O M G there are books other than O R flipping T . If your school is giving easy books then go to the blardy library and get your kid a book they find hard. oR whatever. But schools are not librarys/book shops. There is limited money for books. esp wh...

[charmkin]

So stop whining and realise that ORT is not GOD of reading.

I've never understood what ORT is either.

My dd seems to have had a mixture of books in the early reading days - Rigby, Ruth Miskin, any old book. It now seems to be Puffin books for class readers - again I have no idea what that signifies. Just happy she likes reading anythign tbh!

But before you do make sure that the books your LO is being give are not chosen for a reason. Your child mak be reading brilliantly but still have areas that they find tricky - it is quite possible for a child to be demoralized by being given too hard books too early - and you may not realize that the books you are choosing are too hard. Don't assume the teacher doesn;t know what she is doing without good evidence!

Ah, first one didn't work, second did.

In the meantime I found this. Has anyone read it? Is it any good? NO SPOILERS.

oh yes it's great - well, it was the first time, we've now had it twice and I'm revving up for dc3 as we speak. can't wait...

My dc's loved the ORT and I had no problem with them. However my dc's didn't only have ORT books, they had quite a wide selection to chose from including Roger Red Hat, which I read at school nearly 40 years ago. My DS hated those and used to hide them if the he was supposed to bring them home. Thankfully his teacher understood and said he didn't have to read them.
Thinking back I realise now that the roger red hat books had a lot more word recognition in and ds is dyslexic, so these books would have been the worst possible for him.

Well said the OP. My DD started in reception in September and all we have had from school is ORT. It has taken a little while to realise that they just use the same words over and over again. Unfortunately they have to do every book in the level to go up, as a consequence we just plough through the books, this leads to less reading time at home. I feel I am caught in a loop. The books don't challenge her, they do not support phonics but I need her to read them to move up to better books. I am lucky my DD will read books from the library and books we have at home. We have not even completed one year of school and I can see clearly why so many children are struggling with reading.

Seeker I don't assume the teacher doesn't know what she is doing, I do struggle to understand how she can be on top of reading when she doesn't hear the children read and the TA has clearly been told to make them ready every book.

My ds's lurveed ORT! So there!

aintnomountain - my DS school is the same - it is so bloody regimented. I have grown to loathe ORT. We read different books at home and TBH I think I have helped with DS reading ability far more than his school has.

Anyone else think that Roderick Hunt must live in a mansion because he has fair churned out these books over the years?

all my kids love Biff, Chip and Kipper!

DS used to carry around an old key just in case it glowed

Our school uses a wide variety of different schemes but DS is always keener to read if its an ORT book.

Dd and I love ORT books. And ds loved them too.
But our school has a large selection of books, all sorts of schems, non-fiction books, etc for the children to choose from.
Also, the children move up a level when the teacher decides they are ready, so do not have to read every book at every level.
This ensures books are enjoyed, rather than ploughing through every book for the sake of it.

dd2 loves ORT books. am getting her other books as well. her school is well stocked.

she can actually have more books over weekends and holidays as other children arent on that stage.

Oh I get so fed up with some of the pushy parents at our school - "can XXX have two new books pls as he has read these" yes when you go through the books XXX says oh I've had all those...

Yes, our DC can read the ORT 16p book at first go. I get DS2 to read them no more than 3 times max over several days. Meanwhile I get him to read something else! yes charmkin, I agree, Peter and Jane, library book, red nose reader, anything frankly.

The pushy parents seem unable to realise there are other books. The result of their pushing is that their DC are forced to the next level in the scheme when maybe not ready. Ah well, must remember that's all importnat in this reading competition isn't it

My dd who is 2 seems to gravitate towards the ORT books in the library...

but only because they are on a cool wirey bookshelf where it is Lots of Fun to take them all off one by one and throw them on the floor.

