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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Does my dd need a more advanced reading book? long - sorry

54 replies

leedslassy · 18/01/2008 16:37

DD started full time school in September and straight away they started to lear letter sounds. She took to this really well and learnt very quickly. In November they started bringing home erading books and she has been bringing about 1 every week home. When we sit down to read it she is flying through them with ahrdly any prompting. For example the book yesterdy had the word "everyone" in it which to me is a long word that is not phonetically spelt and thought she would at least have had to break it down into syllabelles but no she knew it.
I asked the teacher today if the books were read to them before they brought homw as I though she may be memorising some words but she said they didn't read them through straight away. Said she would monitor dd and if she agreed with me would consider giving her more challenging books. Am I right to ask for this to be done or should I just let her move along with the other children?

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Original poster

leedslassy · 18/01/2008 16:38

sorry about spelling in post above - just read it back and its rubbish!! NOTE TO SELF -must slow down when typing.

OP posts:

Twiglett · 18/01/2008 16:42

depends on what her comprehension is like

if her comprehension is in line with her reading skills then there is no reason not to move up levels until she finds one which is challenging but acheivable

maggiems · 18/01/2008 17:22

Everyone was one of the first words that my Dts learnt in reception. I think its one of the key words in the ORT books. My Dts had samll words for the first few weeks to learn like "I" "and" "the" etc and then suddenly "everyone". I thought it was a mistake but no. For some reason they never had any problem with it

seeker · 19/01/2008 22:38

I think you'll find that the children are all on different levels and they are given books according to their ability. A class of 5 year olds will have one or two fluent readers, one or two who don't "get" it at all, and all levels in between. In my experience, teachers like to have feedback from parents about the books that come home - but remember that teachers are looking for different things she may be reading the words, but is she comprehending them all? Also, sometimes it's good for confidence to have easier books - some children find it demoralizing to have something a bit too hard.

bosch · 19/01/2008 22:44

Ds1 has jumped ahead a little bit in the ORT when he was finding the books too easy/dull. His teacher was happy for the feedback from us. You might also like to suggest that your daughter would be happy to get more than one book a week - if he wants to do the work, ds1 gets a new book everyday, but no pressure if we don't get round to homework, everything is at his pace.

imaginaryfriend · 19/01/2008 22:50

My dd is in pretty much the same position as yours. She started Reception last September and has been picking up reading really well. I don't know what level of book your dd is on from school but my dd was started on level 1 which she zoomed through so I asked for her to be moved up a level and she's been on level 2 books for 5 or 6 weeks which she's really outgrown. I find it very hard to get the teacher to change her reading level though so I'm reading level 3 books with her at home. She has no problem with the comprehension, they've just got a few more words per page really than the level 2 books.

I don't know what the average reading level is or is supposed to be by the time they finish Reception. Or if the school reading level is in line with what they're doing at home ...

Piffle · 19/01/2008 22:52

leedslassy snap crackle pop here
dd is on wrens on ORt and they are very easy
BUT she enjoys them so no harm in letting her pootle along
I offer dd other stuff at home, she can manage most of Ginn level 5's but we keep this to ourselves
I found with ds1 early reading is often a curse at primary school

kittywise · 19/01/2008 22:54

There's MUCH more to reading than the actual words, comprehension, prediction to name but a few. Don't push too hard, there's no point.

imaginaryfriend · 19/01/2008 22:57

bosch, I always feel envious of people who have the option of taking more than one book a week! My dd's school seems to be very pushed for resources and teachers time. Dd reads her home reader to a parent helper once a week and that's when she changes her book over. She doesn't do reading at any other time in the week except guided reading with her Reception teacher in her group (6 kids together) once a week.

It amazes me that any of the kids actually manage to learn to read if they were purely reliant on the school. I think it's only by parent involvement that they progress.

(this is an inner city London school which has consistently 'excellent' Ofsted reports too!!)

imaginaryfriend · 19/01/2008 22:58

Piffle what's GINN?

ChasingSquirrels · 19/01/2008 22:59

ginn is just another reading scheme

Piffle · 19/01/2008 23:01

dd gets 2 ORT a week and is neatly done with stage 2.
Ginn I only know as they are left over from ds1 - Cinderella and Goldilocks - DD picked them up and kind of went for it.
Teacher says she is very able, but I am happy to let dd stick with her peers at school for now, ds1 was never happy, but dd is hapy doing this

ChasingSquirrels · 19/01/2008 23:01

why was early reading a curse?

bosch · 19/01/2008 23:15

Imaginaryfriend - we inherited part of a set of Puddle Lane reading scheme books from ds1's uncle and ds1 chooses to go through them when one book a night is not enough?! Am also keen to know why early reading is a curse Piffle - should I be turning the tv on more?!

imaginaryfriend · 19/01/2008 23:16

I think some of dd's home readers are ginn actually. Are they easier than ORT? Dd doesn't get ORT for home readers, that's why I read them with her myself. I think she does ORT in guided reading. What is guided reading???

