Oxford Reading Tree and Reception

[ninani]

I was following a discussion on another section of mumsnet where I could not log in. So I am posting this here.

From what I have been reading, it seems that most or many schools teach reading from the Oxford Reading Tree (ORT). Or am I wrong? We were thinking of buying a set for our son -the first 5 levels at a bargain price- before he starts Reception since he has recently started reading. Do you think it's not worth it if they teach the same at school? Should we buy him something else instead? What other book choices are there? I really don't know what the schools teach here, maybe not the ORT. If you think it's ok, do you think we should buy him more than the first 5 levels from this series?

Also how do you know when a child has reached a level? When they can read fluently? Understand all the words?

Thank you in advance! You have all been very helpful here

I like ORT and my children learned with it, but some children seem to find it awfully dull, according to mums on here.

Yes, I think it's worth buying it but not to "get ahead" before reception as it were, as the teachers don't seem to appreciate it that much.

It's handy when you think your child can read more challenging books than they are getting at school, so you can just have a check and keep them in the loop when they are getting the same old boring book back five days in a row.

I think that there are a lot more fun books to read than ORT...

My DC's school use ORT. They move up a level when they can read fluently (including pauses for punctuation), understand all of the words and can tell you what happened afterwards to show that they understood the story. In their school they tend to read the whole of a level before moving up anyway.

But TBH my three learnt to read (well DD is only just starting at 4) using their normal picture books. I read a lot to them, they picked up vocab, started to see the words and then hey presto they could read! And TBH I would choose The Gruffalo etc over Biff and Chip myself

Also some say a child needs to read all the words in the book before they can move on, but that's not really true ime. Otherwise they just get boreder and boreder (excuse) with the same old book and just a few words they don't get. They do need to keep their interest up so new books and a new level can give a bit of zing to the whole thing if they're not having the opportunity to read and change books at school.

Also, you can get ORT from teh library. DS2 went through a stage of actually enjoying them and used to borrow extras from there. Much cheaper, especially if you only have one child, as they aren't really something that you will re-read.

I like the ORT books and we bought some

If you can lay your hands on some Read at Home ORTs and they are cheap and you arent going to impose it too much it should be fine

My single concern is that my DS was very very excited by the ORTs as he had never seen anyhting like them and was then chuffed to move onto our Read at Home ones, but if he had had them before he may not have been so excited and enthused by his new proper big boy school books IYSWIM?

As a teacher and literacy coordinator I would try to dissuade any parent from buying ORT for beginner readers.

But if you buy them they know all the stories and remember them. It means they have to go through the same books all over again for a whole year and the books are quite dull first time round, let alone second. It also means that you have no idea how much they remember and how much they are learning iykwim.

Get him other early reading books imho.

We bought ORT read at home and found it really good to complement the ones they do at school. But then my DD is in reception now....it works well because she doesn't have to re-read stories and also gives her more lateral practice at her level iyswim...

I wouldn't get normal ORT as they are not exactly exciting. The read at home ones may be OK but I would say just having normal books around the place is more fun really.

As a remedial reading tutor, I'd agree with mrz and say that the ORT Biff, Chip and Kipper books should be avoided at all costs, as should any other books for beginning readers that rely on the memorisation and guessing of high frequency words.

I think the Rigby Star phonics books are great. Oxford reading tree is dull.
I personally wouldn't do a lot before reception....I think teachers generally start from scratch and if your child is fairly bright they will just be bored. My dd couldn't read before starting reception. She is now reading ORT level 4 (near the end of).
Bee

I wouldn't buy...i'm a teacher and my DS is in reception and top set and reading well. We did weekly trip to the library and had a very book rich environment at home, lots of fun stories and has had a bedtime story every night since birth. when he was 3 we started showing him letters and the matching sounds, playing lots of games and then showing him common (high frequency words) in isolation and used to play snap and othe games. Some days he wanted to do it other days he didn't so we just went at his pace. ORT are painful enough to read imo when they have to so i wouldn't enforce them on your lo imo.

Just to clarify I am talking about the "Read at Home" scheme. I liked the Ladybird reading scheme because of the traditional stories it has. I don't like contemporary children's literature. But I can't find them.

