is this reasonable Year 1 homework?

[MumNWLondon]

DD has been asked to do a book review for every school book she read (ORT 8).

She has to write - about the story, about a character in the story, about a place in the story, 5 new words from the book (DD says that bit is silly as she always knows all the words!) and what she thinks of the illustrations.

The teaching assistant said it will be good for her handwriting and punctuation, and that she will not change a book unless DD writes a review of it.

Aside from the issue of writing reviews on Biff and Chip books (!) do you think this is reasonable - I think its lazy of the school to ask her to do this rather than to take the time to set appropriate homework, and think she'll find it hard to do more than 2 book reviews a week - I have posted previously that she has to read every book on a level to be moved up - had to make a fuss to get her moved from ORT 4 to ORT 6..... working through books now on ORT 8 which I still think are a bit easy.

What do you all think?

Make your own book review/worksheet, as a template, etc. for her?

i really cannot see the sense in the school insisting they read every single book in the series before they can move to the next level.
even OUP wouldn't advocate that, and they want to sell the books!

my OUP rep said that once they have read 4 or 5 books in each level then they can move on, and she's even told me to advise parents that once they're on level 7, that they should be looking at other books/series. obviously, this advice is only for home reading, but if she's being forced to read the same stories over and over again with the same daft characters (and god! they're daft), then she's just going to be put off reading, writing and everything.

the teacher would be better employed to ask her to do one review of a B&C book a week and encourage her to read wider than B&C: get her to write reviews for other books she's read . I can see that this is a way of helping her improve her writing and spelling, but i would definitely ask for the chance to write reviews on different books.
otherwise, it's going to get repetitive.

have a look at the oup website it has some downloadable stuff on it, so you could print some off and let her work through that.

Sounds like a positive chat with the TA then, good!

looked at ORT website but couldn't find anythign other than colouring in to download...

I'm perturbed by the idea of a child going 'too fast'. Too fast for whom? The teacher? The other children? The TA? I would be raising hell if I thought my child was being held back for the convenience of any of the above.

I agree AvengingGerbil, but I think the OP has probably had enough run-ins with the school over reading for now!

There are several children in my son's year one class on Gold/white/'free' readers (basically lime!), including a couple of summer-born boys. It is hardly unusual for year one.

I wouldn't do it.
When my DS2 was in year one he was expected to do these book reviews. He hated it and it became a battleground. He soon went off reading altogether because of the reviews. (Ok it's true his writing left much to be desired).
I went to see the teacher and said , very politely, that IMO reading every day and spellings were enough for a five year old and he would not be doing the writing part. She was very understanding and that's the way we went.
He made excellent progress and his literacy did not suffer because of this.

I would not advocate this approach with an older child though, because sadly homework is a fact of life and has to be done. At five he wasn't old enough to understand.

AvengingGerbil - I think it is entirely possible for a child to zoom ahead too fast in one area, when they would be better off spending time broadening their learning. So rather than zipping through every sodding single ORT book, writing about some of the other stuff she's reading sounds like a sensible plan.

Glad you've established that it doesn't have to be every single book, though!

I think it sounds like a dreadful plan. Handwriting and spelling are completely different to reading. Why should she be held back on her reading? It's perfectly possible to focus on comprehension through discussion.

My son was a free reader half way through rec, the school wouldn't have dreamt of holding him back,he was devouring books. He needed the harder books to get more out of comprehension. They do spelling and handwriting separately,many of the children are fantastic readers and they're all at hugely differing levels. It's common for spelling and handwriting (at all levels)to be behind reading. If you tried to keep children at the same pace with s & h as their reading they'd get very bored of reading very quickly.

If it was me I'd ignore the dreaded Biff and Chip books,put one of her Naughty Little Sister books into her book bag and say you're reading that at home. If they want to plough through every book at school then fine,there is no law saying you have to do that at home. It's your free time so read what you like. If you do this she'll probably only finish one of those every week so you'll only have one book review to do every week which could be done at the weekend. If they have an ounce of sense and she can read the books competently they'll just stop sending the ORT books home.

