ...http://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/oxed/primary/literacy/Oxford-Levels-Placement-Guide.pdf?region=uk

It's got nothing to do with different experiences just facts.

FFS are you always so arrogant?

IME children find some of the books in the same level harder than others. Over 20 years I've got to know which ones they are.

What year and what band? Struggling to see how they could all fail to make progress in y1 or y2, but if later I wouldn't have thought the band really means much if they can read. Dd is in y1 and has moved from band 3 at start of year to band 8 when she brings home a banded book. However as she can now read the band is meaningless really, as the only problem is vocabulary and comprehension. She reads all sorts at home and often isn't interested in the school reading book.

"IME children find some of the books in the same level harder than others" that's very different to your original statement as I'm sure you know with your twenty years experience.

I diligently read the book the school sent home but read whatever we liked at home most of the time. AS long as DC enjoyed it and could get through it reasonably fluently. I think obsessing about book bands is ridiculous. The school will let you know if there's an issue. I found my child's ability to read was very closely related to their interest in the book. They both became very fluent once they were free readers and could pick even though the books they chose were more difficult than the level 10 books they stumbled through.

Also my DC's teacher definitely said some books within a level were generally found ore difficult than others. This is just common sense. It would be impossible to write books with exactly the same level of difficulty. They tended to start them off on the easier ones first and go in a particular order.

I suggest your child's teacher reads Bickler, Baker and Hobsbaum the people who created the book banding system matching existing texts to set criteria for each band.

LittleBearPad They are not all on the same level. They were tested and started off on different levels

Yes, that’s what I meant. To still be on the same level they started the year at is rubbish.

The National curriculum is statutory and states that children should read books matched to their decoding ability that do not require using any other methods to decode. If your school is using ORT, that will mean Floppy's Phonics. That's it. If your school are using any other OR T strand, and not progressing children through the levels there is a significant problem.

@Norestformrz

I think you're being a bit pedantic. The books in a band cannot be of precisely the same difficulty. Clearly there will be a range of broadly the same difficulty book. It's common practise for teachers to realise which is generally found to be easier within a band and start with that.

IME children find some of the books in the same level harder than others. Over 20 years I've got to know which ones they are.

Have you been teaching phonics and using decodable books for 20 years? If not, and there are some books which children find 'harder' on the same level, do you not think this should be telling you something? Or are you too 'arrogant ' to bring yourself up to date on current reading science and happy to let children 'struggle '? Because they have for 20 years? Wow.

The books in a band cannot be of precisely the same difficulty.

Why? Why aren't they precisely aligned to phonics teaching, as required by the statutory NC?

I'd be really concerned if my child hadn't moved up a reading level all year. If 90% of the children genuinely haven't then suggests the problem lies with the school

Why? Why aren't they precisely aligned to phonics teaching, as required by the statutory NC?

Probably because there has to be a balance between teaching phonics and producing books that aren't so mind numbingly dull that it puts kids off reading for life. Neither of mine became free readers at school until towards the end of Y1 so had to suffer a year and a half of the tedious phonics book. Both made much quicker progress once they could choose for themselves.

Sight word teaching example:

Floppy sees the ball.
Chip sees the ball.
Kipper sees the ball.

That would be 6 words = death from boredom

Even the first six letter sounds (satpin) generate 40 different words. I

You are mistaken.

If not, and there are some books which children find 'harder' on the same level, do you not think this should be telling you something?

Obviously.

I'll repeat, also - STATUTORY national curriculum. As in, legally bindng.

Cognitive development accelerates naturally in Y2 - there are huge jumps for the average child (who is not hampered by the shitty reading teaching in their primary school). It's one of the reasons why Y2 is my favourite year to teach!

So you can't use the word "come" or "said" or many others which will serious limit what you can say. It's also just common sense that even if you did limit yourself to only the exact phonics knowledge just by random variation there will be some books which kids tend to find harder than others. None of mine used their phonics knowledge much in reading anyway although I know others - particularly weaker readers do.

Why do you think 'come' and 'said' aren't decodable?

I'd guess that you think phonics teaching is limited to one sound = one spelling. Not so.

We did those phonics book in DC's school as they had to. They were god awful - after a while we just started letting eldest DC choose what to read and he progressed a lot quicker - kids need motivation to read so will usually do better with something that interests them. Of course some books on a particular band are going to be more or less difficult unless they all use exactly the same words which would make them even more dull than they already are.

Of course they're decodable just not usefully decodable. By the time you had learned all the myriad of possible codings the child will have seen and read each of those words so many times they'll recognise them automatically which is what happens in practise to all but the weakest readers.

"The books in a band cannot be of precisely the same difficulty. " if they aren't they won't be in the same book band

if they aren't they won't be in the same book band

Just by random variation it's not possible to make a book which is precisely as difficult to read as others. It's just not possible. My DC both found some easier than others and they usually agreed with the teacher's prediction.

Blimey- 90% making no progress in a year? They must be dreading OFSTED........