Orange

ORANGE LEVEL

At Orange level, stories are longer with up to 250-300 words, and there may be an increased use of dialogue to encourage reading with expression. There is an increased proportion of space allocated to print rather than pictures however the illustrations support the overall meaning of the text. Orange Level books introduce some more complex sentences -use of ‘if’, ‘so’ and ‘because’- and include italics to show emphasis. Slightly more literary language is used. Children are increasingly encouraged to infer meaning from the text in order to gain full enjoyment from the story. Non-fiction texts contain more formal sentences and a widening range of unfamiliar terms.

How to support your child reading Orange level books

Your child is now beginning to read with more independence. They should be feeling more confident and will rarely need to sound out words. You can help them by:

• Listening to them when they read aloud. If they make mistakes, but they keep the sense of the text, don’t interrupt. You can revisit that page at the end of the session to check certain words.
• Reminding them of useful strategies if they can’t read a word, for example:
  1. Sounding the word out silently, under their breath
  2. Dividing a longer word into syllables, or looking at the word without an –ing or an –ed ending
• Don’t allow them to worry about a word. Tell them what it says and revisit the word once you have completed the book.
• Encouraging some use of expression, especially for character-speech in fiction books. You may wish to model reading some pages aloud for your child to copy.
• Talking about how characters are feeling.