Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy What is normal reading for entering 1st grade?

I am interested to see any milestone chart or anecdotes folks have on what is normal reading (normal for nd kids for entering first grade.
We are anticipating a reading assessment for dd5 in august before going into 1st grade, and I think she is in good shape for it, partly because I am having her flex her reading muscles every night, but I just wanted to understand a bit more clearly.
The principal at the school said she'd struggle based on her identification of letter names which was a bit off perfect when they saw her in February. I asked if the first graders were going into first reading books with one line on a page or chapter books and she said 'both'. She said that a lot of people hold their kids back around here (big surprise there) so dd might really feel out of place.

It is normal for children to learn how to read in 1st grade, and a school which thinks incoming 1st graders should already know how to read is trying to push its job onto parents.

Googling "what grade children learn read", the first link
http://www.pbs.org/parents/goingtoschool/what_1.html says

"First grade is traditionally thought of as the level where children learn to read. Not all children become fluent readers by the end of the first grade, but most take their first solid steps toward fluid reading. Their reading material varies from simple rhymes, to classroom news, to patterned stories and beginner non-fiction books. By the end of the year, most are reading grade-level chapter books and some are reading at even more advanced levels. First graders love true stories of long ago, even though their sense of time isn�t well developed. Some good historical books include The Man Who Walked Between Two Towers by Mordicai Gerstein, My Brother Martin by Christine King, and The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles.

First-grade teachers help children listen for sounds in words, write the sounds they hear, and discover parts of written language, like the �at in cat that they can then use to figure out the words hat, mat, and sat.

Writing, like reading, takes a variety of forms in the first-grade classroom. Children "invent" their spellings as they work out their understandings of written language. Writing activities include journal writing, writing creative stories, or documenting their work in other subject areas. Teachers frequently ask children to sound out the words they write to introduce the sounds that letters make."

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Our eldest son, who is gifted, was reading fluently before age 4, our 2nd son, who will enter 1st grade this fall, has learned how to read over the last year, and our daughter will likely be reading before entering 1st grade. Her mother will see to that. But I think a normal kid who knows the alphabet but cannot read should not be discouraged from entering 1st grade at age 6. Schools may be more interested in pumping up standardized test scores by enrolling older students than it doing what is best for the children.

My quirky DD (I hesitate to call her normal) entered first grade knowing sight words and reading short sentences, etc. By the end of first grade, she was reading short chapter books like Henry & Mudge. I was concerned because she seemed so behind compared to DD#1, but it turned out that she was actually a little above average.

my dd7 entered first grade reading short chapter books. My dd5 is entering kinder reading.. just not at the level they wanted for him to skip kinder.

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The principal at the school said she'd struggle based on her identification of letter names which was a bit off perfect when they saw her in February.

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I remember that my dd's 3's preschool teacher told me that she could not read (despite the fact that she was reading since 2) because she did not know her letter sounds. I was a bit surprised and asked which letters she did not know and was told she "failed" C and U. When she got home I asked her what sound the letter C made and she said - well - that is what my teacher asked me but that is a hard one... C can say "cuh" like in cut, or "ssss" like in circus - I did not know what the right answer was - as you can imagine, it was similar with "U" ..."up" versus "unicorn" - yup- did not know her letter sounds.

Master of none - "not allowed to go above letter J in kindy" HA! Sad but funny - might be damaging!

As far as learning to read - I think that there are some regional/town differences. It seemed that about 25% of the pre-school 4's class was reading last year (basic stuff - bob type books) - but that could just be because I was noticing the readers.

I had to laugh when I read your post, mom123, about the c and u sounds. My son also "failed" the ch sound when in K. He said it sounded like sh, ie. Chicago, charlatan, chiffon, etc. His 1st grade teacher understood him much better. I'm sure your daughter will be fine. My son's first grade class had a HUGE difference in reading levels among students. By the end of the year everyone was reading.

Oh, to be clear, we are trying to skip K, sort of, she will still be 5. And she is reading short sentences, I have just shied away from pushing her, but since it seems to be the only thing that might keep her from feeling comfortable in 1st, I am encouraging more work on her part than just 'let it come as may be'. Maybe 5 minutes a night (horrible pushy me).

She is enjoying it however, so it feels like it is the right time.
Thanks for the input, all, I will look at the dolce list and milestone chart.

You also have to take into account where you live. If you live in an affluent district, most children are going to be entering first grade reading at a higher level than in a poorer district.
I'd say that we live in a district with a great mix of family income levels and that the average student in dd's class is reading B or C level books according to Fountas and Pinnell.

I agree daytripper, we are definitely in a 'competitive' or perhaps 'aggressive' district as far as all that goes.

My concern about going into first without very solid footing is that the time frame under which she will be assessed and ok'd to continue in 1st is pretty tight -- 6 weeks.
We will have no encouragement from the school as far as I can tell, and worst case they might be down right discouraging.

Chris, We are not hot housing (I dont think) reading. BUT We do have ds5 read a book every night and have reviewed the sight words for preschool and first grade (somehow when I made our flash cards I did them for first instead of kinder). I also read to both my kids every other night or when ever they ask.

That actually depends on your school. There can be huge differences even within a district. You realy need to find out the norm for your school and perhaps even for the class into which your DD is going. I was privy to some surprising information when DS and DD were in K. Eight percent of the K classes in the school where DS/DD are enrolled were held back and repeated K. I was told that had these children been at a few of the other schools within our district a few of them would have been proceeded to first grade. Rising first graders need to have mastered basic phonics (letter and letter sounds) as many K/1st/2nd tests required competency in phonics. They also need basic sight words (probably 100 or so). If they have the basic phonics and basic sight words, then they would be able to read basic sentences going into first grade.

There are huge variations in reading levels for K/1st/2nd grades, which appears beyond just differences in intellegience levels. By early first grade, DS could read Harry Potter but DD was more at the level of Magic Treehouse. Both were in the "advanced" class (about top 20% of entering 1st graders) and there were definitely kids at DD's level although I can't say for sure beyond that.

If your DD is reading basic sentences, she should be okay at most schools, just likely not near the top for many schools as far as reading level (not talking about intelligence). However, also keep in mind that high ability kids often don't develop in the same way as typical kids either. I don't think either DS or DD were reading prior to entering K although DS was able to read kiddie "pseudo-chapter" books (Maurice Sendak's Litle Bear) early in K when I decided to check his reading ability.

Keep in mind too that some of the "standards" floating in cyberspace may be out of date. I do know that the expectations have changed greatly in the last five to ten years for our district. It is due to having kids start school later and all the emphasis on standardized testing, etc.

Our public school district is considered very, very good, top 5-10% of California. They don't push reading heavily in kindergarten but do in first grade.
Out here, at the start of first grade, 50% of the kids can't read much (although they have excellent pre-reading skills like phonics, etc), 50% can read. However, the non-readers quickly get up to speed and are reading by the first few months of first grade. And they take off afterwards.
1/3 of the second graders in our school read either 400 books or chapters in books at or above grade level in 4 months, in the school reading contest.
Magic Tree House is a great series and it's labelled as third grade level.
I think reading for kids really blasts off around second grade.