Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion CRAZY good reader...never reads...???

Hi,
My dd, 9 (almost 10) used to love to read. She began reading at two and was reading chapter books at 4. She loved reading...She read all The American Girls Books in first Grade and the Harry Potter Books in second...I would have to tell her to stop at night.

At the end of third grade she scored a 79 on her DRP and at the beginning of 4th, she scored an 81....That indicates that she can read and comprehend beyond a highschool level.

She has not enjoyed reading at ALL since finishing the Harry Potter Series and entering public school. She will. She will read and she will read the bare minimum requirement for school. She has a hard time finding books she likes even after many suggestions from friends.

She has landed on "The Cat Who" Series by Lillian Jackson Braun.....but she is reading them so slowly. Like one a month.

So, they told all the kids their DRP numbers and then traslated them to Lexile numbers during library. She was told she was a 1210 Lexile. Now, she is supposed to pick books that are withing 100 points of her Lixile.

I think that the teacher wouldn't even notice if she were 400 points below it, but she believes that she has to choose these high level books. I think that maybe, the pressure of having to read at such a high level and being told that she is so far above grade level has turned her off completely to reading. The whole thing with keeping logs of books she is reading and HAVING to read 20 minutes a day has totally taken the joy out of it.

I EVEN ignore the reading log...I sign it every week without checking what she read. I told her that I know she reads enough on her own and enjoys it enought that I'm not going to make her do the log and to just put the book she is reading on it with a 20 minutes next to it for every day and I would sign it...

BUT lately, I have to ASK her to read the book before I sign it BECUZ she can't write "The Cat Who" on her log for the rest of the year and she hasn't actually been reading it....Ugh..

So, how does a kid who reads sooooo high, decide they don't like reading....?

A little about her....she is a writer...perfect scores on state tests in writing...perfect prompts and good spelling...

This year she has been interested in Math and started Math Olympiads. Mayby she is just shifting her interests...but really, she hasn't been even ramotely interested in a book in a year and a half...or TWO! *except this book called "dreams" that teaches you how to interpret dreams..

Anyway, anyone else have a way above grade level reading kid who doesn't enjoy reading?

Thank you

I'm sure you'll get some great replies from others who know a lot more about such things. I just wanted to say that I think you've probably solved the mystery...the combination of shifting interests and simply not finding books she enjoyes right now in her "required" lexile. My DD(now 22) was a very strong reader (although not as strong as your daughter)and went through a similar "phase" in upper elementary school. I was alarmed when she announced to me one day "I just really don't get the point of reading. I would never do it for enjoyment." What!?!? I couldn't believe it and immediately set out to change her outlook. It took a while...but by high school she once again decided she enjoyed reading. She graduated from college in May with a 4.0 in her major...English...and is currently in graduate school at the University of Oxford writing a dissertation on the writings of Jane Austen! Clearly, she worked through the issues and is an avid reader...both for pleasure and for school. Good luck...I know you can work through this with your daughter, too.

Totally opinion here. I would not bother with finding material to match the Lexile score - we never had success finding interesting/appropriate reading material for a strong reader at that age, and in our case it was a voracious rather than reluctant reader. And about the interest in reading, beyond making sure there is not a vision problem or other impairment interfering with reading, I would (try to) not stress out about it. The ability will still be there when she needs/wants it.

I would, however, try to work with your daughter to find a way to comply with the reading log requirement in a meaningful way. Does she have other interests she could pursue through reading? For example, if she is interested in math, she might enjoy the Murderous Maths series - math humor plus engaging, substantive content. Or maybe audiobooks instead of reading? That might be a strategy to get her hooked on a series so she wants to read more....

BadMom would totally lie on the reading log. I've got a voracious reader who goes through stages where she doesn't feel like reading. Or she feels like reading a particular *cough*PercyJackson*cough* book for the umpteenth time, picking out just her favorite parts. Or she feels like listening to a particular *cough*PercyJackson*cough* audiobook for the umpteenth time, picking out just her favorite parts.

