Reading age at yr 6 and the volume of books read

[OrmIrian]

I'm a little confused about my DS#1's reading. He's 11 and not a terribly enthusiastic reader. He had until recently a reading age of 11.1. With some concerted effort on my/his/schools part it has risen a great deal. He's reading the Dark Materials books atm and it's slow progress. I have to make him read - teacher tells me reading for pleasure should be a habit by now . Not sure the words 'should' and 'reading for pleasure' belong in the same sentence but still.... And just the other day she wrote in his record book : "Beautifully read X, fluently and with great expression. But you must start to make faster progress through the book or you will start to fall back". What does she mean by that? Either he's reading well or he isn't surely. Then she added "Make sure you reach page 100 by Friday". This was written on Tuesday and he was on page 24. I really do like this teacher generally but she does have a bit of a bee in her bonnet about reading re DS#1.

Can anyone explain please.

He'll be moving on in a few weeks. Too much pressure will put him off! Encourage him to read something daily - it doesn't have to be his reading book each night. Most children 'slip back' over the Summer anyway. Sounds like his teacher needs to chill out a bit. (I'm a Y5 teacher BTW)

I guess she means he's read a small amount very well, but she thinks he should read more and/or faster?

Does he actually enjoy the books? It might be better if there was something he actually wanted to read, then the whole "reading for pleasure" thing would make sense. Maybe he'd prefer non-fiction, or a magazine, or comics, or whatever. Once he thinks it's worth doing, he'll become faster and more fluent.

thanks chipbutty. Presumably slipping back means not progressing relative to real age?

He loves the books muminscotland but he just finds the effort of reading not worthwhile mostly. He reads lots of other things regularly I guess not just pages and pages of his reading book.

DS 12 hardly ever reads novels. He's read all the Harry Potter and has just read Snakebite, but thats it. He reads lots of things on the internet, top gear magazine, hororible science magazine, dips into encyclopaedia , even the freebie newspapers which he picks up on the train on the way to school.

He listens to a lot of tapes ie all the Alex Rider before Snakebite.

His english teacher isn't worried as she says he is accessing literature through the tapes.

Get him something magazine-y to read about one of his interests. Don't worry about books. As long as he sees the adults around him reading (you and his dad?)a lot it will become normal to him as he gets older.

I think she must mean that although he is read well on that occasion he is not getting enough practice in.

Thankyou.

I just wondered how he was going to 'fall back'. I don't lose my reading skills when I fail to read for a few days. Not that I'd know I suppose.... not having ever done that