Does my child's reading level really matter?

[Runoutofideas]

A quick question for teachers really, please.

My dd1 is 4 and in reception. I think her reading is coming along really well. She reads to us every night, either a reading scheme book or a "normal" story book. At school they do rigby rockets/rigby star books and she is on yellow level. At home though she is reading books more complex than this. She cruised through some ORT level 5 books and ladybird read it yourself level 3 which we got from the library, just to see is she could do them. Her expression and comprehension seem good to me too.

My question is, do I make a point of trying to get her level raised at school, or just leave them to do their thing? So far I have had to make comments in her reading record book to get her raised from pink to red then red to yellow and I really don't want to keep doing this and come across as a horrendous pushy parent. I just want her to read at the right level for her. They seem to only read to the teacher once a week and have small group sessions where I think they all read the same book. Could this be why she's not racing through the levels....? Any opinions welcome. Thanks

Debs40 - what you say about parents of older children who "know the system" is interesting; DD2 is in yr1 and when I think she has had enough of a colour level I suggest she be moved on, both for interest and for motivation; the teacher is probably sick of me but she is my child and I care about her education and I am not going to let her coast along, happily but unchallenged, like I did with DD1 because i was new to the whole shebang. p.s DD1 came home with new level books today

Well dd1 is home from school now and the comment in her reading record today is "x read very well today although she tended to rush through the sentences". (The only vaguely negative comment she has had in the book). Do you think she's getting so bored now she's just trying to get it finished? It's making me think I need to do something even more....

Im having exactly the same problem and seriously feel like Im banging my head up against a brick wall at the moment. DS is also in reception and is on blue coloured stickered books which seem to cover lots of different levels within different schemes.

The books on that level seem to be ORT 1 or 2 which are both easy and quite frankly boring for him. Like you Im trying desperately to not become a pushy parent but am seriously struggling at the moment. There are only so many times I can write "DS read the book with ease" or "DS read the book with no problem" in his reading diary.

I purchased some ORT level 4 and 5 from e-bay and he can read them with no problem-think there was 2 words in them that he had to think about which in my mind is pretty good going. We also got a load of Reading Corner ones from the library which are good and funny which DS likes. He loves the Read it Yourself ones...haven't braved Level 3 yet but level 2 he can do with no problem so thats next on the list!

I know there must be a fine line between encouraging and pushing but he's a 5 year old boy who actually wants to read so I want to encourage him as much as possible but it feels like the school isn't bothered at all. Doesn't help that his teacher has been off sick since christmas and they've got a supply teacher who is lovely but a bit vague for want of a better word.

I know I can keep plugging away at home which we are doing but its so awful seeing him getting so disheartened by what he is bringing home. Btw Im not after him having some huge book that he can't read-just something a little bit harder than "Biff got wet,Dad got cross".

I offered to help as well and got told that parents can't go and help in the same year they have to go into another year which would be fine if then that freed up another parent to go into reception but that is apparently not the case!

Btw my DS went from Red to Blue level...his school appear to not even have Yellow so if she is reading Yellow then she'd definitely be able to read Blue...if that makes any sense at all!!

I sympathise ihearttc - it sounds like our children are reading at about the same level. It disappoints me that school aren't doing more to encourage their natural enthusiasm.

OP why on earth don't you just go and talk to the teacher? Honestly it seems daft not to. How can you know what their ideas are on developing her reading skills unless you ask?

I don't know if the colours are the same for different reading schemes. Do you have any idea where your child's ability sits compared to his class? Only asking to try to ascertain if it is unusual at this stage and that's why they're not noticing, or average and so considered "doing fine" along with the rest of the children. I have no idea how the other children in dd's class are getting on in comparison. Teachers are so reluctant to compare, however sometimes I think it is helpful for parents to know how their child is doing compared to average.

sorry, that should have read DD2 came home with new books today, not DD1.

Smee - that makes perfect sense, but she's not the easiest to pin down, and I always have smaller children in tow too when I go up to the school. I think I'll ask her some sensible questions at parents' evening which is this month.

I sympathise. If it's any consolation ds1 was given ridiculously easy books in reception for the first two terms, and then the teacher seemed to make a decision to stretch him a little - he went from something like ORT 6 at Easter to ORT 12 at the end of term.

The teacher told me afterwards that she was very aware that he'd picked up reading easily, but needed to be satisfied that he'd picked up the necessary vocab. and that his comprehension was keeping up so to speak.

I actually think this is fair comment, and I'm glad I didn't make a fuss (despite how sick we were of Mum Getting Cross on every page). I got to the end of the year thinking that the level he was on was based on a fair assessment and that they hadn't just raced through the levels.

Anyway, by year 1 he was choosing books from the school library to read and now in year 2 has a real love of reading. If I'm honest, I'd say the school did the nuts and bolts of reading and we did the encouragement and the extra interest stuff/choosing his own books at home. I don't think it matters much as long as your dc gets both one way or another.

Dd1 is a good reader and if the books she;s reading at school are too easy i either write it in her book (the little book that parents write in) or i go and speak to her teacher. Most of the time dd's teacher does not listen to them read, they have parents that come in and listen to the children read so its not always picked up on if the child is finding the books too easy.

I think we all need to relax about this. If reading is done at home then it should be fine - there seems to be a lot of anxiety about what level they are on in school and after all this child is only 4 and I cannot imagine that reading slightly under her ability cannot do her any harm. Good reading is much more about what happens at home how parents are around literature than what level they are on at school. School is just a small part of the picture.

