Reading Woes
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Re: Reading Woes
Could someone tell me how often a y3 should be heard reading at school. The child in question is not a free reader and has only moved up one colour band since starting in y3 and then only because I expressed concern that there had been no progress in more than 6 months.
Re: Reading Woes
I really don't know if there is an acceptable number of times to be heard reading each week. At my children's school it has been between 0 and 1 times per week, with 0 being far more frequent than 1. However, I guess that if your child is not making adequate progress in reading then you would think the school would be making an effort to improve their reading.
Irrespective of bookbands (dodgy things they are) is your child's reading improving? What do you think when you listen to them at home? Has the school done any reading age tests? Has their NC level for reading changed over the course of year 3 by at least 1.5 sublevels? If not, I'd say it's time to have a bit of a dialogue with the school about it if you haven't already done so as well as doing something fun at home over the summer to improve it.
Irrespective of bookbands (dodgy things they are) is your child's reading improving? What do you think when you listen to them at home? Has the school done any reading age tests? Has their NC level for reading changed over the course of year 3 by at least 1.5 sublevels? If not, I'd say it's time to have a bit of a dialogue with the school about it if you haven't already done so as well as doing something fun at home over the summer to improve it.
Re: Reading Woes
I used to read with the younger children at my DC school but it seems to be phased out and guided reading has taken over. My yr 2 child only reads to an adult at school ( individually ) at certain intervals when I think it's to assess her reading rather then just reading practice. A while back I was worried about DD reading and the school wanted to put her on the reading recovery programme.The problem was a lack of books which she found a bit boring anyway, so I decided to put in an intensive reading programme with DD at home and bought her lots of Usborne books which if you look at their website , do a similar reading scheme with colour bands corresponding to level 2/3/ etc in the NC.Her reading improved dramatically as she was reading really nice stories....she's on The Secret Garden at the moment and I also went over the word lists they should know by the end of yr 2.I think there's one for yr3 too ? I think it's just lots of practice and finding material they like.DD didn't need the reading recovery in the end and doing this every day at home only took 3 weeks .
I wouldn't leave it up to the school, but up the ante at home. I do find now with the colour bands because they have more then one stage and other non fiction books, it does take longer to move up.Speak to the teacher.Find out what level your child is currently at and then ask if they can be moved up or ask if there's a problem . I find turning up at school booing in the teachers arms about my worries works wonders ! ( just do the booing when no one else is around and you're wearing waterproof mascara...)
I wouldn't leave it up to the school, but up the ante at home. I do find now with the colour bands because they have more then one stage and other non fiction books, it does take longer to move up.Speak to the teacher.Find out what level your child is currently at and then ask if they can be moved up or ask if there's a problem . I find turning up at school booing in the teachers arms about my worries works wonders ! ( just do the booing when no one else is around and you're wearing waterproof mascara...)
Re: Reading Woes
Yes I would echo that. Try having the dialogue with the school, and see if some tears work too, but if you get nowhere then I'd take the matter into your own hands at home. As Scarlett says buy interesting books at the right level and keep on moving onwards and upwards. If your child has the goal of a book that they would really love to be able to read but it is currently too much of a slog then this might act as an incentive - e.g. if we read this and this you will soon be able to read this one. Also consider shared reading - a sentence each, a page each, whatever suits. This will get you through more reading matter faster. You do need to have the right approach to new words your child can't instantly read to discourage guessing from the first letter or the pictures etc.
I don't know what kind of level the child concerned is capable of reading. If it's still a relatively low level for their age you might find that a bit of phonics input will make reading so much easier for them it's worth a bash. You could try buying the Read Write Inc speed sound cards set 2 and 3 - the home version and the later bands of the black and white story books that work their way progressively through some of the harder aspects of the alphabetic code. Another good one is Toe by Toe - look it up on Amazon - for filling in phonic blanks.
But if they've got a good grounding in phonics and know how to read the different spelling alternatives for different sounds, and also know the alternative sounds for the same spelling e.g. ea can sound like bread or tea, the /j/ sound can be written dge, gg, j etc etc then it's probably just a matter of connecting with the right reading matter.
Some schools have a very dry old collection of reading scheme books and you would find if you looked at the publishers' websites that they have a mass of more interesting fiction and non-fiction at a range of different levels.
Second-time round I abandoned the school reading scheme at the start of reception!! My child who is now nearing the end of reception is just commencing bookband 9 purple. School has recently had a change of heart and has suddenly started supplying everyone regularly with books at an appropriate level and for the first time ever a child of mine received a school book at the "right level". However I still plough on through what I have at home as what comes back from school is, even if it is at the right level, in a pretty random order, missing pages (just when child has got to the middle 4 crucial pages are missing) or very repetitive old style "look say" whole word reading method.
I don't know what kind of level the child concerned is capable of reading. If it's still a relatively low level for their age you might find that a bit of phonics input will make reading so much easier for them it's worth a bash. You could try buying the Read Write Inc speed sound cards set 2 and 3 - the home version and the later bands of the black and white story books that work their way progressively through some of the harder aspects of the alphabetic code. Another good one is Toe by Toe - look it up on Amazon - for filling in phonic blanks.
But if they've got a good grounding in phonics and know how to read the different spelling alternatives for different sounds, and also know the alternative sounds for the same spelling e.g. ea can sound like bread or tea, the /j/ sound can be written dge, gg, j etc etc then it's probably just a matter of connecting with the right reading matter.
Some schools have a very dry old collection of reading scheme books and you would find if you looked at the publishers' websites that they have a mass of more interesting fiction and non-fiction at a range of different levels.
Second-time round I abandoned the school reading scheme at the start of reception!! My child who is now nearing the end of reception is just commencing bookband 9 purple. School has recently had a change of heart and has suddenly started supplying everyone regularly with books at an appropriate level and for the first time ever a child of mine received a school book at the "right level". However I still plough on through what I have at home as what comes back from school is, even if it is at the right level, in a pretty random order, missing pages (just when child has got to the middle 4 crucial pages are missing) or very repetitive old style "look say" whole word reading method.
Re: Reading Woes
Thanks for getting back to me guys. I tend to organise a meeting with the head once a year anyway to iron out the reading issues with DS3 and already do lots of extra reading at home with him, when he will oblige. I was just curious as to the regulations, as when I was teaching 15 years ago I could have sworn that children had to be heard at least once or twice a week.
