Sorry-Reading again!

[ihearttc]

Just wondered if I could pick your brains over the best thing to do?

DS started reception in september not being able to read at all but he knew most of the sounds etc he needed to know. The school went through all the JP sounds with them and gave them a couple of books with no words in them and a list of key words to learn (9 at a time) and he had these at the beginning of october. Something just clicked with him and within a week or so he had worked out how to read and he whizzed through the key words and the books that he got which had simple sentences in them.

He is now on the 8th list of key words whereas most of the class seem to be on the 1st or 2nd and the books that he is getting home are so easy he reads them in about 2 minutes and is getting disheartened because he knows they are easy and wants harder ones.

His school doesn't use ORT so have nothing to compare with but just wanted some advice on what to do? I spoke to his teacher this morning and she said that she is aware is he doing incredibly well and that she will assess his reading ability after christmas which is fine but in the meantime he is stuck with these books which aren't challenging him at all.

Ive no problem buying him some books but wouldn't really know where to start...I almost want to see the the text of them before I buy them and obviously thats a bit difficult on line and don't fancy braving the town this close to chrimbo! Should I just get some ORT ones and work from there? The ones he is reading at school are the Rigby Star ones which are really good but I can't find them to buy on line anywhere.

I know its not a huge problem really but its so lovely to see him excited about reading and I just want to keep it that way!

Can you go to your local library with him. You can look through lots of lovely books together and see what catches his fancy. And perhaps brave a busy bookshop too, there are so many wonderful books to choose from. Agree that online buying not ideal because you and he can't browse content.

Yep can do library but our local one is teeny tiny and hasn't got very many childrens books unfortunately! Might brave bookshop in the city when he is at school and have a look there. We've obviously got all his books as well that we read to him and he will give them a good go as well but most of the them are still too hard for him although he read "Dear Zoo" yesterday! I just seem to need something in between what he has got and the really hard ones...I read somewhere that reading books should be able to read easily 90% and then to challenge them 10% and his are definitely not doing that!

At the rate kids go through books at this age, buying new books is incredibly expensive.
I'd go to your local bookshop, make a note of suitable books and request the whole series from your library - it's usually free for kids.
Try your local charity shops for First Readers - Ladybird books usually only cost about 25p.

These books are funny, my dcs loved them!

Red nose readers

I agree - go to the library and get some out slightly more challenging ones out. I also bought quite a few of the big cat books.

I found my son (who sounds v.similar to your with the exception that he was not disheartened or bothered by it, prob because he was almost the youngest in the class and quite immature!) progressed best when he read a mix of easy and challenging books.

e.g. in reception (towards the end of the academic year) he would read blue band books at about 95% accuarcy (the band he was on at school) but he could read turquoise band books at about 90/92% accuracy, so we read within those bands. Reading one school reader and one more challenging book each day.

He is now in yr one and reads purple band (band 8) books at school (at about 98% accuracy on average, errors mainly subsitution/omissions) but he can read up to band 13/14 still at instructional level (90-95% accuracy) and does so at home with me, but NOT every day.

I really wouldn't push to have him moved up at school. Even though my son reads purple almost fluently there is definately still learning to be done at that level for him. It is easier to work on expression and punctuation when the majority of the words offer little challenge for example, and it is fun!

Sorry, just to add, I definately recommend the Big Cat phonics books. I got mine from amazon, and then I pass them on to school for their book boxes when he has finished with them. They really are lovely books (be careful not to buy the playscripts though!).
They use the national book banding system.

Thank you!

Addicted-Id actually looked at those books before and thought they looked good so will definitely give them a go.

Spectroscopy-Thats ideally what Id like him to be able to do...have an easy one and then one which is slightly more challenging but school seem to just want 1 book sent home at a time.

For example some of the Rigby books that he has been reading are actually about the right level. Don't know if anyone else is familiar with them but he had a "Fish for lunch" and "Ling and the Turtle" last week which are about right for him...which are the ones I was shocked that he could read. He understands the story etc as well and we can do a lot with the book if you know what I mean...but the book he has at the moment is another Rigby book on the same colour band and is much much easier. It goes Max can put on his jumper,Max can put on his mittens etc...can't exactly do much with expression etc on that lol!

Will just keep plodding on with what we get (by the way the teacher doesn't pick the books we have to out of a pile on the table) and then get some additional ones to have at home!

