Biff, Chip and co, Oxford Reading Tree stage 3 books for Year 1?

[philmassive]

I am a bit clueless so excuse me if this has been asked 100 times before!

My DS is in year 1 and he is reading the Oxford Reading Tree books, which he really enjoys. He is now on to stage 3 books and is on the second set of 'more stories', he is an end of March baby so middle aged in his year.

He enjoys reading and reads these well but I was wondering if that is the usual standard at his age? Other posts on here seem to suggest that he is miles behind other children of his age but it seems that he is within the norm for his class.

Any thoughts appreciated - is there a standard age guide available for these books?

I know it doesn't matter really as he is loving the books and enjoying the reading but I have been surprised that other people's DC's on other threads I have read seem to be many stages ahead on the same scheme at this age. Or are they all genuises?!

Sorry, but there really can be no one standard for what is normal for 6-year-olds: they all develop at such different rates. As long as he is enjoying them and able to cope, it absolutely does not matter what the other children are doing. Ds was not at all able to read at this age. Now he is.

DS2 is the same age and is on stage 1+.
I know he is a bit behind but not a major problem, I am sure he will catch up!

I think that a lot of mumsnetters lie about their children's ablities. Also its not fair to compare a child with a summer birthday with a child with a winter birthday.

No one goes online to show off that their child is still on stage 1 in year 1. There are different parts to reading.

My son learnt to decode quite quickly, but has spent longer on the later stages of ORT because of learning comprehension than some children who spent longer on the earlier stages.

age guide for ORT

So your ds is 5 and 9 months? He is about right according to this!

Never ever use Mumsnet to find out how well your child reads.
People only post if their child is a super genius or if they know their child is a bit behind.
Sounds like your ds is doing fine to me.

as a teacher that has spent mnay years in Year 1, 2 and Reception, i agree with what Cory has said.

I would also like to add that the best way to develop your child's reading skills is to read a variety of books. It is also just as beneficial for you & your partner to read to your child as it is for them to read to you. Parents often seem to think that racing through a reading scheme to the next level means that their child will be reading shakspeare by Year 4 when in reality it can actually have a negative effect!

I also think that sticking to one type of text may limit the development of your child's reading skills - all reading schemes have strenghs & weaknesses.

The teaching of reading has been under much debate in recent years, and the ORT scheme dates back to when it was the trend to teach reading by learning common words by sight. It seems as though this is your sons strengh. The trend is now more reliant on using phonics to sound out the unknown words. However, the most fluent readers use a wide range of strategies.

At my school we would love to be able to send home a variety of texts but are only able to send home ORT.(I think this is common in most schools) So in class we use a variety of texts. We have a selection of real books and other reading schemes we use but when it is free choice quiet reading it is surprising how many children prefer to chose a ORT!

My advice is to not worry about getting through any reading scheme, book by book, level by level but branch out - join the local library, share rhyming stories (helps with recognising spelling patterens eg if they can read hat, they can read mat, cat etc) share a variety of types of story, read together so that if it is too hard you can lead the reading and your child doesnt lose confidence. Also sometimes it is great for your child to read a really easy text - it wont delay their reading but gives confidence and allows them to develop fluency and expression.

Hope that helps

TamTam

dd1 was on stage 3 of Ginn at the end of year1/beginning of year 2 and was on free reading by the middle of year 2.

The speed that children progress through the reading schemes has much to do with the style of teaching (ie. does the teacher want the child to be comfortable or be stretched to their very limit).

I was watching a reception child from another school reading a stage 2 book the other day. The child seemed to be really struggling and was wriggling and fussing because she was not enjoying reading. At our school, she would not have been moved up from stage 1, but her school obviously had a different policy. I suppose it is a balancing act between building up confidence and preventing children from coasting and being bored.

he sounds much further ahead than my DS1 at that stage (who is now in year 3 and free reading and really loving books). He really didn't get the idea of reading until about halfway through year 2.

My DS2 & 3 are just 6 - also year 1 - one is on stage 3 and one is the one above it (presumably stage 4).

I sound vague because ours do lots of different ones - not just ORT - and they are colour coded. I just found a title I recognised in the stage 3 lists (the Barbeque) - that is coded blue in our school, and the next stage up is green.

So - if I were you I would be perfectly happy with where he is now.

Also I have noticed that some teachers seem to move children through at a faster rate than others.

Sorry meant to say:-
Some teachers seem to push the children through the stages faster than other teachers,so you can't really compare how he is doing with children in a nother class just by what level he is on.

Thanks everybody for your replies.

Sounds like he's just doing fine, which is good and reassuring, nothing out of the ordinary there!

We do read to him and go to the library too, but I suppose that I am a bit of a worrier on the reading front. My main aim for ds in school is that he has friends, is happy and comes out enjoying to read and that seems to me to be enough to allow him to be able to be do anything else that he chooses for himself. Hence I need to make sure he's OK with his reading as I beleive that if you can read you can do anything later on. Simplistic description of my over all view!