(From what I have read to her as she throws them on the floor, they seem very dull)

yeah dd does ORT in reception. I'm not too keen on them tbh, and neither is dd. Maybe the higher levels are better.
Today she brought home a stage 3 book called 'Up and Down'. It started off quite promising until i got to the bit which said, 'Mum went to the shops to buy a paintbrush'. dh thought this was highly amusing!

my main GRRRRRRRRRRRRRr is that ORT so obviously just try to teach to read without any effort to make it a good story or actually think about what children actually like and relate to

plus parents seem so obssessed with them. THERE are other books. which are better. and of course being 12 pageslong of course your dc finish them quickly der. doesn't mean they should go up a level it means they should read other books NOT MORE ORT books.

take them to a book shop

let them find a BOOK THEY LIKE

get them to read that one, if they need help so what, at least they are reading for pleasure

my main GRRRRRRRRRRRRRr is that ORT so obviously just try to teach to read without any effort to make it a good story or actually think about what children actually like and relate to

plus parents seem so obssessed with them. THERE are other books. which are better. and of course being 12 pageslong of course your dc finish them quickly der. doesn't mean they should go up a level it means they should read other books NOT MORE ORT books.

take them to a book shop

let them find a BOOK THEY LIKE

get them to read that one, if they need help so what, at least they are reading for pleasure

well said indeed !
absolobloodyloutely

I hadn't realised that so many parents are obsessed by which reading scheme book their DC is on, and which book others in the class are on. I would suggest the library, one section of ours is arranged in order of reading difficulty.

charmkin - they are just a tool for the teacher to gauge reading ability in fine government assessment tradition. ORT doesn't actually have a warning on the back which precludes you reading anything else... is it ORT you don't like, assessing reading ability, or lazy parenting?

It's all very well if your childrendon't have any problems learning to read, but if they do struggle a bit, that is when ORT and other reasing schemes really come into themselves. They are designed, written and illustrated with a lot of thought and research, lots of subtle things to help children learn to read. I know. My mum is a an Ed Psych and a specialist in reading difficulties in kids, she recommends ORT and uses it with the kids she works with and gets results.

Don't knock it. Of course there are loads of other books to read, but as a learning tool, it is quite good.

I don't actually see what the problem is with the Biff, Chip and Kipper stories. Both my dc found the stories (not the magic key ones but the early ones) fun and could relate to them. Stories such as Bookweek, building a go-kart, having a sleepover at gran's house, moving house etc are all stories children can relate to and will hence talk about.
So instead of just barking at print they read the story and then comes the 'I would like a go kart, it would be blue', or 'next time I stay at nannies I want hot chocolate too' etc.

But perhaps I feel this way about ORT because we are not forced to read they by our school, there are many books to choose from.

Our school does not use ORT to assess. All books are colour coded, and every week the teacher reads with each child and assesses the child against a set of criteria for the particular coloour the child is on. If the child meets all the criteria and the teacher thinks they are ready, the child moves up a colour.
Most children move a colour band every few months, or roughly twice a term.

forced to read they? forced to read them

my son has LD. I understand the usefulness of the tool.But he actually taught himself to read eventually using Disney DVDs and the computer. And he doesn't understand phonics.

It is theendless threads about...
what level should this age be..if he is finding this easy should i talk to the teacher or buy a higher level...if he is behind should i do extra to catch up....he is ahead of x child is he advanced... hge is behind xx child should i be worried ...etc etc etc.

Your child may not be a very good reader. They do exist and it doesn't make anyone a bad parent. Your child may not currently give a rats asre and will be swept away with enthusiam next year. Your child may be average .

My Ds2 could barely talk when the parent of one of DS1 friends banged on my car window asking what reading level DS1 had been put on. She had heard through the grapevine that DS1 was a very proficient reader and wanted to know if he or her DD was the besin their year.

My car was actually moving at the time !

It is a form of mass social anxiety which is being spun out of control by the Govt obsession with testing.
Frankly DS1 DS2 and DD can all speak now so I am pretty happy.

At dd's school they seem to use lots of different book schemes, like Rigby Stars, ORT and some others too.

I do think the ORT books are rather bland. Also the problem with book schemes seems to be that dd is almost insistent that she can't read anything other than a school book - she is still very much in the mindset that home books and ones from the library are for me to read, and school books are for her to read. Have sort of broken that mindset slightly by buying some ladybird books from charity shops and rooting around in the library.

Luckily in dd's school there seems to be huge fluidity in the allocation of books - so she hasn't had to slog her way through boxes of books in order to reach the next stage. THere isn't the sense that she has to tick all the boxes before she can have words ending in "ing" or whatever. So that's another advantage of schools using whatever books they have to hand rather than slavishly following a set scheme.