Feenie · 19/01/2008 23:28

Guided reading is the session the class teacher uses to teach reading in a small group. Good practice would be to read a level in class which challenges your child (challenging - able to read 9 words in 10) and then to send home the level just below for lots of confidence building enjoyable practice!

imaginaryfriend · 19/01/2008 23:44

Feenie, but is it confidence building enjoyable practise? My dd and the others in her group seem to me to be bored silly by the current level of reading book their teacher is giving them. They kind of sigh and huff and puff their way through them!

elkiedee · 20/01/2008 00:03

I had a term of primary school before being taken to live abroad for a year, where I read both the scheme reading books used by the school and lots of other stuff - my father used to send me huge parcels of kids' books from Oxfam. When I returned to school for the spring term just over a year later (I'd been away 4 terms over 2 school years) I had to go back to the earlier books.

If your children are able and interested in reading beyond what's being asked of them, how about borrowing some other books entirely from the library? That way they won't be faced with at some point reading the scheme readers several times, which is what happened to me.

I'm sure my comprehension varied but when tested at 12 I had an off the scale reading age.

AbbyLou · 20/01/2008 08:38

I teach Year 1 and I'm shocked that any children are only being given 1 reading book a week! It will take an age to get anywhere! In my classroom I have 2 big boxes, one for 'Books to read again' and one for 'Books to be changed'. When the children come into the classroom in the morning they put them in the correct box. Anyone who needs a new book gets one. The only rule is if the reading has not been written in by an adult I won't change it as I have no idea whether they've read it or not. Some only get through one a week and some one or even two (if they're very keen) a night. I have no problem with parents making suggestions about their children's reading - sometimes they are deluded, sometimes they are right. I hear all my class read myself once a week and my target readers who are struggling with reading read to a TA at least twice.
To OP, wait and see what your dd's teacher does about her reading. If you're not satisfied try again. Children who are held back quickly get bored with reading. As others have suggested, just make sure you give her lots to read at home, I'm sure you do anyway.

imaginaryfriend · 20/01/2008 10:27

AL, was that the same in Reception though? I'm really hoping it gets better in year 1.

cece · 20/01/2008 10:42

DD's school have the opportunity to change their books daily if they need to. Once a week!?

Why don't you join the library and supplement her reading that way. That is what I do as DD's school seem to only have reading books from the 1970s!

imaginaryfriend · 20/01/2008 12:32

cece we do go to the library each week and dd has plenty of books to read via me. It's just a bit disappointing that the school doesn't provide a little more as they might have a better idea than me of exactly what she should be reading. I'm guessing really.

ChasingSquirrels · 20/01/2008 13:09

I am also horrified by the one book a week. My friend's ds had this in reception (next village) and not only was it one book a week, but then could only keep it for one night!
Now if they are teaching letter sounds etc and don't want to do any reading until the children are confident with the sounds then they shouldn't be sending any books home, on the other hand if they are happy with books coming home then they should have as many as they want. One a week is just daft - why??
DS gets to choose from a basket, he reads with the teacher on a Monday and changes his books then - he was taking 3 when they were ones that were read in one sitting, and then we change them on a Thursday after school - again another 3.
If he decided he wanted to read more than 1 a night we just changed them earlier and then again on a Friday.
I'm not convinced he does guided readin - must quiz him .

NKF · 20/01/2008 13:14

Is one book a week a bit useless then? That's what my children got. One still gets. And I find it a bit limiting but we read other books so I've never really queried. Maybe I should.

LunarSea · 20/01/2008 13:18

AbbyLou, you sound like a lovely teacher - could you come and take over ds1's yr1 class please?

His teacher never reads with him It's all done twice a week by a couple of parent volunteers. Unfortunately one of them is slower than the other and never gets through the whole class so ds1, who is alphabetically at the end rarely gets his book changed on her day although most of the others do. If the other (quicker) parent doesn't come in one week, as happens fairly often, we can go 2 weeks between getting books changed.

Oh, and they have to read every book on every level too.

Not great when ds1 is actually keen on reading and the books he brings home from school are way out of line with what he is able to read at home.

As it happens we've got a house full of books, and read with him every day regardless, but it's frustrating for him and us.

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