Thanks too, Tam tam, interesting to see a teacher's viewpoint.

Different schools seem to work at different speeds - my son's school took things very slowly in YR and it varied even between classes but since he went into Y1 he's shot up from stage 3 to stage 9, though he also reads books in stages 6 to 8 - some of the books are more difficult within a stage. I also seem to remember that there were thousands of books at stage 3 so it might well be he could read stage 4 or 5 books easily but the teacher hasn't moved him up - you could find one in a bookshop and see how he does with it. My son's school tends to concentrate on the ORT books but he's had other books as well and spends many hours reading all the football news on the BBC website so he gets a variety, which as someone else said, is imporant.

The most important thing is that your son likes reading. Nobody will care what ORT stage he was on in Y1 when he is 19 and at university!

I agree with hellywobs-as the mother of teenagers, no one cares in the least which stage they were on in Yr 1! Never ask on mumsnet-people seem to have a fixation on ORT as if it was the only reading scheme! Join the library.

My DS1 finished ORT Stage 8 by the end of Yr 1 but my DS2 really hated reading and was only at stage 5.

One little girl was on stage 12 in Yr 1 - but then this was a suicidally competitive school.

Do not worry about it. My DS2 is a good reader now. All he needed was books he was really interested in.

Countess - great link. Will paste into all future ORT discussions (unless you get there first). Thanks, Amey

My dd's in Y1 but they don't read much ORT. They used to do some in guided reading in YR but they never brought them home. She's read from a huge range of different schemes and the levels she brought home always seemed to vary. But it's worked because she's a great reader now.

Her friend is at a different school and they only get ORT reading books. She's a whizz at reading ORT but is totally lost if you give her quite a simple book to read that isn't ORT!

My daughter is in year 1 (6 last sept) and reading robins/magpies stage 9? Is this right for her age she is well above in her class - He lass is mixed with year 2 and current ofsted is unsatisfactory - Thinking of moving her if doesnt improve as in special measures and not iproved in last six months - If talented then may need to move quicker?

Broady - your DD is doing well, but unless there is a lot more to it, Stage 9 would not suggest talented, merely that she is getting on perhaps a little faster than average. We have 3 children in DD's Yr class who have finished level 12!

You may have other issues with the school of course, but your DD would appear to be doing just fine.

Maybe its the yr 2 children in her class that are below average then - Think its white books she is reading and it says that this is key stage 2 if i am correct.

There seems to be an obsession with reading levels amongst MNers and I have fallen into the trap - but looking at the bigger picture does it matter? They will read in time, whether they are on Stage whatever now, and some don't read at all.

My DS (Y1) does Rigby Star at school but used to love ORT Read at Home. We got to Stage 3 but he seemed to have lost interest, he says its all too hard. At school he seems to read well at that level but has not progressed in his reading for since about October.

Hm - White is stage 10 in the normal ORT stages, which again would be good but not suggest any outstanding talent. There will be some Yr2 kids not on this yet, but it doesn't indicate much about their overall abilities. TBH at this stage, there will be a real mix of reading abilities, and in a couple of years most of the class will even out and all be reading just fine.

I've been helping with reading at ds yr 1 class and the thing that struck me was the huge huge range. Leaving aside the obvious G&Ts and those needing extra help, we go from ORT stage 2 to ORT stage 9. Thats a gap of 2 years difference in reading age according to the ORT site. Thus the answer is not to worry about it. It must be like walking or talking. Most get it and you cannot tell the late walkers from the early ones by the time they are three

CountessDracula - thank you so much for your brilliant link, my husband and I were very interested in it.
My son was reading in Foundation and at point 8 on the Early Years 1-9 scale. He began Year 1 in September on Flashcards and has VERY slowly moved through reading ALL of the books in stage 1 and 2. He reads stage 4 and 5 at home.
We have spoken to the teacher who is unmoved by our request to move him onto Stage 3.
He now complains that his school books are boring - he reads them because he has to and then we move onto something more apt.

I know 2 Y1 children, both from very academic parents, one has extra help and works on blending letters, the other is an independent reader and is having a go at reading Harry Potter - but I am sure in a couple of years they will both do well.

My twin's are in Y1 and are very different.

One is on Level 3 (although I noticed today that it is now a dark blue sticker so was wondering if the school had regraded these books). She is still at the stage of decoding lots of words, knowing a few from sight and guessing lots of others from the pictures.

Her twin is on Level 6 Orange and is a fab reader, finds it all really easy and can pick up any book at home and have a good go. I think the school move fairly slowly through the stages and I'm sure she could read much higher levels.

So I hope from this you can see children do develop at different stages. I have done the same things with my twins but one has taken to reading easily and the other is plodding along at her own pace.

Hope this helps!