Rant after year 1 parents night (reading)

[MumNWLondon]

DD is in year 1 and on ORT stage 4, we are getting through 6 books a week (they change 3x a week, we get 2 books at a time).

But the books are far too easy for her. She knows all the words and can read them in around 3 mins each. She can read books like mr men books, the poppy and max books, and the easier horrid henry books etc.

I raised this as a concern at parents night tonight, and teacher said that headteacher has policy that every child has to read every book on the scheme, and as we are already getting 2 books at a time we can't go any faster.

I offered the following: a) to send lots of books home over the weekend b) me to come into school to work through the books with DD c) for them to send home 3/4 books at a time and teacher said none of these are possible.

I am reading other books at home with DD, but it seems to me that the school reading books are now just an irrelevant waste of time.

Teacher suggested as a compromise sending home one harder book as well as a stage 4 book but this will not really help as move any faster as it will take even longer to get through the stage 4 books.

There are some kids in the class on stage 5 and 6, these are the kids with older siblings in the school where the parents know how the system works and requested 2 books at a time from the start of reception!

"Every day she gets the message that her teacher doesn't care about her/ that reading is boring and unsatisfying/ that her school is a bit loopy. Not great messages"

A child's only going to think these thiings if they're suggested to her by a parent. Rather, if the parent explains that it's just the way the school works, to help the majority of the readers and to just read them and then read her own books she is unlikely to think too much about it.

I experienced this. Fighting it is futile. Don't bother reading school books with her any more, leave it up to the teachers.

Then concentrate on getting other stuff at home for you to enjoy with her. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter how fast she reads, it's the recall, asking questions about what happened and then her then wanting to write her own stories. Can she tell you the story in her own words? etc

That's what happened in my own dd's case. She is an avid reader to this day. I used to put a Harry Potter (or whatever else book she'd be reading at home)book in her reading bag sometimes with a note in the reading book to say we're on page x you may want to ask her a bit about the plot etc! and ignore the ORT completely!

boolifooli - I think you are underestimating children. You don't think it sends messages that the school book don't seem 'right' or interesting compared to the books that mummy provides.
Children with lower ability get differentiated for all the time. I doubt they are being rushed through the levels and would be given appropriate materials in class. Why should more able children not deserve similiar consideration?
By reading a lower level ORT books that may not be very thrilling you are taking time away that could be spent valuably developing more advanced decoding skills, comprehension skills, developing inference and deduction, getting EXCITED about reading. A young child is often tired at the end of the school day. Why should 15 minutes of their reading time or even 5 be spent doing something that has little value.
In maths should the more able child have to do EVERY worksheet in the class? That would have an OFSTED inspector up in arms.

But if the child is ahead of the books sent home she'll read them effortlessly and quickly and there's still plenty of other skills to enhance through the use of the book such as expression, anticipating how the story will develop and so on. You can make it a useful experience. If the child then goes on to read the material you provide she'll get plenty of decoding practice with those books.

I think that it is so annoying that I might go and see the Head and ask for the reasoning behind the policy and be ready with counter arguments. I suppose that in RL I might take the easy way, just sign the reading record book and visit the library and do it ourselves.

It's not as if Ofsted turn up and ask how many children are on stage 3,4,5 etc. It's the reading ages that they look for, which is hardly affected by what level book she is given if she is reading her own books at home. From experience the stuff they do in the class within their ability groups for literacy and numeracy is much more differentiated then the book scheme system. Are you saying that your child's class are all given the same maths worksheet?

Thanks everybody for comments.

I have discussed it with DD, and she thought that the compromise of the one easy book and one harder book at a time seemed like a good idea, provided that the harder book is not say just a Biff & Chip book from stage 5, it would have to be something actually challenging. We can use the easier book to practise expression. It struck me also that once the books get harder might be more difficult to read 6 or 8 books a week (last week and week before they changed the books 4x ? they only change them if you sign to say you are finished with them), so one harder book at a time is probably enough.

We have lots of books at home (my parents kept everything from when I was younger plus I look for bargains on the book people, eg have ruth miskins superphonics) so we have enough other books at home to keep her challenged, and we do visit local library ? so yes could just ignore the school reading altogether, but I am not keen to take this route, would rather speak to headteacher about it.

Also teacher said after Christmas she would take them to the school library and my DD could pick something she could read herself. Teacher is only about 3 years qualified and could see that headteachers approach isn?t working for my DD.

I don?t really care about other kids being on stage 5 or 6, but DD does ? she has been asking ? why are they on that level and I?m not when I can read much harder books that I?m being given, hence the one easy book and one harder one is probably a good idea.

i dont understand why people rant about ORT

what is the amazing alternative?

