Report - reading fluency & comprehension (Yr1)

[BabyMommaDec2012]

Hi - my DS is currently under investigation for ASD/ADHD. He’s very bright but he struggles to focus in class.
Saying all this, he is a fantastic reader. He’s reading accelerated reader level 3.2 books (equivalent to yr4 reading level) independently and scores well on the accompanying comprehensive quizzes. He also got a maximum score of 40/40 for the Yr1 phonics screening test.
However, he’s only been given a ‘meeting expectations’ mark for reading and comprehension. Am I missing something?
To explain, I’m happy with his mark but he struggles so much at school and it would be lovely to see his fantastic reading skills celebrated.

It’s hard to say without knowing a bit more. It may be to do with his inference skills? Best thing to do would be to meet the teacher and ask what he needs to do to develop his reading skills to aim for greater depth in Year 2.

I agree with Pud2

The phonics check simply checks that they can decode. It's no indicator of 'greater depth'.

I'm sure the teacher will be happy to clarify what else they're looking for to achieve the next level.

However, it is worth mentioning to the teacher that he could do with a confidence boost in terms of some sort of 'reward' for his progress with reading - this might more appropriately be a certificate in assembly, perhaps?

His understanding of what he’s reading (general plot) is fine. He does miss some inference things but this is usually because the books are written for kids in yr4 and so they’ve got more life experience to connect the dots. A lot of it is way over the head of a 6yr old but surely he shouldn’t be marked down for that as he’s reading books above his age group. He’d be fine with the comprehension questions for books at a yr1 level.

A child who is fine with comprehension questions for Y1 level books but struggles with comprehension when reading harder books sounds like a child that is 'meeting expectations'.

"A lot of it is way over the head of a 6yr old"

I'm not familiar with the Accelerated Reader scheme, but why is he reading books that are going way over his head? Surely this suggests that he's not ready for that level, even if he can decode the words?

I'm sure the teacher would explain why she assessed him at expected level.

I meant some of the inference of the plot was going over his head. For e.g. in a book where a group of kids are being spied on by a secret government agency, the only clue that they spying was taking place was a drawing of a man in a dark suit and glasses standing in the background (ie a ‘man in black’). My son is 6 so he didn’t pick up this cue.

*that spying is taking place...

Nobody on here is able to diagnose that the teacher is wrong and he's greater depth after all. Your best bet is to ask the teacher what he needs to work on to achieve greater depth next year.

If he needs a confidence boost, it'd be a good idea to raise that with the teacher as well, but that's a separate thing.

I just wanted to fudge opinion on here from other parents before approaching the teacher. He is very disruptive in class due to his attention difficulties (he’s currently under investigation for ASD/ADHD). I am worried that they’ve completely just written him off to the extent that even when he is doing something amazing, it is disregarded/downgraded (consciously or subconsciously).

Fudge should be ‘guage opinion’