Thank you, Grinity. Sorry for the delay in reply. I wanted to share all the comments with my wife. We discussed last night.
My wife believes, among other things, our daughter is suffering from lack of practice. Last year, in 1st grade, we had a brief period where her reading comprehension was dropping off. The teacher jumped on it immediately with some practice tools and the problem went away.
This year, the class is more focused on math and my wife believes our daughter has simply gotten sloppy due to a combination of reading too fast, jumping to conclusions and lack of practice.
We have her eyes and ears checked regularly and no problems have been reported.
As to her choosing to read below her level, she shows maturity on many levels (such as interpersonal relations, being polite, considering feelings, et cetera), but she is less mature than her classmates on things like boys, music, activities. She is an only child, we are 50, and there are no children in the neighborhood for her to play with after school. So, other than school, play dates with friends, and weekend activities (gymnastics, swimming, Mandarin language class, Sunday School) she is around adults more than kids during her free time and her development has probably not been as complete as if she would be outside playing in the yard with kids her age.
We are going to follow your recommendation and practice inferences when we go places. That is a great idea. We are also going to follow your recommendation on graphical organizers, as that will probably help.
