Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.
Very sorry for the long rant and if anyone reads this whole thing, thank you so much in advance!
My daughter is 5 yo, in Year 1, and attends a small private school near us. For the most part, we have been overall very happy with her experience so far, and have been pleased with her reading and writing.
However, all of last year, her teacher kept sending home reading books which were too easy for her, and I spoke to her several times about this, and eventually she started giving her books that were slightly more on her level.
This year she has a new teacher who assessed her reading level at the start of term a few weeks ago and I was instantly a lot happier with the reading level of books coming home, and she was on the Level 4 Biff, Chip and Kipper books.
However, last week, even though her book was a Level 4, it was a bit on the easier side again, and I wrote in her reading diary 'read whole book' - it was about 20 pages with 1 short sentence per page. They swapped the book out and the next one was equally easy for her, including going over the reading comprehension questions, so again I wrote 'read whole book.'
The next day I was met with a note in her reading diary saying 'please only read 1 - 5 pages per day.' I asked my daughter about this and she said her teacher told her that she should only read 5 pages per day in her book.
This bothered me all of Sunday and I e-mailed her teacher this morning to ask what this was about and why school would ever tell a child to limit their reading, and the response I got was that this is school policy, because they often find that children rush to get to the end of the book because they want to swap it or move up a level and haven't actually mastered the comprehension of it. She then recommended that dd is free to choose a second book from the school library and read that after doing 5 pages of her reading book if she wants.
When I tell you I've been shaking with anger and seriously considering withdrawing her from there for the next term...
Is it just me or does this seem completely counterintuitive??? Only read 5 pages of one book because it's school policy but then read as much as you want of another one.
I would understand if it was a case where they are reading the book together as a class or something and don't want anyone reading ahead, but that's not what it is. The kids each choose their own reading book and swap it when they want to.
My husband works at the school as well and spoke to the Head of Primary who said, don't worry, of course you can read more with her if you want to.
But that's not the point... she was told by her teacher... at this young age where she is only starting to really form her opinions about school and reading independently... that she shouldn't be reading more than 5 pages a day.
So she now feels like she is doing something against her teacher's wishes if she wants to read more.
I have honestly never heard of something so insane. I am all for testing reading comprehension. You want them to write a few sentences about the story before swapping it? Great. You want them to tell the teacher about the story before swapping it? Also great. You want them to answer questions about the story? Great. Test their reading comprehension before swapping or moving up.
But in what insane world is it ok to tell a child they SHOULD NOT be reading more than 5 pages?
sigh