'Guided reading' and reading levels

[CharlieBubbles]

DS1 seems to be doing really well in his reading and loves to read on his own at home, which is great. His teacher doesn't really 'do' parents, never tells you anything about how they're getting on and can't really be bothered if you ask her something. Clearly she's doing something right because he has settled in really well, but I'm a bit confused about some of the terminology (we didn't even have a full national curriculum when I was his age, never mind strategies and targets). She has filled in his reading record with some comments on a guided reading session today. I have no idea what that is and how it differs from what he normally does. His reading books don't seem to be following a particular scheme either. They sometimes have coloured stickers on them, is this code for something? I really have no idea what he's supposed to be doing at this stage and whether he is doing it!

Any reception teachers around to shed some light on this for me?
TIA

[Chocolate Lips]

Basically guided reading is this http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/nationals...category_id=78

Sorry, that explains it better than I can! I'm not a teacher but I help in reception once a week and do guided reading with the children.

Our school doesn't follow a set scheme either, we have books from all sorts of reading schemes come home but ours are stickered with a colour, following the book bands.

http://www.readingchest.co.uk/book-bands

They move up through the book bands when they have met certain goals and become confident at that level.

[CharlieBubbles]

Thanks CL. So, basically reading with them and talking about what they've read? He said there were 4 of them doing it, but he didn't explain what exactly they did (like getting blood out of a stone after school). Green bands seem to be 5-6, so given that he isn't 5 until May, that sounds pretty good. The teacher only shares bad news rather than good, so it was left to him to tell me that he read the whole of Puss in Boots out to the class earlierVVPM moment