Oxford Levels: How to support your 7–11-year-old’s reading development

Hello! I’m Catherine Baker, and I’m an editor and consultant. For over twenty years I’ve been thinking about how to make books that will really help children learn how to read.

In this video and blog post, I’ll talk about how using levelled reading books all the way through Primary school can help your child. You’ll find some recommended levelled readers, ideal for 7–11-year-olds at the end of the blog post.

Why use levelled reading books?

Levelled reading books are specially designed to increase children’s reading skills and experience in gradual, supportive steps. At the very beginning of learning to read, it’s pretty clear how levelled reading books help. But what about when children have learnt the basics? They can read – but do they really have the full range of reading skills they need, for all the learning they’ll be doing throughout Primary and Secondary school and beyond?

Older children need to be able to think, talk about and learn from what they read. Carefully levelled books – using a system like Oxford Levels – can help coax these skills out.

Challenging and supporting young readers

The challenge is there, because levelled reading books are written to gently stretch children’s reading skills. The team at Oxford thinks hard about language choices, so that both vocabulary and sentence structures gradually become more complex. It also means focusing on the conceptual challenge – as children develop as readers, they can cope with increasingly complex plots, ideas and story structures.

The gradual increase in complexity is very supportive too, because it gives children the chance to think about what they’re learning as they read – so their comprehension skills and enjoyment of reading both improve. They’re less likely to get stuck and end up feeling frustrated. It also helps that, compared with children’s novels you might get from the library or bookshop, levelled reading books tend to be shorter and more manageable. They pack a lot of reading value into quite a small space – which is really rewarding for children who might not have huge reading stamina yet.

How to help at home

Of course, any reading that children choose to do is valuable, but sometimes children get stuck on a really long, hard book that’s just too difficult – or they lose confidence and get equally stuck on a series or author that’s not really challenging them at all. When children get stuck in either of those ways, it’s harder for them to learn from their reading – or enjoy it. If your child seems a bit stuck with their reading, have a look at the Oxford Levels guidance on Oxford Owl to pinpoint the right level for them. You can then find a selection of books at that level in the free eBook library.

When your child’s reading books at the right level – books that can both challenge and support them – they will learn more. They’re not just reading, but understanding – and ultimately that means they’re more likely to enjoy reading, and get better at it!

More from Oxford Owl

• Reading: What your child will learn at school, and how to help at home Age 7–8 | Age 8–9 | Age 9–10 | Age 10–11
• Reading schemes, Levels and Stages A guide to Oxford Levels 1–20
• Comprehension: What’s taught at school and how to help at home
• The Key Stage 2 SATs reading test How to help your child prepare

Levelled readers for Key Stage 2 (age 7–11)

Each of these books have inside cover notes to help children explore the content, further supporting their reading development. All book links go to Amazon.co.uk.