I think there is a time limit on how much homework Y1's should have. My lot have a piece of phonics every week and a chapter of their book every night. No way could I enforce book review 2 X a week, it would put them off reading for good.

No way would I agree, I think it's an excellent way to put a child off reading altogether. And writing too, come to that.

when dd1 was a free reader, she had to do this. it's pretty standard fare for extension work i think. (bit curious why b&c books lol, and i wouldn't have thought it was relevant until latter stages of ort, but obviously the school have other ideas)

it is funny how different schools work though. dd1 was a free reader by the beginning of yr 2, and had been doing book reviews (she wasn't overly thrilled with that). ds1 was a free reader somewhere in yr 1 and was moved up a year for maths (go figure), and dd2 started school assessed at ort10 and wasn't given any extension work at all lol.

standardisation is impossible across infants lol. at least they are clearly interested in her education and seem to know her quite well, so i'd be pleased i think.

My ds (year 1) has been asked to do a book review for every 3rd book he reads by himself and chooses for himself. He also has a book to write words in if he doesn't understand their meaning, so that he can look them up in the dictionary to find out (and then explain what they mean in his book). I think this is far better than getting a child to review set reading books, which they may find very dull and may well be too simple for them, in any event. Since the book he's chosen to do his first review on is actually several hundred pages long, at this rate he shouldn't have to review many books at all before the end of term!!! A win-win for everyone... I do think that expecting a Year 1 child to do anything more than reading and learning how to spell a few words/putting their spelling words into sentences for homework each week is generally asking a bit much - since they have to go to bed so early in any event, doing more wouldn't leave much scope for any other activities after school.

Thats an awful lot of work for year 1!!!My DD is in year 1 and has spellings and reading practice and a short maths piece per week. I think this is a good balance. Lots of writing I think at this early stage just puts them off, maybe even writing a review once in a while maybe fun but every book!!!Don't think I could do that!
Would be tempted to do a couple then take it back up with the teacher, good luck

DD had this in year 1 (18 books in 22 days!)but it was for a special reading challenge that the school set. Completely voluntary. She did it but I don't think it's reasonable homework for your dd to do indefinitely.

tbh i think that is ridiculous!
i can't think of anything that can be gained from constantly reviewing the antics of biff,chip and kipper
i can fully appreciate your dd being asked to review a book she's read outside of the ORT tho
my dd was actually taken off ORT early in yr1 as her teacher was satisfied that she could read fluently and felt that making her continue with the books could actually put her off reading altogether!
so from that point onwards she was allowed to read what she chose
thank goodness for common sense lol

Does every school do the wretched ORT? I've seen them but thank goodness my DC's school used a different (very ancient) reading scheme.

Bumped into another mum in the class at the library on Friday after school. Her DD also (autumn born and) very good reader (judging by what the mum was picking out for her to read) and on ORT 9 - and school have also set her same task re: book reviews. This mother has 3 older DDs who have been at the school, and basically said her DD would do one per week only. She was pretty annoyed by the suggestion that they wouldn't changed her books - was told by the TA her DD going too fast and will run out of suitable books in the infant scheme soon!!!

Anyway DD's book review of "A Day in London" ORT 8 is:
Describe the story:
The children visit London with their Grandma.
Describe a character from the story:
Gran is very clumsy.
Describe a place in the story:
London is a big city
5 words you didn't know:
I knew all the words
What did you think of the illustrations:
I liked them.

At least you know there are other parents facing the same problems now!

That review looks appropriate! Certainly suitable for yr 1 - not sure that you can say much more about B & C anyway!

Seriously, at my son's school - the 'Free' Reading section next to the book bands in the infants (this is after white (band 10/11 ORT) is massive - about six times as many books in it as any of the other bands. They are all suitable for the infants. The juniors free reading section is completely separate.