Reception child reading, levels etc

[Noodles53]

Hi everyone,
After reading hundreds of threads about reading levels, I thought I would add my own to the mix!
My dd is 5 and in reception. She is currently on red level in school and brings one book home a week.

I’ve seen lots of threads on here of very smart reception aged kids who are ridiculously far ahead with their reading. Im aware dd is where she’s supposed to be with her reading but it would do no harm to challenge her right?

What are your tips and tricks to get your child moving forward. We have flash cards and sight words cards etc but I understand you’re not supposed to just memorise them? So does the child just move forward by reading a different book a day or do you have to teach lots of new words separately to the books and they recognise them when they’re reading? How does it work? At the moment she’s where she is just because of what she’s been taught in school. And I read a couple of storybooks to her at bedtime. Along with her one reading book a week.
Also want to mention that I brought a yellow book from library just to see how she’d do. And she was great. Odd words here and there that she couldn’t read but majority was good.
So any advice please..

@QuietKingdom

My DD's in reception and hasn't bought a book home yet, is that unusual? She is given a set of keywords to memorise that school ask us to do every day, along with recording what we've read at home, but no reading book from school. We read bedtime stories and I make a point of reading myself around her too.

That doesn't seem right to me either. At my DCs' school they have wordless books to practice pre-reading skills that are sent home until they are able to blend. That way every child gets a book home no matter their ability and doesn't feel left out. They are also sometimes sent home with little books with one word and picture per page to practice blending at that stage. I would ask the teacher why DC isn't getting a book.

That's interesting I thought maybe she had to grasp a certain number of keywords before she got to bring one home. They have said she's struggling to learn the keywords and phonics but I will ask her teacher why she isn't bringing home a book. I didn't realize there were some without words. She loves books so would love to bring a school one home.

What's your DD like, is she the kind of child who needs a book at exactly the right level (so essentially she can do all of it) or can does she cope happily with books where she needs help with quite a lot of words?

My DD was the latter, she picked it up quickly and doesn't mind doing bits of harder books - with her, exposure to books was all that was needed.

My DS was the former, he needed to be able to puzzle it out himself, he got very demotivated by books where he needed lots of help. He also had an excellent memory so reading the same book more than once was entirely pointless for anything else other than getting him to recite it at me. I got a lot of books from the local library
At red book band it's actually pretty easy as all the phonics based schemes I've tried cover the same sounds at that level, and just differ in which and how many irregular words they cover. (It gets harder to match across schemes from yellow book band, as the order vowel digraphs are introduced in varies so much).

The other thing I used to do is set up something more practical off this website phonicsfamilycom.wordpress.com/ , I found I had more success with something more play based when they are tired from school.

Wow thanks everyone. I posted this message ages ago. Got a great response. Will take all your ideas on board thank you all.

Hey crabbycat
So she’s on red level books in school but they are easy for her. So this is why I’m doing the yellow at home. Although these are not massively challenging either because she gets majority of words with the exception of one or two on a page.

@Noodlenation

Hey crabbycat So she’s on red level books in school but they are easy for her. So this is why I’m doing the yellow at home. Although these are not massively challenging either because she gets majority of words with the exception of one or two on a page.

That sounds like yellow are about the right level. Our school sends home a level easier than they are reading at school so that they can read them confidently :)

If schools are on the new Little Wandle phonics scheme that appears extremely popular at the moment, it is one book a week.. they read on repeat to fluency. By the end of the week, they should be able to site read & not need to blend.

Our school have moved onto this scheme & it’s very different to what we were used too!

By the end of the week, they should be able to site read & not need to blend

Sight reading is something different - the aim of the Wandle scheme will be that children will practise the same book (?) until they recognise the words to automaticity and don’t need to blend.

Not sure about using the same book myself - I’d rather they practised decoding at their level with different books so they don’t get bored, but there you go.

@BendingSpoons

If she brings home one book a week, I would borrow more from the library. DD reads every day. She needed 3 or 4 books a week in Reception (to allow foe reading them twice). Plus keep reading to her.

This is what we do - she has one book band book from school, yet we go to the library weekly and get another 3-4 book band books (the level down) for her to build confidence in her reading (once she has read it once it goes on the pile to go back) and other ones she picks for me to read to her

There is only one way to get better at something. Just one way. Practice.

Read to her. Read with her. Get her to read. Every day. If I did something for 20 mins once a week my progress would be minimal. Children should be read to for 20-30 mins a day, if not more. I aim for 2x20 min chunks- once before school and once after. Surround her with books. You don’t have to buy them. Use the library. Make books your default instead of the screen. If she’s bored hand her a book to read (an easy one that she can read easily) and praise her for doing something ‘big people’ can do. Take a book with you everywhere. When you have 5 mins read to her and with her. Maybe you read a few sentences and she sounds out words she can.
I have an older child and a Reception aged child who is a fairly fluent reader and this is what we did. Practice reading constantly and the more she does it, the better she will get at it and the more confidence she will get.

I agree Feenie the same book over and over is not only boring but it encourages the child to "learn" (recite) the book instead of reading it. Is this really what Little Wandle promote because it has undertones of Look and Say rather than phonics instruction.
My old school has moved to this programme under the direction of the acting head (who is anti phonics) and the staff hate it.