Our son is interested in reading by himself, we are not trying to force him, neither am I saying he's a genius. I would much more prefer him to read old simple stories or other simple science books that he likes, but he can't read yet, neither fully comprehend. We have lots of these books but it is a bit early to let him read them by himself. It's because of his own interest really, not an impressive start at school.

I am interested to find out why some of you who are teachers do not like the ORT books. I just wanted to help him to learn a bit better with something simple before I give him the other books that we have with short stories. I'd rather he started reading with those ones but they are hard for him! I don't think the ORT are literal masterpieces but what can I do for reading introduction to help him reach an apropriate fluence before he starts reading the books that he really likes? We have books from the 70s and 80s with lots of stories but it is a bit early for him to read them, or we only have a few out of the full set.

I think I'll try to go to our local library as someone suggested and judge myself. So many of you find them dull, so I am really curious as I have never read an ORT reat at home myself! If they do other books at school then meybe yes, they will be good as a supplement only. Does anyone else know of any other books? And why not reading schemes?

My first job when I took over as literacy coordinator was to remove all the ORT and Ginn reading books from reception and KS1

There are many many reading schemes out there if you really want to buy scheme books for your child.
Is there any reason why you picked ORT?

I've now taught 3 of my four kids to read and have a fine selection of beginning reading materials, none of them ORT (which I loathe; I always groan when they come home in the bookbag). My local charity shops always have a few ladybird or similar early reading books in (I assume because kids grow out of them very quickly and don't want to re-read them). We now have lots of interesting books at lots of different levels - and all at charity shop prices.

I liked the ORT books, as did DS. They aren't proper phonics, though.

I think not reading schemes at home because

• at the beginning, if they are approaching the phonics aspect properly, the stories are of their nature rather dull and repetitive.

• later on, when your child is reading more fluently, there are so many more appealing "proper" books out there

IMO your job relating to your DS's reading, insofar as you have one, is to instil in him the idea that reading is fun and books are a treasurehouse of exciting wonders to be uncovered. That's better served by searching out the best and most interesting books you can find than by ploughing through a reading scheme.

Mind you, ignoring my own advice to an extent, I did get DS some of the level 1 and 1+ ORT books in the few months before he started Reception, because he saw them in the bookshop, was very taken by them and really wanted to take them home and read them. That seemed a good enough reason to me even though I knew they weren't considered to be a great scheme and I didn't ideally want to buy scheme books anyway.

He also enjoyed the Usborne Phonics Readers (Ted in a Red Bed, etc.) that someone gave him as a present. The Book People and Red House often do that set of 12 cheaply and I suspect that it's more in line with modern phonics thinking than ORT.

I can't see why ORT is so popular-I wouldn't subject a DC to reading them at home. If you really want to get some books I would do phonic based ones. I think it much better to have regular trips to your local library.

You can also go with the books you already have and get him to read some individual words (e.g. those that fall into a readily-decodable consonant-vowel-consonant pattern) or mix it up by asking him if he can find the word "cat" on the page.

We've got the ORT Read at Home stage 1-4 (bargain from Redhouse books) and both my dds have enjoyed them when in reception/year 1. The dds have often asked/volunteered to read them. The books have added special features such as mazes, hidden objects to spot in the pictures, and questions at the end to test comprehension, so they are more entertaining than the ORT books used in schools (and a bit trickier, ie stage 1 read at home is equivalent to the stage 2 used in schools).

We don't find them dull at all, and many are quite humourous.

I don't understand the objection to "books that rely on the memorisation and guessing of high frequency words", either. How can children learn to read without memorising high frequency words, most of which aren't decodable? If a beginning reader attempts to read a real (non-reading scheme) book then they will have the same issues of having to recognise high frequency words.

Can any of the ORT-haters expand on what type of books they think should be used instead?

My ds is in reception and has got on really well with ORT. Not sure whether I'd recommend buying them though, particularly if you are regular library goers. Ds found them a revelation when he started school, he was starting to do basic sound blending and was very excited to find books that he could read himself. But he was quickly able to read a lot of the words in the picture books we have at home and i think that's a lot more fun than endless ORT.

"My first job when I took over as literacy coordinator was to remove all the ORT and Ginn reading books from reception and KS1."

What a shame, some of the children will have benefited from them. Was there some failure of reading achievement in the school prior to this? Has reading acheivement improved?

Am I allowed to use the word achievement?

am I allowed to spell it right ?