IME other reading schemes are dull and dry - I am on my fifth child reading ORT and i heart it!

Please show me the alternative - i am happy to learn

Love ORT, perhaps it's aimed at boys who are not developing at reading that fast, as it's just right for ds. Hard on advanced readers though, if used as a rigid prison like this.

Sounds like you have found a good compromise. I would have gone for the 'take two at time and write 'Took this book home but didn't bother with it' in the reading record every time.

Or alternatively, if you have a younger child, get your dd to teach the younger child to read using the simpler books...

I would talk to the teacher (i did with dd1), dd1 is still on the wrong level at school (she's year 1 on level 7 but reads harry potter at home). Dd1 reads a lot at home so i'm not too bothered about her school books.

I like ORT up to about level 5 or 6 and then they seem to get longer and more boring without being that much more difficult. My sons school had a similar policy about reading them all on each level. He was so keen on reading in reception and then in Year 2 he read 31 books on one level and got so bored. We asked and asked to go up a level but was ignored by TA. (Although a friend showed me her sons reading record and she was quite happy to change hers ons once after only readin 1 bk in level so the policy was not alwyas stuck to).

Anyway since going onto the 32 page books my son has started to hate reading and I can't blame him. We get other books to read and I have suggested to the school they should put all the books in book bands so kids can use a mix of real book and scheme books. My husabands school does this very successfully. My son is so much keener to read if its shortes. (Length does not always equate with difficulty).

sorry about all the typos in that. Have 2 yr old tugging at me. Bad mother.

Are you writing all the stuff he reads at home in his reading record?
If not it might be a good idea.If OFSTED happened to look through his reading record it wouldn't look good if he was reading at school way below his ability level.And the teacher will know this

Thanks for the support!

Good idea to write other stuff she is reading in reading record.

I don't have a problem with ORT (its better than the Ginn books she had last year), I just have a problem with the level DD is on. I just popped out to Waterstones at lunchtime, and thought that DD could happily read the stage 7-9 books (hard to work out difference without her being there - although some decoding would be required). I am going to take DD there at the weekend so I can see for myself which level she can read at.

DD is trying to teach DS (age 3.5) to read, but he hasn't mastered all the letters yet! DD reads to him (to practise expression) so he knows all about Biff and Chip and he hasn't even started reception yet.

My friend used to be deputy head at the school - she said reason for policy is to make sure that all the children know all the "blends" which makes sense with phonics based books but doesn't really make sense with the Biff and Chip books.

I think you're taking this ORT levels business to heart too much. If your dd can read the books in three minutes that's great, I can understand if it were the opposite and your dd was struggling and forced to read a higher level book. Do as the others say and write about the books she reads at home, that's what I do.

Mine is older (year 3) and in spite of being a free reader for yonks she was recently given a Green banded book. I took it to mean that she wasn't answering questions satisfactorily about her current reading material so the teacher decided to go back for a bit. Maybe yours is the same and it's to do with comprehension skills?

I agree with boolifooli as well. I don't think a child would be negative about getting books that are too easy as long as he/she has enough to read at home that are interesting.

No I am not hung up on the actual levels just that DD's books are too easy and have become demotivating for her. Also her reading is developing/improving at home so quickly that there is a bigger and bigger gap between the level of the school books and what she can read at home.

Her understanding of the harder books she has read is good, and can recount at length, even when she has read them alone (although not when she has read them silently) however I do see the point that she needs to work at expression, however this should not come at the exclusion of other reading skills.

In some ways thats why the compromise of one easy book and one hard one might be a good idea.

She's negative about them she says they are boring (which they are) and as she knows that others are on harder books and because she enjoys reading harder books at home.

my dds school also has read every book on each level policy - i nearly slit my wrists over dd1 who was very uninterested / dyslexic tendencies una cdemic type and who now aged 9can read apparently at reading age of 11.7 but just still has no emjoyment of reading at all and dd2 who started reception in sept and could read fluently before going now havign to do level one , she loved books and reading but now starting to say she wont read her book because it is boring ....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh . i am going in next week to state firmly that dd2 is NOT gogin to forced down this route and put off reading for joy by blood kipper and co.

'blood kipper'? Sounds like yours are more interesting than the B,C&K books we get .

nothing of the sort

ort books are designed for a certain age range
most children will read a book out of or above their banding ime but with less fluency and understanding than at the lower levels

? Were you talking to me JesusChristOtterStar? Wondering how that relates to my post?

sorry nothingofthesort it was meant to be to MuminNWlondon

i agree with what you say

You'd better tell them that then TeamEdward , because they certainly looked at a random sample at our school's last OFSTED

My DD had to read every single book...I went to where the books were kept at school and took 10 out each week. We soon got through them!