book banding guide

[imaginaryfriend]

Someone very helpfully directed me to a website which contained a guide to how schools band books according to colour and despite huge googling efforts I can't find it.

It shows concordance between the ORT levels and all the other reading schemes.

TIA!

I have found a document that says Orange and Turquoise (band 6&7) are working towards Level 2, Purple and Gold (band 8&9) are working within Level 2. White/Silver are working towards Level 3.

Link is here HGfl - need to scroll down to a word doc under Achievements and Standards - bit of a pita to find!

From the ORTlinked page:

NC Level 1:

1. pink
2. red
3. yellow
4. blue
5. green
6. orange

Working towards Level 2:

1. turquoise

Level 2C:

1. purple

Level 2B:

1. gold

Level 2A/3:

10. white
11. lime

Ok, I can give you some info, but it's all quite approximate you know, not set in stone:

ORT Stage 8 is roughly equal to a 2c (lower level 2). This is equal to Book Banding level Purple.

ORT Stage 9 is roughly equal to a 2b (middle level 2 - average Y2 child at the end of Y2) This is equal to Book Banding level Gold)

Personally speaking, I would say your dd is on the cusp of being able to transfer her reading to 'real' books, and would probably enjoy books like First Young Puffins, or Happy Families (Allan Ahlberg).

Hth.

DD really enjoyed the Happy Families books last year; read additional books outside of her school reading when we mamanged to get hold of some. Allan Alhberg does some other early reader books too, all good from our experience.

ListersSister, that's way too complicated for me! Thanks so much for trying though.

Hula, that would be about right I guess. She's just started Y1 so working towards level 2 is right, no?

spectre, I've tried some of the Corgi pups first chapter books and she can read almost all of it but she reads it like a robot whereas in some of the simpler reading scheme books she's got more 'flow' with her reading.

I'm in no rush to hurry her along so I thought a list of reading scheme books at her level would be good to dip into.

Except I can't find one!

Happy Families - def worth getting IMO

spectre I'm pretty sure she's on turquoise level, not purple level. All the books she brings home have a blue-ish label on them, I haven't seen a purple one. She mostly seems to be reading Storyworlds level 8 or 9 but I think they are simpler than ORT. With ORT she can read stage 8 but struggles a bit with stage 9.

They look good hula. How do they compare, if you could hazard a guess to ORT? Would they be equivalent to stage 8 or would they be harder? Dd has quite low self-confidence so I don't want her to feel pushed too hard.

Okay, turquoise level is the book banding just before purple. Is approx a 1a. 1a is approximately the level an average Y1 child (as if there is such a thing!) would be on leaving Y1. So your dd is doing pretty well; and if she enjoys reading aswell then that's even better than all the level rubbish!

Hula, I just looked them up on Amazon and they don't look too hard and perhaps more important for dd right now they don't have too many words per page! She gets quite daunted. That's such a bargain set too, they're £3.50 each on Amazon.

In the meantime I'd still like to find that book band list.

Happy Families = ORT 9ish

Thank you spectre, that's what I'd thought, that she would be roughly average Y1 as she's not a genius. I would be surprised if she was reading at a Y2 level.

But how do I find books that relate to that?

What about this link?

I did have a page bookmarked once that clearly tabled all reading schemes into colour bands but I can't find it.

She'd cope with Happy Families at turquoise level I would think. We haven't done ORT for a while, didn't do stages 8/9 as part of school scheme. The stories are funny and wil make her giggle. There may be the odd words in it she needs help with, but that would be fine esp if reading to you. Books to enjoy as re-reads too.

Ok so maybe the Happy Families can go in her Christmas stocking. She may be more comfortable with ORT 9 by then.

If she's reading at that level now, then that's pretty good, imaginaryfriend. A 1a is your average child leaving Y1 - we are only in November! She is doing very well.

where's the hamster, I used to have it bookmarked too and now I can't find it.

I just can't follow that list you linked to. I can't see any of the books dd's been reading lately on there. Thank you though.

As they are fun books, they will help with fluency and stamina too - as she will want to get through to the end to see what happens, etc. They were good for encouraging fluency and expression IIRR

spectre, just re-read your other post. Blimey she's doing better than I thought then! I thought she was doing well but I'm aware she also struggles.

I'll definitely get that set of them hula. Dd loves funny books. How's your little dd doing by the way?

If you mean she isn't quite fluent yet, then she is definitely close to it at the level she is reading, bet she takes off in no time.

Really well thanks; keeping us busy with Y2 social life, lol! We are in birthday party season at the moment.

Did your DD settle into Y1 okay? Really sorry that letter never showed up; I promise it was posted. Poor DD ended up writing two as it was.

Have you tried the Blue Bananas scheme? eg here They're mentioned on that last link, and in our local library. DS read them over the holidays and loved them. He's now just moved up to Gold, and we are moving onto the Red Banana books. Also Orchard Books do a series called Colour Crackers - there are some good books there, like Titchy Witch and Thunderbelle which would appeal to girls. here

Well I'm already bowled over by her. She always comes home with the same note in her reading diary which goes along the lines of 'encourage dd to read in a louder voice and to use more expression'. She's terribly terribly shy and self-conscious, it sounds nuts to say that about a 6-year-old but she is. At home she reads the Storyworlds books up to stage 9 briliantly but she tends to stall and go more and more quiet as she reads when the books are more tricky. Plus she starts to get upset when she doesn't know the words.

IF, if its any help my DD is reading a mix of books but these include ORT stage 8/9 they are banded dark blue at her school but I think that is their banding. After completing these she will be going onto choosing books from their library.