@MangshorJhol

Without being goady but do you work and have younger kids as well? As I’d find it impossible to do 2X20min reading everyday with all kids after school/work/clubs

If children are still mostly decoding words and they only read each book once, they never get the opportunity to experience what it’s like to read a full sentence fluently or to read with expression the way they hear adults read to them.

I agree that being expected to read the same book every night for a whole weeks seems like it will be demotivating or boring, but it can just as easily be demotivating and boring when every time a child reads they have to put in a lot of effort. If after a child has read a book 3-4 times they are reading it easily and partly out of memory then that’s a good thing. It means they have learned everything they possibly can from that book and are ready to move to the next.

It really doesn’t do children any favours to make every single reading session they do at home a decoding chore. It also means we have to read the same book in school to ensure it’s been read more than once, when really we should be able to leave that to the parents and use the time at school to introduce new ones.

My reception child gets one “reading” book a week (over the weekend). It’s the same one he’s read three times in class already (school follows Little Wandle) and is very happy reading it to me. The teacher sold it to us as almost a confidence builder for the kids, by coming home and being able to “show off” the kids were excited to read at home. I’ve found that to be very true.

Last week we got our first Phase 3 book home (I believe this is about the middle of red for the when looking at coloured bands and Little Wandle have a different progression).

While I’d be keen to see more progression in terms of difficulty of words, the way he adds expression and reads/remembers so confidently is a joy to see.

There’s been a few playground mumblings as all kids seem to be in the same books (obviously rotating them around the class). Would a teacher/TA who knows the scheme comment on whether it’s typical that the whole class is working at the exact same level with Little Wandle (i.e. is the progression fixed by the scheme in terms of timetable)? Whilst it’s amazing that the “worst” readers are reading this well, surely the “best” readers are being held back.

Personally I'm a huge fan of Dandelion Launcgers/Readers they provide up to 7 different stories using the same set of sounds (and different levels of difficulty - launchers are slightly easier than readers) unlike many schemes that have just 1!

One of mine was still on the first level at the end of reception but then had read half the Harry Potter books by the end of year one. I really wouldn’t push it, they get there in their own time. We just read to ours lots and when they were reading for pleasure I was forever buying them books from charity shops. They are still book worms now.

I never made mine read to me for more than a few minutes a days unless they wanted to. I wanted them to love reading as much as I do, I never wanted it be be a chore. My 10 year old probably reads for 90 minutes a day on average now, he gets through multiple books a week. My 6 year old probably reads for 30 minutes a day before bed.

My daughters comprehension is the issue I’ve just been told. She just can’t recall what she’s read. But she’s reading the whole book fine. They won’t move her up to yellow until she’s confident in this area. Her favourite words are ‘I don’t know’ when you ask any question about the book. I feel like she knows but she’s just being lazy she doesn’t want to work her brain.

@OnceuponaRainbow18 Yes I have two kids. I work FT. Dinner is at 5:45-6:15. 6:15-6:30 is bath time. Then reading from 6:30-6:50/7 (as in I read) and then the younger one reads for a bit. Lights out at 7:15.
We also get ready in the morning and read before school (or DH does).
My older one is 10 so he sleeps later and the cadence of his day is different. We read to him too and he obviously reads for a good half an hour, 45 mins before bed. We read more on weekends. But we also model reading or try to when they kids are around so it is the default to read.

@OnceuponaRainbow18 So in other words my kids know that even when I am too tired to play some random make believe game or make another Lego thing I will still read to them. So in fact when they need parental attention they will come to me book in hand as their first resort if that makes sense.

@Noodlenation

My daughters comprehension is the issue I’ve just been told. She just can’t recall what she’s read. But she’s reading the whole book fine. They won’t move her up to yellow until she’s confident in this area. Her favourite words are ‘I don’t know’ when you ask any question about the book. I feel like she knows but she’s just being lazy she doesn’t want to work her brain.

If she's reading accurately I'd follow up by reading it to her and then asking questions about it building up her understanding that way.

@Newnamemsz So instead of asking direct text related questions, one trick is to stop mid way and say: can you guess what happens next? Or to stop and ask: oh I wonder why X did that? Or 'I wonder what X was thinking?' These are all part of the comprehension process as it were. And if she says 'I don't know' then you can always say, 'why don't we go back and look at the story together to see if we can find the answer?' Sometimes it seems overwhelming for kids but once you do it with them a few times, they get the hang of it.

Another one here who says don't worry about the levels just encourage enjoyment of books. Read to her, read together, let her follow the words with a finger, get her to read words or sentences if she can manage it. There's enough focus on phonics in school, enjoyment of reading at home is much more important.
Point out words around you, even stick words on items in your house maybe, fridge, window, door etc.

@Noodlenation my DD was like that. What was interesting is that if you gave her multiple choice she'd pick the right one most of the time - part of what she was struggling with seemed to be putting the answers into words. I've also had to teach her to start with what she does know. Often she can remember quite a lot of details like gender, age, hair colour, but if she'll default to saying I don't know if she doesn't remember a character's name...

If your library has them, DD got on very well with a series called Maverick Readers, our library has loads. They are based on Letters and Sounds for the earlier book bands, and have multiple choice comprehension questions at the back. My DD was a lot happier answering questions when they were written in the book, she got annoyed when they came from me.

No, there is harm in pushing her. A child will not develop at all if they are not within their zone of development. She is better off reading the books she’s been sent home with. Trust the teachers!