Your Prep child comes home with a small book and a letter or number on the cover. What does that level mean, and what is your job when you sit down together? Here is a plain-English guide.
What a reading level is
Levelled readers are books sorted by how hard they are to read on your own. A book is placed at a level by looking at things like:
- how many words are on each page, and how long the book is;
- how predictable the sentences are (“I can see a dog. I can see a cat.”);
- how much the picture supports the words;
- how many words can be sounded out, and how many are tricky;
- how complex the story and the ideas are.
Schools use different systems. Some use numbers, some use letters, and different publishers' levels don’t line up exactly. That’s fine: the point of any level is to find a book that is just right for your child right now, with enough challenge to learn from and not so much that reading becomes a struggle.
Many Victorian schools now also send home decodable books, which follow the order sounds are taught rather than a level. Here is how decodable books work, with 20 free ones in Phonics Plus order.
Not sure how the two kinds of book differ, or what to do with each? See decodable vs levelled readers.
Levels on KidStudy
KidStudy’s books are labelled with letters, starting at A for children who are just beginning, and the bookshelf shows the school year each level usually suits: the early letters for Prep, then Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3. At level A, a page has one short sentence that repeats a pattern, and the picture helps a lot. As the letters go up, sentences get longer, patterns fall away and stories have more going on.
Before you start: a quick warm-up
Spend a minute on the cover. Read the title together, look at the pictures and ask what the book might be about. If there are one or two words your child hasn’t met, point them out now, so they don’t become a wall halfway through the story.
During reading: your child reads first
The most useful thing you can do is be patient. Let your child do the work, and offer help one small step at a time.
- Point and read. Early readers often point to each word with a finger. This keeps the spoken word and the written word matched up.
- Wait. When your child stops at a word, count to five in your head before saying anything. Often they’ll work it out.
- Prompt sounding out. Try “Say the sounds, then blend them”. For dog: d…o…g… dog. Encourage sounding out rather than guessing from the picture or the first letter.
- Help with heart words. Some common words, such as the, said and was, have a part that doesn’t follow the usual sounds. Children learn these “by heart”. If one is unfamiliar, just tell your child the word and move on.
- Check it makes sense. When a sentence is finished, ask “Did that sound right?” Re-reading the sentence smoothly helps the meaning come together.
After reading: talk about it
Understanding is the goal of reading, even in the simplest books. A couple of relaxed questions are enough: “What happened at the beach?”, “How do you think Mia felt?”, “What was your favourite page?” Then, if your child is keen, read the book again. A second reading is usually smoother and more expressive, and it’s a lovely way to finish on a high.
Praise the effort, not just the result
Specific praise tells your child exactly what to do again:
- “You sounded out every letter in frog. That’s how readers work out new words.”
- “You went back and fixed that word all by yourself.”
- “You read that page so smoothly, it sounded like talking.”
If your child is stopping on lots of words on every page, the book is probably too hard to read alone. That’s no problem: read it to them, enjoy the story, and choose an easier book for their own reading.
Keep reading aloud to your child
Home readers are only one part of the picture. Reading aloud from books well above your child’s level builds vocabulary, background knowledge and a love of stories. Picture books, chapter books, poems and non-fiction about whatever they’re curious about all count. Ten minutes of your child reading to you, followed by ten minutes of you reading to them, is a wonderful daily routine.