Yes, the more challenging books were always the library books or the books I bought for him.

I think within a level there are more challenging and easy books, too. For example, the book my son read last night from school was really easy for him but he had a book of the same band out last week and it had words like praque, czech republic etc in! Non-fiction definately seem harder than fiction in a given band.

The library will have a section for learning to read. I would go (pref without children!) and have a good look though them and identify series that look about right.

oops I meant prague, of course!

Please don't buy ORT they are dire!

Rigby Star at Amazon

quite a lot of infant schools do not set 'reading books' for the first term of yr r. at that point quite a lot of children are still settling in to the routine etc.

tbh i would not worry about the 'school' stuff until the new year, when ds will be assessed properly and they will start a more formal programme. i would just do as the others have suggested and get a few in (either from the library or stores) to keep him interested at home.

what with christmas plays, glitter, glue and cotton wool crafts, and general end of termy stuff, there isn't going to be an awful lot of strictly 'academic' stuff going on at school anyway. the first term is really a bit of a shake-down whilst they all get to know each other, and the teacher seems to be getting to know ds quite well! i bet in the new year it's all fine.

I recommend the superphonics ones from the book people - its £10 for 20 books.

I posted a few weeks back - DD in year one and school books far too easy for her.

I have been pushing school - I would ask for them to send as many books home a week as possible so he can work through the scheme as his speed. We are getting through 6 a week and that still is not enough.... I used books I had at home (my mum kept all the ladybird ones) and now DD totally bored with school reading and they are insisting we read all the books on the scheme.

I remember your post MumNWLondon. It must be so frustrating! I would definately push in your situation - it just sounds like madness to do that. My son's reception teacher moved children up as much as 5 bands at a time if neccessary. His year one teacher will only move up one band at a time, but will happily move them up very quickly. They do tend to keep them on the lowest band for their ability but I have grown to understand and respect that. I guess there is a lot of differences between schools!

Have just emailed DD's headteacher as DD is becoming totally demotivated by school reading.

For you, its not long to Christmas so do reading at home until then and then push for appropriate books afterwards. I really recommend the superphonics ones - there is quite a lot of reading per book so they aer even better value than they seem.

The first level would be good for now - simple CVC words, 2nd level consonant clusters, 3rd level vowel combination eg oo, ae, ee, and 4th level more complex vowel combination eg ow, ou.

Do not buy any ORT books other than the Julia Donaldson songbird books and don't buy the same ones he'll read in school.

Thanks everyone-we read the book he had again last night with no problem and then we read 3 Julia Donaldson books...with him reading the words he can do and me helping with the harder ones. He loved it and was so good to see him enthusiastic again.

We've had some problems with the school and DS in general and I posted in Special Needs a week or so ago after parents evening. His teacher has noticed some things about him which are concerning her namely the fact that he worries about things constantly and seems to have an amazing ability to look at words and remember them...I didn't think it was anything spectacular but I suppose if the other 29 children are still learning the sounds etc (which is what she would expect them to be doing) it must be a bit strange to have this little boy who just wants to read! I don't want to push the school too much so will carry on at home as we are and get some more books that have been recommended.

Mrz-If I remember correctly you are a reception teacher aren't you? I went shopping today and saw the ort books and you are right they are awful. As I said DS is using the Rigby Star ones at school (I couldn't find them on Amazon before so thank you!) and also ones which are called Spirals. From what I can gather there doesn't seem to be an actual set reading scheme and they just have lots of books with coloured stickers on which we just have to pick from...would you say that is a good idea? I presume its to get them used to reading all different styles of writing rather than 1 set.

I don't think the ORT ones are so bad once you get to about level 2. It's before then - they are very boring.

Yes I'm a reception teacher (for another week anyway).
The spirals books are published by Heinemann and from a scheme called Sunshine. My now grown up children learnt to read with these.
I use Songbirds and the Rigby Star phonics until the children have the skills needed to read other books then use a variety of schemes to provide a broad range of books The children don't have to read every book in each level but it does help to use more than one scheme because children do become over familiar with one style and often struggle when they have to read other material.

I am a teacher too and we recommend the "read write inc" books, they are very repetitive and are just right for children that find reading difficult. Bright and interesting too!

Google Reading Chest.. and sign up.. better than splashing out on books to be read once x