I am not the Homework Police, and IMHO there's nothing that kills reading for pleasure like being forced to read it's not pleasurable. If the spirit of the reading requirement is to ensure basic literacy and establish a habit of reading for pleasure, and if my kid is literate and reads for pleasure when it's pleasurable, the spirit of the requirement's been met, and I consider the homework to be done.

BadMom has a bad attitude towards school. OTOH, I don't send in a sheet for the teacher to sign and send back weekly, saying that she actually explained fractions so the kids understand them, rather than teaching everything by rote. Or that she made sure my kid had ever heard her assigned spelling words spoken aloud, so when the other kid who gives them to her at test time totally mangles the pronunciation, my kid doesn't think, "oh, maybe I've been studying it wrong, and it's really pronounced that way, so I should spell it 'revelance,' not 'relevance.'" So they could be getting worse!

Talk to the teacher about that Lexile 100 point thing. She obviously can read well, see if they will just let her pick books that interest her due to the lack of interest. Also try non-fiction, whatever her passion is see if she will read books about that even if it's underwater basket weaving. Classics might be another option, like the real fairy tales or Shakespeare? It could just be that the way books are being written these days is boring to her. Have her do NaNoWriMo and write her own book...?

There's so much to be picked up from reading well written books, from vocab to writing style, that it's worth worrying about how to make it more enjoyable.

My personal love of reading I think has much to do with my mother's attitude, which was, "oh, you're reading, I won't bother you with X". Reading (any book) was seen as next to holy and too valuable to interupt with mundane things like room cleaning, bedtime, etc. Longterm, if you limit TV/computer type alternatives and make it somehow extra attractive to read, then reading might gradually come to represent more of an escape than it does now.

Shorter term with the difference between her interests/age and her reading level, it really is that tough to find fun and interesting books. Beyond spending lots of time at excellent libraries searching, not much to suggest. As she gets older she will add genres.

Polly

I don't know how helpful this is, but my husband is a brilliant, literate person who doesn't read very much. If he does, it's mostly reference books, like field guides. He does read the New Yorker and the New York Times, but I would estimate he reads maybe 2 fiction and 3 nonfiction books a year, and that's generous.

He read as a child, but not nearly as avidly as I did. He still scored extremely high on the verbal portions of his SAT and GRE, and he's a great writer. It just doesn't seem to be what excites him. He is musical, visual, and tactile in his hobbies.

FWIW, he reads rather slowly, at least by my estimation. He complains about it. I don't think there is any kind of LD involved, though.

My ds8 is a good reader - the last time he was tested above level was in 1st grade - she tested him up to 5th grade reading and comprehension (but didn't go any further). He drives me crazy with his not reading ! He reads alot at school - from what I hear, he reads every chance he gets. He'll even stay in and read at recess. He can read any level he likes, apparently. At home, it's a different story - the only book he'll read is the one they're currently reading in his 4th grade reading group - they have to read so much of it before they meet. Once that's read - nothing. Now - if I suggest that we read a book together, he's perfectly willing to do that - but just doesn't enjoy reading for pleasure by himself. I hope he grows out of it - I always loved to read as a child, and still do.

There are unlikely to be tons of books in a school library at the 1200 lexile level that are going to be really interesting to a pre-teen. I'd write and let the teacher know that your DD is not finding interesting or enjoyable books at her required level, and ask the teacher for a list of suggested books and let the light dawn spontaneously about perhaps needing to explicitly change that instruction.

Until then, I'd look for collections of short stories so that the 20 minutes of reading at her lexile level actually gets her somewhere. Andrew Lang's collections of fairy stories might appeal, and "The Blue Fairy Book", at least, is at the "right" lexile level.

My son is almost 9 and is a very good reader. His lexile range is 1250-1375. Last year when he was supposed to be reading in his range, it was nearly impossible to find anything that was interesting AND age appropriate. There were lots of choices that were one or the other, but not both.

He would also prefer to read graphic novels or light hearted funny books that are well, well below his appropriate reading level. We homeschool now, so I just let him. I figure that reading a little Wimpy Kid, Dragonbreath or Bone isn't going to destroy his abilities any more than me forcing him to read Mark Twain at 8 will!

If you need to find things, try the Scholastic Book Wizard and set it to lexile level. You can put in a book she liked and have it "find similar". http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/