oxford reading tree levels

elljay20

Hi all,

my dd is five and a half and is currently on the turquoise level. She seems to be findidng them quite easy and has been on this level since june.

i was just wondering what level she should be on for her age and also what the next level up is? i had to ask for her to be moved up from her last level and the teacher said fine and moved her up. Her new teacher seemed a bit funny about it when i asked to move her up. She did say she would have a listen to her tomorrow and see.

I don't want to second guess her teacher by any means but i've been teaching her to read since she was just over 3 yrs old and she likes to be challanged a bit!!

Lunar_Eclipse

What numerical level is turquoise?

My girls both ended YR on approximately level 9/10 and progressed through to L15 by the end of Y2, which is where the ORT ends.

Having said that, I know kids who were on level 2 at her age, others on 5 and others on 12. It really depends how fluently she reads. But if you have a look on the ORT website, it tells you what level is expected by what age, ie an average.

It does seem a very long time for such a young child to stay on the same level though. They should be flying through them, but reading a new book each night.

milliebear00001

There is a good guide on the ORT website, but turquoise is pretty good at 5 and a half. My daughter's the same age and is on Orange (Stage 6) which is broadly equivalent to the expected reading age at the end of Year 1.

Not all schools promote the 'flying through them' approach. The teacher may have good reasons for keeping her at this stage - have you asked? Some schools make kids read every book in the colour band before moving on, others don't - it varies a lot and each method has its reasons. It may appear that your daughter is reading really well, but decoding books is not the same as understanding them - perhaps your LO needs to develop skills here and that's why her teacher doesn't think she's ready to move yet?

elljay20

thankyou for the replies. The website isn't a lot of help as my laptop wont open the links in it, something about media player being installed incorrectly.

lunar, i'm sorry, i don't know the numerical level.

ebony90

Just a few thoughts, not to say this is the case, but I teach 5 year olds (Y1) and in my experience the reading schemes play a very very small part in parents' roles in helping children to learn to read. Kids benefit most from reading everyday things such as packets, signs etc and books from home (hopefully meaning they meet the children's interests). By all means read the scheme, but only as part of the work done at home on reading.

Additionally, many children are very good at 'decoding' i.e. reading the words, but have very little idea of the meaning of them. Comprehension is very important, therefore another idea is to talk about thebook and ask questions about the story etc. You may find that the reason she has not been 'moved up a level' is that her decoding is stronger than her comprehension.

HTH

Ebony


ETA Cross posted with above!
When your internet's working, I'd recomment some of the literacy games on www.ictgames.co.uk as a bit of a challenge/ reinforcement. It's also got some great numeracy games!

elljay20

milliebear00001 wrote: »

There is a good guide on the ORT website, but turquoise is pretty good at 5 and a half. My daughter's the same age and is on Orange (Stage 6) which is broadly equivalent to the expected reading age at the end of Year 1.

Not all schools promote the 'flying through them' approach. The teacher may have good reasons for keeping her at this stage - have you asked? Some schools make kids read every book in the colour band before moving on, others don't - it varies a lot and each method has its reasons. It may appear that your daughter is reading really well, but decoding books is not the same as understanding them - perhaps your LO needs to develop skills here and that's why her teacher doesn't think she's ready to move yet?

her comprehension is really good. i understand that reading is not as much as sounding out the words but understanding and taking in the story and she does that well!! on the other levels she came home with a sheet for us to read the story and she would just look at the pictures and read a few words. but she is reading loads of other books and talking about them in detail!

elljay20

ebony90 wrote: »

Just a few thoughts, not to say this is the case, but I teach 5 year olds (Y1) and in my experience the reading schemes play a very very small part in parents' roles in helping children to learn to read. Kids benefit most from reading everyday things such as packets, signs etc and books from home (hopefully meaning they meet the children's interests). By all means read the scheme, but only as part of the work done at home on reading.

Additionally, many children are very good at 'decoding' i.e. reading the words, but have very little idea of the meaning of them. Comprehension is very important, therefore another idea is to talk about thebook and ask questions about the story etc. You may find that the reason she has not been 'moved up a level' is that her decoding is stronger than her comprehension.

HTH

Ebony


ETA Cross posted with above!
When your internet's working, I'd recomment some of the literacy games on www.ictgames.co.uk as a bit of a challenge/ reinforcement. It's also got some great numeracy games!

thanks for the link :j

we read everything and anything, she got a big book on sharks out of the library the other day and read all sorts out of it whilst i was driving!!
The main reason i'm interested in moving her up is that the ort is structured and graduates up levels if you know what i mean, i don't want to challenge her too much or give her really easy stuff so i like having a program. she's at the stage now where her voice is starting to also tell the story, like exclaiming "oh no!" rather than just reading on no, in a robotic voice.

Dustykitten

Having had 3 boys go through school reading schemes my advice would be supplement yourself with books from the library/friends. Sometimes I would find my boys would choose easy books to read because they liked the story/pictures - a bit like I sometimes like to read trashy novels or flick through magazines. Other times they would want much longer books and we would do shared reading (they'd read a few lines and I'd pick up the story for a bit).

Often just because a book is 'easy' to read doesn't mean it is not progressing their reading - some books have lots of different punctuation, speech, suspense etc. As others have said it is not all about the decoding.

Do the school only use the ORT? If so then whilst the stories/books are lovely I'd strongly recommend branching out into the wider world of books.

mrcow

I completely agree with the above poster. A reading scheme level really does play little or no part in a child's reading progression if the parent is letting them read a variety of material at home anyway.

The best thing you can do is to get her to read as many different books as you can. Join the library and go there weekly with her and get enough books each time to see you throuhg. Get books which will challenge her. And get books which won't. It's all good. Get books which are longer than some - it builds up reading stamina.

Is she reading to herself now? It's a good habit to get into. I don't know what turquoise level is, but at 5 1/2 there are loads of books and series of books that she can try.

If I were you, I'd start with The Cat in the Hat and take it from there.

jaymac_2

there's some interesting info here for parents
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/parents/work/primary/literacy/reading_help.shtml

milliebear00001

elljay20 wrote: »

her comprehension is really good. i understand that reading is not as much as sounding out the words but understanding and taking in the story and she does that well!! on the other levels she came home with a sheet for us to read the story and she would just look at the pictures and read a few words. but she is reading loads of other books and talking about them in detail!

Your daughter will be doing lots of reading in class (probably in a focused group) and that's where the teacher's real assessment of her development will be done. Home readers are given for reinforcement, but are usually slightly easier than the readers in school. Your daughter's teacher is the expert. If you are unhappy with her progress, you need to ask her to explain the reasons for the book progression rate. The other advice you've had here, to read as many different kinds of writing as poss at home, is excellent. I would also add that it's a good idea to continue reading TO her, as this is strongly linked with good reading skills also.