Bath, it doesn't seem consistent that his spelling words are what they are if they aren't happy with his level of reading. When my DD1 was in year 1 last year, she had words like that on her spelling list because she was more than able to spell them - but they had ability graded groups so you had the top % of students doing the harder words like my DD was, then you had the middle % of students and then you had the bottom group of kids who were spelling words that were at most 5 letters long. Maybe ask for a revision of his spelling word list as well just so there is consistency, but if fluency is his main issue then I agree that it is something that will come with time and practice but it is also a catch 22 situation because to get them to develop fluency, you have to practice with them to show them how otherwise they can stay a bit stilted. What I do with DD2 is get her to read it first, so it's like "the. cat. sat. on. the. mat." and when they read like that, they do tend to lose a bit of the meaning of what it is they are reading and then when she is finished, I read the sentence too so it's "the cat sat on the mat" and then she is able to read it like that herself. We have our readers for 1 week, and we will read them both each night, building up each time so by the end of the week she is reading the book fluently. The more the read the same book, the easier it is for them to become fluent. If we have ever had a book that she's struggled with, I write a note in her reading log saying we'd like to keep that one for another week, otherwise they have to start all over again with a new book kwim?
I am constantly stunned too at what our kids have to learn compared to what I learnt at the same stage of school but then I have noticed a difference in 5 years, so I imagine that from when your DD started (10 years ago?) that the difference would have been bigger still and not so much a reflection of private v public. During an information night a few years ago that I went to at the school they said that the Reading Recovery program is funded separately so the places are usually highly sought after so if they think that he needs it, then they have probably done a lot of consideration and assessing to determine that and it may only be for this year. One thing I noticed too is that they will all of a sudden have a big leap forward. I remember with DS1, he started year 1 on level 7, but before the end of the first term he was on a level 14. I spoke with his teacher about it and she said that it just *clicked* for him and it became so much easier so your DS may be like that too. Oh and another thing, they only benchmark them for their reading ability once a term, so they might wallow around on the lower levels for a bit and you think they aren't getting anywhere, but when they do the benchmarking he may have jumped ahead several levels at once.
oh, one thing that helped with fluency, and keeping up with the story was for us to read every second page.
He would read one page, slowly, brokenly, and carefully, then I would read the next, slowly, but fluently with expression... they do eventually copy....
Thanks again Trillian Yes, when the Reading Recovery lady rang and spoke to me she mentioned that being on the program was "like winning lotto!". I thought that was a strange way to describe it... but if you say it's highly sought after... but by whom? Parents? Class teachers? If it's separately funded does that mean they don't automatically run it if there is no student in need of it? I was wondering if in our case they just put my son on the program because compared to his peers he was reading in the least fluent manner... but we live in a faily advantaged area... kids would generally be reading well above the state average anyhow... so what's the benchmark? I'd hazard a guess that DS would be top of the class if you compared him to the kids in less advantaged suburbs... shouldn't the funding go there?
The Reading recovery lady gives Ds his spelling words. She writes them in the back of the communication book we need to write in every night. He also has to construct a sentence and do extra activities like write a list of words that contain a silent letter.... eg lamb, knight, autumn etc. So essentially we have to do substantially more homework each night than the other children in his class. It's a lot to manage when i have a 4yo who likes to be involved too. But the Reading recovery lady didn't seem to understand how hard it can be to do homework with one child when you have other children in the house. My husband simply shouldn't work such long hours... or I should be able to tuck my 4yo off into bed or something... apparently grrrrr.
I suspect that reading fluently will just click with DS too. He is a bright child in every other regard.... it just dismays me that he now has this label as being a weak reader when personally I think he is going to be an excellent reader... he shows all the signs if you know what to look for. This is a child that will take himself off to his room and translate a photo of a train into a drawn diagram of his own. The attention to detail is amazing... and he does it often... but mention this to the school teachers and they say 'oh, ok... but when he reads more fluently...." (ie basically dismiss it). Makes me wonder if i really want to get caught up in a system by training to be a teacher when everything just seems so prescriptive... "this is how you teach a child to read... there is only one way... and it's OUR way". All the talk about multiple intelligences and learning styles is just that... talk! This school doesn't walk the talk like my DDs school did. And now I'm rambling....
ETA: oh and thanks PB yep.... I do something similar... read a page after DS has read it just to let him compare fluency... but sometimes it does seem to dismay him. He has a bit of my perfectionist's streak. But then again i also suspect it's tiredness.
Last edited by Bathsheba; September 20th, 2010 at 12:59 PM.
I will scan the benchmarking sheet that DS had to do and also the Johnsons word list that DD1 did - both while in year 1. It will give you an idea of how they assess them. What the teacher talking about the reading recovery program said was that no parent should feel bad if their child gets selected for it because they get more 1 on 1 time with the teacher to help them with their problems as opposed to staying in a group of children all needing help from the 1 teacher kwim? I don't know about the specifics of the funding arrangement though. I had a google and found this info (bearing in mind it is for NSW) Reading Recovery
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Yes, when the Reading Recovery lady rang and spoke to me she mentioned that being on the program was "like winning lotto!". I thought that was a strange way to describe it... but if you say it's highly sought after... but by whom? Parents? Class teachers? If it's separately funded does that mean they don't automatically run it if there is no student in need of it? I was wondering if in our case they just put my son on the program because compared to his peers he was reading in the least fluent manner... but we live in a faily advantaged area... kids would generally be reading well above the state average anyhow... so what's the benchmark? I'd hazard a guess that DS would be top of the class if you compared him to the kids in less advantaged suburbs... shouldn't the funding go there?
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