I don't know about the OP but I should think she probably feels the same as me but its not that Im anxious about what level he is on...in fact I actually couldn't care less-- its more the fact that I have got a DS who wants to read and is getting discouraged about having these "easy" books home from school when he knows he can read better.I could understand if it was a case of punctuation/comprehension etc as I suppose it would be later one but there isn't exactly much of that to do in these books. He understands the story and can tell me what happens as I presume the OP DD can.

I totally understand that school is just a small part of the picture for us as parents but for a 4 or 5 year old child its a huge thing and pretty much their whole life (without that sounding overdramatic!) because for them it must seem like they spend so much time so it feels like they should be getting it right.

Runoutofideas-I assumed the coloured stickers at DS's school were following the Lilac,Red,Yellow,Blue etc scheme but I could be totally wrong.

Incidentally he has learnt all these 100 key words that they have made him learn and he is now on Y1 words so his vocab is possibly above where it should be.

Runoutof, sounds like a good plan to me. Just be honest in the reading record and enjoy reading with her. How fantastic that she's clicked so well so early on.

Also meant to say that he is in the "top" reading group with 5 other children (all little girls which he thinks is fab lol!) so he is at the higher end in his class...most of them are on the red level and some still on pink or lilac whatever colour it is. I only know this cause his teacher puts the tub on the table and you can clearly see who are in what group without even looking as the parents have to go to that tub!

what reading level comes after lime? anyone know?

I could have written the OP!
I too feel like I'm doing everything at home and school is for social skills and fun projects, which of course it should be but surely it could be reading too?

Ds does guided reading but the groups aren't ability based. The rest of the class afaik are still on pink or max red level (fairly reliable info) and he is on green (using the NC levels). So how can they possibly differentiate a guided reading session to work for someone on pink and someone on green?

He finished his tricky words ages ago and they didn't give him any more even though they knew he had learnt them all.

Had a very different experience with dd but she was more average in the class.

Parents evening next week. I think the teacher already thinks I'm pushy. What do I say?

I listen to reading as a parent helper in a year one class. I get the impression that gentle encouragement from parents is often required to move up a level. On the other hand some parents are always pushing to move up when the child is obviously not ready so teachers prob take comments in diarys with a pinch of salt.

Yellow is really good for a reception child btw if she didn't do pre-school reading.

We had the same problem with ds1. In the end we felt like a pest and just started getting books from the library. I think it probably made him a better reader having the variety as he didn't have confidence issues.

In my outstanding school, it appears that those who are considered 'grammar school material' are read with by the teacher - my son has a friend who is massively ahead and with whom the teacher reads regularly.

The so-called 'stragglers' as the TA describes them, get TA help.

The rest.....nada, nothing, zilch

Thanks everyone again. Ihearttc - you seem to feel the same way about it as I do. At least your ds seems to be in an ability based group. I don't think ours are ability based - at least they weren't initially but having said that dd said that after half term 2 children left her group and 2 different ones joined "so that they could read the same books". I have no idea though if this is the "top" group or somewhere in the middle.

Harveytherabbit - I wondered that about guided reading with mixed ability groups - Can't see how you can make it work really. Your ds sounds like he's doing brilliantly. Are there not any children on yellow or blue that he could join up with instead? The tricky words thing is silly - surely there are always more words for him to move on to....? Are they supposed to just be able to read them or spell them as well? DD can always read hers, but I don't think she'd be able to write them independently.

Jollyma - you are probably right about the library offering better variety. I have heard of children who can only read their own reading scheme books. Maybe we'll just keep on trying different things.

Debs - that's such a shame. Do you think maybe the friend who is so far ahead, is actually classed as SEN which is why he gets the extra time? There must be more than one child with grammar school potential in the class? No grammar schools around here to complicate things!

I don't get it re the tricky words either. The scheme the school uses only has 60 words up to things like could, because, other. A couple of times I've looked at whether he can spell them and he can do about the first 30 or 40 but not the ones I've just mentioned.

I find it hard to believe there are no other children even on yellow or red but apparently not. So if the rest are all on the same level it doesn't matter to anyone else that the groups aren't ability based.

I do find it v odd that ds seems to be the only one ahead....maybe not odd that he is the only one on his level but surely there'd be one or two nearly the same? It makes me suspicious that the teacher is being a bit lazy with them.

There is a little group of them who have special 'booster classes' apparently.

My son actually has SEN but his provision is never actually in place as well, who's to know if he never gets help in class, who'll find out, we can always say the class TA was helping him. I mean we can say what we want and anyway, it's not like he's statemented.......

As long as the top group get extra time with the teacher, that's fine by me.

Have been thinking about why we get so involved with reading levels/book bands whilst sorting DCs out for bed and realised that for most of us, apart from asking your children "what colour/shape/animal table do you sit on and where does X and Y sit?"" book bands and aforementioned tables are the only real indicators as to where your child is in relation to the class, and yes I know that we all bang on about every child is different/they progress at different paces etc but be honest who doesnt want to know where their own child is placed, literally, in relation to the class?

Yellow is 1C in terms of NC levels. At this level:

Reads a range of familiar and common words and simple sentences independently
Uses pictures to help with decoding
Reads book band 3 books with no support and band 4 with little support
May substitute a plausible alternative word using context
Hears and says initial and final sounds in words, and short vowel sounds within words
Links sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet

Retells narratives in the correct sequence, drawing on language patterns of stories
Shows an understanding of the elements of stories, such as main character, sequence of events, and openings
Shows an understanding of how information can be found in non-fiction texts to answer questions about where, who, why and how.

Knows that print carries meaning and, in English, is read from left to right and top to bottom

Explores and experiments with sounds, words and texts

Retells narratives in the correct sequence, drawing on language patterns of stories

Will say if they liked a book and identify parts they particularly liked

Can find different books around a simple theme ?e.g. books about cats?