ORT -number of levels per year. Can someone explain this please?

[ermnopecantthinkofanewname]

www.oup.com/oxed/primary/oxfordreadingtree/chart_2010/

If you look at the link above, reception covers two NC book bands a year (pink and red), year 1 do three and year 2 do SIX.
Can anyone explain why? In year 3 they look like they expect only 1 (brown).

I know these are just for guidance and not set in stone at all but it seems a bit weird.

Also I've noticed over the last few years, reception has changed from going to level 5, to level 3 and now only to level 2. Evidence of dumbing down of expectations?

[I realise I should get a life. I'm not obsessing about this and not relating it to my dcs but am curious about it]

My DD finished reception on level 2 red and has finished year one on level 11 lime. Each child will move at their own pace.... for DD it clicked over last summer...

in truth, don't know!, but from what i can remember with dd, there was not a lot of difference between the books in bands 9, 10 and 11.

"If you look at the link above, reception covers two NC book bands a year (pink and red), year 1 do three and year 2 do SIX."

NO.
year 2 don't do six - they just have three. If you skip forward to the next age group you'll see that stages 9-11 are linked with the next age group. The chart is confusing, I think they just didn't want to give the impression that stage 8 was an upper limit.

agree with the other poster though, once things 'click' they can move through the levels very quickly.

In my DC's school they don't usually do ORT at all in Reception.

They start with level 2 in Year 1, and most children are on Level 3 or possibly 4 at the end (although there are some exeptions).

Then in Year 2 they tend to click with reading and whizz through the levels, most children are on Level 8ish by the end (although again there are some exeptions).

Levels 9+ are then usually read in Year 3.

We are in Wales though and there is less pressure to read etc early in the Foundation Phase.

My DS is in year one and on L7, and is not that unusual in his year - a few are on L9 and many on 3 or 4. At the same age my DD had completed the reading scheme and was free reading.

I still read with the children in my DD class (now yr3) and it is amazing the progress that they make at completely different times. I agree that the 'platform' to take off into free reading tends to be at L8 or L9, and that once they get there they progress very fast - point is though that they have all get there by the end of yr6, some just progress at different rates. My DD was unusual in Yr1, but is now in a class with at least 10 other children reading at the same level as her....

OK dumb question here but if they're free reading, presumably there are still some words they need help with?

It's such a vague phrase isn't it and I'm new to all this. It just means off the reading scheme - is that right?

Free reading just means off the reading scheme. Different schools do it at different times, some only do the reading schemes up to level 8 or so whereas others carry on with them right to teh end.

My DC's school carries on with them, DS1 (Yr 2) is on Level 11 and DS2 (Yr 1) is on Level 10.

At my kids school there are bloody loads of levels to plough through, plus sub-levels of those levels! Hence it takes ages for kids to become the acclaimed "Free reader", my DD in yr4 has one more to go and we will both do a lap of honour, possibly naked, around the playground when she finishes and can take in her own far more interesting books from home.

Watch this space.........

Lovecheese: that sounds like my DC's school. DS1 audibly groans every time he finshes one level and then discovers that there are still more to come...

Perhaps it is the same school??

Could well be! Or maybe there are lots of ORT enforcers out there

Lovecheese & Domesticsluttery - How awful for your DC. That seems to be a surefire method for killing the joy of reading.

It's not that bad, he seems to see reading in school as a means to an end, something that needs to be got out of the way so that he can read his own, more enjoyable books.

Spot on Wood Rose - the school reading books are to be endured, not enjoyed, when children can read much more interesting and harder texts at home. I see the need for a reading scheme in infants, and personally would be a little if children were off scheme at level 8 or even earlier, but in juniors when you know that your child is a good reader and has the end of year levels to back this up then I think the teacher should have the ability to say, right X you dont need to read scheme books any more.

There are 16 levels at my DD's school, but they don't all complete all of them before they free read. In year 2 her 'free reading' was from a box of library books that the teacher had selected as suitable for her.

This year (yr3) she is genuinely 'free' reading and can choose anything from home to take in - she has just finished the 4th Harry Potter book as her school reading and started 'Swallows and Amazons'. In both years she has also been required to write a book review at the end of each book and discuss this with the teacher.

My DS is similar to some of the others above and sees school reading books as a chore to do each night so he can read something more interesting (like a comic generally!).....

DS was on Level 3 at the end of reception and has just started level 10 now in year 1. He seems to think he will be able to choose books from the library when he has read more on this level but I'm not sure quite what happens (moved house a month ago).