Thank you! That clarifies things enormously.

DS is all over the place with his skills since he is largely self-taught, and that makes it hard to figure out the "right spot" for him. His teacher assessed him at 1st grade level (10 DRA) in reading because even though he can read anything, he can't (or won't) do an acceptable "retelling" of the 1st grade leveled reader. He absolutely can't (or won't) find any "personal connections" to the 1st grade leveled textbook. Its so frustrating!