Probably boooooorrrrinnngg reading question: the 'right' reading level

[ireallyreallytrulyhatefootball]

I've seen this thing about a child being able to read 95% of the words unaided meaning the vocab of a book is about the right level for them. Is that right. What do the teachers on here think?
I know comprehension and expression, punctuation etc. come into it too but if we are only looking at the words what % would it be?

I used to use the 5-finger 'rule'. Each time a child stumbled on a word I'd put a finger down. All 5 fingers down on one page and the book was probably too hard. Obviously it would depend on the type of book - if the child stumbled on 5 dinosaur names or some 'vernacular' speech, I'd not count those. If all 5 fingers were down, I'd ask the child about the plot and so on, and if they weren't sure what was going on I'd suggest they changed the book.

But surely that depends on how many words there are on the page. Five out of 10 is a lot worse than five out of 50? Or maybe it doesn't as at the 50 words a page stage it still hampers fluency?

I used to think reading a range of levels was a good idea. Some easy confidence building stuff that would be easier than the 'right' level, some at the 'right' level & also if a book was sufficiently appealling content-wise children seem to be able to read and enjoy reading harder books from time to time too. The main thing is that they are reading and enjoying it.

I'm not a teacher by the way.

I think the point is that there isn't a particular percentage - and that it doesn't matter how many words there are on a page. Particularly since you also look at comprehension and so on.

I was wondering about asking his teacher if he could have alternating levels or something as the ones he's on don't have more than one or two new words if that for him, but the ones he's capable of reading are a bit too long and complex at the moment and he needs to build comprehension at that level.

So he could do say a level 7 for comprehension and then a level 9 (talking ORT but they do other schemes too - just saying that an example) for new vocab. Sound sensible?

Best for new vocab is non reading scheme books altogether - and they don't have to be lengthy ones either. Lots of storybooks aimed at reading aloud to younger children have good and varied vocab, not too many words per page and nice pictures as an added bonus! and there's loads of great non-fiction for children too. I'm not sure that if comprehension at level 7 is an issue reading level 9 is a great idea tbh. But I'm not a huge fan of reading schemes anyway.

If it were me I wouldn't suggest it to the teacher - they are renouned for taking umbridge and might peg you as a pushy parent - instead I'd find the sort of books I thought he would benefit from & enjoy at the local library and try them out at home.

when assessing reading in KS1 for book band levels you are supposed to go with the 95% idea along with levels of comprehension and fluency. The texts are 100 words long to make it easier!