Like UM, I said little when my then-7yo opted to pick up Bleak House and Great Expectations. She didn't finish either one until she was more like 12yo.
This.
If material is too hard, the intrinsically motivated child just won't read it all. Does this mean that the child shouldn't be allowed to bump up against the ceiling of his/her ability? I'd say no. That's where learning occurs (and interest is piqued)!
I think this is more about interest. Great Expectations can be a very boring book to many adults. The story isn't necessary of interest to a 7 year old. The story is convoluted with multiple plots lines, and characters. It is not a book I would think a 7 year old would be interested in. It's one of the reason I found non fiction the best way at that age to challenge the reading ability, while keeping the subject interesting.
Oh, that's
definitely not the case for my daughter (or for me, either at that age)-- I
loved language. Loved prose, loved poetry... just... loved WORDS, and I loved the narrative and dialogue, too. Great Expectations is a
deliciously complex story.
DD found the
story very engaging. It was Dickens' writing that she wasn't prepared for at the time. Definitely. She was
smitten with the story itself. She
loves (and always has, evidently) the multiple-narrative device in fiction. She
did polish off a 'juvenile' version of the book intended for middle school audiences just fine-- but then wasn't that interestedin slogging through the original after she knew the story, see.
She could have cared less about most non-fiction then. She liked sci-fi and fantasy (Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising, L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time series, etc), and to a lesser extent, contemporary realistic fiction. Thrillers and horror came slightly later. Biography,
some was interesting enough to her-- but not all.
So I'd say "if you've seen one young consumer of literature, you've seen one." I do
not believe that all elementary students respond well to a diet heavy in non-fiction. Some do, of course-- but there are many who don't, too, because it isn't that interesting to them personally. I think that CCSS makes this error in the early grades, quite honestly.
She has
never had a problem reading whatever interested her. Period. Now, I recognize that she isn't most kids, but I cringe to think that she might have been
restricted from reading as she liked by some well-intended but (frankly) ignorant teacher or school staffer. Luckily we've been blessed with city librarians that have always been ready, willing, and happy to help her find what she was after. Regardless of her age.
