Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Mostly Just a Vent - Reading Assessment

I use Scholastic's Book Wizard, for the most part.

There's no "The" on your copy?

I confess that I looked it up on the Book Wizard. I'd never have figured it out otherwise. But DH just got home and I explained the guessing game we were playing. He knows nothing at all about reading levels, but I told him you & your DD were reading it and BAM--he guessed it. We just spent the last five minutes repeating the following:

Me: You looked at the computer screen!
DH: No, I just guessed it.
Me: How could you possibly guess it??? You must have looked!
DH: No, I just guessed it.

He's got some serious splinter skills, that guy.

Meatloaf & carrots?

LOL. I'm glad to hear it.

Thanks for the info on the book levels - I am def. going to start checking out some levels.

DS's teacher to me today: "He reads so incredibly fast, does he actually comprehend what he reads?"
Me: "well, when I ask him about the books, he seems to, but I am not completely sure, I think it depends on the book, he reads everything from Hardy Boys to adult non-fiction."
Teacher: "I think I need to get more books in the classroom"

Thank heavens for teachers who get it.

Glad to hear the teacher is getting it, wish more would react that way! That being said, what is it with this reading but not comprehending question. DS pre-k teacher asked the same thing. Can you actually "read" if you don't understand it? I guess with yours maybe the teacher was asking if he was sacrificing speed for understanding? I am probably just being pissy but it just strikes me as such a stupid question because I don't get what they think he is doing -don't people read at the speed they can comprehend -is it possible to read faster than comprehension!?

A bit of a head scratcher!

DeHe

Well, in our DS's case, he really does whip through books quickly. I am a super fast reader (I still remember being accused by a public librarian of cheating during a summer reading program when I was a child because she didn't believe that I could have read "that much in just a week" and am thus super sensitive to this issue), but even I wonder about my DS. This is in part because I know DS tends to skip around when he is reading, and often reads the ends of books first, so I sometimes am not sure he has actually gone back and read the beginning.

I am not 100% sure what is meant by comprehension in this context either - does it mean understanding the story, or understanding the vocabulary? My DS often understands what he is reading, but there are often vocabulary words he doesn't get (he has been reading non-fiction about the American Revolution). We work hard to teach him to ask about words he doesn't know, but the reality is, when he is in the middle of something, he doesn't really want to stop and find us to ask or look up the word in the dictionary.

That's where having a Kindle is AWESOME! My kids don't have one but DC loves to use mine. When there is a word in a story that they don't know, you click on the word and the definition pops up without losing your place in the story or even having to stop!

I swear, I couldn't live without my kindle. I can't go back to reg. books though either It's awesome!

exactly I completely get the not wanting to stop and ask! And I am one of those fast readers too - classmates always wanted to time me - sigh. You might want to get him one of those dictionary pens - it scans the word and defines it super quickly - some are expensive but might be worth it. But I skip words and whole sections to this day, with no loss of comprehension, just detail. I don't know if I consider that a bad habit but I am able to judge when I can do it and when I can't. My issue with the teachers is how they assume he is just scanning the pages - from DS perspective, what is the point of it - you read for knowledge - even if he is going to the end first or whatever - he still needs to comprehend something to know what happened. If you are worried about him skipping you could always ask him, what did you think when this happened, do you think it was key to the end - some minor point early on and then if he did skip you could say something about reading the whole thing not just the ending.

With DS 4.5, he likes to be read things where he knows there will be a lot of words he might not know, like his science stuff. And then he always goes back and teaches it to himself. Our problem is that he will try to match words he doesn't know with words he does -although he doesn't sound out. So if he is doing it in his head, and we can't correct him, he must make some funny meanings! Although his vocabulary is getting so enormous, its happening less and less. Yesterday on the way home from pre-k we chatted about our superheros - and he mumbled something which is what he does when he is trying a new word - so I asked - did you say my invisibility shield or my invulnerability shield - invulnerability - and he used it correctly in his story so it wasn't me feeding it to him!!!

DeHe

I think I need to get one! Are most recent releases available now? I'm going to have to research and figure out Kindle, Nook, I-Pad etc. I'm kind of clueless about them.