Frequency of reading book changes in Y2?

[violetbloom]

Dd has a very good Y2 teacher, very experienced in every way but she seems to be very poor on changing reading books over and never writes comments in the readng diary. I've never said anything as I'm happy with her on every other level so it seemed just petty. However, dd has now had the same reading book for almost 6 weeks and the last tiny comment in her reading diary was at the end of January. I wondered if this is in any way normal at this age? Could it be because dd is quite a strong reader now so doesn't need to be listened to regularly? She has tons of stuff to read at home so I'm not worried on that score. Also they seem to do group guided reading tasks still with the teacher once a week. Just no books home and no individual reading time.

Should I mention it or just let it go? Is it normal for a good reader at this stage?

Depends on the school. If she is a good reader and on complex books (eg with chapters) the CT is unlikely to be able to hear her read a whole chapter at one go so hearing a page here and there is unsatisfactory. The main teaching of reading would be in guided reading and will almost certainly be focusing on comprehension, vocabulary etc.
You could ask the CT if your dd can change her own books, which is what happens in a lot of schools.
On the other hand unless they have a very good selection of books you might find she is better off reading library books which she is interested in. Books from reading schemes become less appropriate as children progress.
I would advise hearing her read aloud at home though because once children read entirely on their own they can become victims of mispronounciation if they come across words they have never heard spoken.

ds is in yr2
he changes his own books when he's finished reading them
so sometimes daily sometimes 2-3 times a week
He reads to a parent helper once a week , and to the teacher on fridays.

Ds (yr 2) changes his book as he finishes it - about once a week - on my insistence. He rarely gets a teacher comment in his diary. He is a free reader so gets listened to less often I guess. I listen to him at home each evening as left to choice he just wouldn't read a book. His class has 30+ children (thought they capped at 30) now so feel I can't make a fuss really.

Ask if you can see the guided reading notebook, there are probably comments in there.

I'd ask the teacher. Books in DD's class are changed daily, if necessary, and always whenever they're finished. Comments are written in the reading record by the class teacher once a week for individual reading and every other week for guided reading. Sometimes she'll also read with a parent helper. All children in the class, regardless of ability, are read with at least once a week, and some who are struggling, are read with daily.

ds1 never bothers changing his book - mainly because he isn't interested in the home readers from school, we go to the library and he chooses (and then reads) loads.

He does guided reading and there are comments about this in his reading record on an irregular basis.

As far as I can tell his is rarely listen to on an individual basis, but then he doesn't need it so that is fine.

I would think he has the same book in his book bag most of the last term!

That's interesting, thanks. Dd is reading chapter books from school and some of them are quite long so it wouldn't make sense for her to change them every week, I just thought that no change for 6 weeks seemed like a long time. It doesn't really matter though so long as she'd doing guided reading and is enjoying reading at home. I don't listen to her read every day any more, probably about 3 or 4 times a week and I agree that it's still important as she tends to skip a lot of the smaller words like 'and' ' the' - is that common?

DC gets listened to about once a month - comments made in reading diary are very general, so I'm not convinced he gets much instruction from the experience. He's a good reader, so maybe the teacher is focusing on the weaker memebers of the class.

I think that may be the case in dd's class too.

Whose job is it to change the book in your school? When my dcs were in Yr 2, it was the children who were responsible for changing their books, not the teacher.

Cory - they have a few things going on at once. They do guided reading with the teacher which they sometimes get to bring the book home from. Then they have a reading book allocated by the teacher which she listens to them read the first page or two of - this is the scheme which is currently being missed out for dd. Then they have a general class box of books which they are free to take or not, they are not colour coded and they do not appear on the reading record but they change them themselves with no supervision by the teacher. The problem with those books is that they are all of a much lower reading level than dd is right now so she's not interested in taking them home. So we read our own books at home and get books from the library.

I'm with chasing squirrels. The books that ds has brought home from school are of little or no interest to him. I don't worry any more - he reads a phenomenal amount at home and the school are aware he reads a lot. Think it depends on how good a reader they are - if they are properly free reading then I wouldn't worry.

I don't think I am worried actually so much as curious to see if this was common in Y2. I would like to think the teacher kept a bit of a check on dd's reading and offered some advice but I guess that happens in guided reading in any case.

My DD is in Y1 but a mixed class with Y2. She changes her books herself but doesn't read to her teacher very often. So at the moment she is finding the books easy as she hasn't been moved up a group since just after christmas and enjoys reading her own books rather than the schools.

Her teacher has said that some of the other kids will be listened to more often as their parents don't listen to them at home. Bit crappy of them!

I would imagine that in Y3 they don't read individually to the teacher any more at all, then?