Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion How rare

Not wanting to wander too far OT here, but since I was the poster who questioned DWK as a 5th grade reading level because most of the kids my kids went to school with read it much earlier, I just thought it might be worth noting my kids were attending a school which let kids choose whatever books they wanted to read and never tested or compared or drew lists from lexile levels past the point kids were reading anything on the level of very very early chapter books... so basically we had a "free-range" library and classrooms. I'm sure the students read DWK before choosing Warriors simply because of the cover, humor, and large font.

Re early reading and rare, I still think it would be helpful to know what the principal's interpretation of "rare" is - is it one or two kids per grade or 1 kid in 10 years. As others have posted above, general reading levels can vary a lot depending on the area you live in or school district emphasis/philosophy etc re pushing early reading... and there is a huge variability among when children learn to read, as well as a lot of "leaps and bounds" type progress among early readers of all abilities. It's jmo, but where we're at, I don't think finding a first grader who is reading DWK would be "rare" - it would be advanced relative to most of the kids in their first grade class, but I'm guessing that there would be at least 2-3 kids in each class my kids have been in who could read it. There were also at least 2-3 kids in their K-1 classes who seemed to be on the low end of the learning-to-read curve who were sensational way-ahead-of-grade-level readers by the time they hit 3rd grade.

polarbear

My verbally gifted twice-exceptional son could read his Alice in Wonderland script (5th grade level) before he turned 5 and started kindergarten but there were spaces between the lines on his script so it made it easier for him to read. It was the same with song lyrics. If he read anything with small print he would only read a sentence or two and his eyes would be too tired to continue but I could spell out the words in the next few sentences and he could name the words. When he had just turned 7 he read a paragraph from a Newsweek magazine for the developmental optometrist but he lost his place when he didn't keep his finger underneath the words. Vision therapy helped. His early reading ability was rare where I live. His comprehension was always very good and he picked up new vocabulary easily and liked to use it in his speech. I talked to several teachers and they had never seen another kid like him. We were told by the principal and some teachers that I asked for advice that we needed to homeschool him.

When my son was five and in kindergarten he had to bring something once a week for "letter of the week" show and tell. Since he was reading at a 5th grade level and I thought he needed to be doing more than letter of the week, I had him read a one-page report with his show & tell. We worked on the report together. He would dictate what he wanted to say and I typed it so that he could read it--it had to be double-spaced. I always checked the Flesch-Kincaid level after I typed it. The report he read when he brought his GPS for show and tell was about 12th grade level but he forgot two of the words when he read it to the class. I saw the report on the teacher's desk with the two words circled. I don't remember what they were but they were big words.

He was very interested in the things he chose to bring for show and tell so it makes sense that he wouldn't have any trouble reading his reports.

Fwiw she's a kindergartner... until tomorrow that is. Than she will be officially on her way to 1st grade. *sniff*

For our area I wouldn't personally consider it 'rare' as the principal suggested. In fact, that's why I had to ask here b/c to me it doesn't seem rare. Especially considering our school has self-contained gifted classes for the district starting in 2nd grade.

I merely presented it to the principal's attention to point out the differences between my two dd's who have had the same reading instruction and attention from me and are at two completely different trajectories and take this into consideration when looking at my older dd's dyslexia and her lack/rate of growth in reading.

Amazon lists DOAWK for ages seven and up. School Library Journal calls it "grades 5-8". Personally, my experience skews somewhere in the middle. Most of the kids I know who read it did so around 3rd-4th grade. Neither of my kids were into them; ds was more of a classic sci fi fan, and dd...well...her taste is kind of odd. She's the one who was reading Sylvia Plath in elementary school. (I blame her older sister.)

This.
We have friends who are fellow homeschoolers whose son was an extremely late reader: he really didn't "click" until around fourth grade. Three years later, he's reading as well as my son, who was your typically-aged early reader and progressed at a pretty standard pace, and my daughter, who read early and promiscuously (everything from Franny K. Stein and Frances the Badger to Sylvia Plath and Sharyn McCrumb).

For another piece of anecdata about rarity of higher-level reading at that age:

When my child was in K at a school for gifted kids, he and one other child were the only ones that I knew of who were reading books like Harry Potter. Most kids were either not reading or were reading at the Magic-Treehouse level.

For some reason, OP, I was thinking "6" = first. (Don't ask me why sicne I know most K kids end as 6yos).

For K, yeah, it's pretty rare to be able to read a real chapter book of any kind. DD was reading easy chapter books in K (mostly things like Puppy PLace and Rainbow Fairies, though she also delved into things like Judy Moody and Ramona; she was not at a Harry Potter level) and that was pretty unusual at her school and in our peer group. By first, though, a few kids were reading chapter books.

This is a great idea.

When Mr was in school he had to do the letter of the week thing as well. He would write a sentence or two on the paper as well as do the "craft" thing. The "craft" thing would get pretty elaborate with the various pictures conveying a short story. When I saw the other older kids' papers they would have the letter and one figure and nothing else.