Year 1 - What level is your child at with reading?

[welshmum]

I'm just wondering about the teaching at dd's primary and have little to compare it with. What level is your child at?

I think in year 1 they can all be at very different levels.

DS is an August boy and is now in Yr 2 and is on Stage 5 of ORT. There are others (I know as I help out with reading) on Stages above him and quite a few below.

I don't understand the level. I know my dd is on a stripe of one colour or another but have no idea how they relate to anything else..

I've decided that I'm a thicky.

Big range in year 1 I think.

Thanks Buda - I suppose it depends on the intake of the primary and the birthday of the children

huge range - some dcs in my DDs class last year were on ORT 2, others were on ORT 9

My boy is year one, he is on stage 2, he has been there a while, he is getting 3-4 new books each week and reads through them without a problem. He is also getting books that are Orange, and it doesnt say what stage they are. His friend is also on stage 2, but another boy in the class is on stage 5.

Don't know about a level they don't do that in our sschool (hooray!)

But DS not really reading at all, excpet for a few sight words I've rammed down his throat.

He loves looking at books, the pictures that is, and spends most of his time drawing.

Not going to worry about it until at least,ooooh, year3?

This won't help you really - there are such wide variations!

If you look at the ORT website it suggests that level 4 is about right for 2nd term Year 1.

DS2 is level 4 currently, so is slap bang average (but Aug born, so 'techically' could be argued to be doing 'well for his age')

Meanwhile, I looked at DS1's reading book from same time (Year 1, 2nd term) and he was reading Level 8 and was extremely bored by it.
Same parents, same investment of time, same books at home, even same school and same teacher!

But - DIFFERENT children!

I think it varies hugely, depends on the child, dd in reception is stage 2 ORT. Don't know if that's good, bad or ordinary.

ORT 9

I was just wondering about the range of ability in a class and trying to figure out whether our school was doing well considering the range of ability present in the Year.
Thanks for responses.

Big range in DD's class from those still strugglin to those who are free readers. They also use a huge range of schemes, so to pinpoint individual levels at any one tim can be difficult, as they read different levels of different schemes they dont seem to match up).

I know that DD reads much more difficult books at home than she does at school. But I like her working through the school levels a bit slower as I know that she is then getting a good comprehensive mix of books and vocab.

DD's school concentrate a lot of comprehension of the books, not just whether they can read/sound out the words. There has been have found that a lot (not all) of early readers can have problems with comprehension of the books they read.

true hula, dd reads her books easily, we stop and go through all the pictures and make sure the story is understood.

Am might sick of Biff chip et al... though
Also dd reads massive level above at home and comprehension is there.
So am just letting ehr bumble along with her mates at school - she is reception and is ORT 2 and finds them very easy. She gets 2 per week but have asked for that to be upped as she read one book 10X on the way home alone

Sorry to hijack but erm, could anyone give an example of vocab at level 6 of ORT, say?

Can't remember what scheme DS is on but it's not ORT I don't think. And I've never understood how they correlate.

Ds2 is in yr 1. He's august born and is on ORT stage 1+

The other thing I discovered is that the school sometimes uses ORT stories on the whiteboard to reinforce other aspects of literacy e.g. fullstops, capitals, speech marks etc, so the teacher sometimes likes to keep the class 'clustered' around a central level e.g at level 4 primarily, with younger or slower readers on 3, and faster on 5 so that then as a group they have a chance of understanding the groupwork? Not ideal, I know, but in a class of 30, needs must and all that....

My dd in Yr 2 (summer born 6 yr old) started Yr 1 at about level 5 but moved pretty much straight up to level 10 once they assessed her properly, so thankfully I missed most of the Biff and Chip stories . She is a free reader now and reads everything she can get her hands on.

Ds was 5 last Nov and is reading at about level 6/7 (so now I am getting Biff and Chip but at least it is not for the second time!) which is better than some of the children in dd's class which shows there is a vast difference in reading ability at this stage.