Well, I guess there ARE things like AR. Reading comprehrension quizzes on out of level books. It may be what we ask for for DS5. But really--it's pretty limited, and those questions are often so surface-level, and...wrong, even, a lot of the time. I have some Hate for that stuff.
I'd like it if my boy could talk about themes and ideas in his beloved chapter books with other kids. With a teacher who was great at leading discussion. That would be cool, and he's more than capable of it. But it wouldn't produce written PRODUCT. The horror.
I saw my DD producing some pretty good short answers in response to pretty good questions about books she read in her magnet last year. I mean, it wasn't AMAZING, but it was decent. The books were 5th grade level or thereabouts (she was in third). Questions might be something like, "Why do you think X character did Y, even though it might have seemed to make sense to do Z?" or "What do you think was the hardest challenge X character faced?" That was okay for me, in terms of 3rd grade reading instruction for bright kids. But DD is a great writer and did beautifully with this. For kids who are more asynchronous with comprehension/production, it would be a poor fit. And obviously, DS5 is nowhere near able to do this yet. DD was ready for this in 2nd, but she is really capable with writing.
