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

DD9 brought home her beginning of the year reading assessment with a grade level placement of 5th grade (insert massive rolling of the eyes here). This is the same child that 2 years ago scored in the 99.6th percentile in reading comprehension on the WIAT (comparable to how a 10th grader would score) and last year scored as a 9th grader on the school's STAR reading assessment. The same child who is going to the CTY awards ceremony this weekend because of her score on the SCAT verbal section. From dd's description of the assessment, I doubt her teacher even tested anyone past the 5th grade level.

Okay, I know I should just take a deep breath and let it go, but her teacher is going to use this score to determine what dd is allowed to read in class. In her experience children do best when they don't read books that are "too hard" for them. They need to read lots of books "at their level" in order to progress to the next level.

To read this teacher's communications, not one child in the class is an eager reader. We parents need to give our kids pep talks about how much fun reading can be! Reading is important! If we work on encouraging our kids to read this year they might (gasp!) choose to read on their own next summer.

I haven't mentioned to her teacher yet that we use grounding from reading as a consequence in our house. I'm sure she'd be appalled.

Okay, vent over. I did email dd's teacher her previous test scores, noting that since this was an "informal assessment" (her words) she might like some additional information to help dd choose books in class. Keeping my fingers crossed for a good outcome.

I have to laugh... we do the same thing here... threaten to take away reading because that is the only thing that DC does all the time. How many people have to do that?! HAHA!

We had this issue last yr. Said DC read X words per min. (well, DC said, there was only that many words to the assessment.) It never stopped DC from reading the normal choice books. The teacher realized it. We got those generalized notes home too about reading. I just took them to mean they didn't apply to our situation

Granted my dd is older so the schools are no longer involved in selecting what she reads for free reading, but dd12 came home with a similarly ridiculous reading assessment. Her middle school is using a measure called "acuity" - an online test of sorts. The questions for her grade (8th) were comprised of 7th grade reading comprehension and 8th grade reading comprehension in order to see whether they had retained the info from the year prior and what they would need to learn from this year's curriculum

I know that dd wasn't the only child to get a "100th percentile" score. (eta: we're well aware that the 100th percentile doesn't exist.) She didn't miss any of the questions. Like your dd, this is a kiddo who, two years ago, tested at around 1500 on the lexile test the school gave, who scored better than the avg high school student on the critical reading and writing part of the SAT last year, and whose reading scores on tests like MAPS were well beyond 8th grade by 2nd - 3rd grade.

Not only for my dd, but apparently for a lot of the kids in the accelerated classes, these tests are meaningless. I don't imagine that they can measure growth when the kid didn't miss any of the questions on the pretest measure, if we want to consider it that.

Good luck in your situation. I hope that they don't serve as gate keepers regarding what she can or cannot read!

I bet the 5th grade level has a lot more to do with how reading groups are being broken up. If there are other kids in the class who top out at 5th grade, then the teacher has a nice little clump of compatible readers. I agree that it is irritating.

I think we could start a club about disallowing reading. I have removed all the books from the house before. Recently, I have only done this in the car if dd won't stop reading long enough to get out of the car when we get home. I expect her to carry in her stuff and help with shopping bags. Giving her a minute to finish a page is one thing, but ignoring me is another. When its a problem, all the books go in the trunk for a few days. Nothing is worse than riding in the car with no book. I am SO strict!

Just had to say thanks - I thought I was the only kid whose parents used books as a carrot for good behavior. By the age of 10, I was reading Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour novels like they were candy, and my mom used to take the books away until I had my chores and homework finished.

If I tried to use "you can't read" with my son, he'd laugh until his stomach hurt.

I'm going to guess Steinbeck or Hemingway.

My mind boggles at the thought of removing all the books from my house. That thought alone has kept several members of my family from considering moving, at times.

We've removed all the books from dd's room before, when she's been grounded from reading. Thing is, if we're serious about it, we have to go over it with a fine tooth comb--she hides them everywhere. Under the mattress, behind the dresser, in the drawers, under the stuffed animals...and that's just in her room. She also hides them under the bath mat in her bathroom. And we wonder why she's in there for an hour at a time.

To answer a previous poster's question, she reads anything and everything, but she's especially into the Hunger Games trilogy and similar dystopia-type books right now. I made the mistake of giving her the Giver before bed one night and she couldn't sleep until we'd had a chance to discuss how unfair that society was. She's big into issues of justice, fairness, etc. She did a great book report on Witch of Blackbird Pond last year and every time she'd mention Kit being accused of witchcraft, she'd add "which is TOTALLY RIDICULOUS!" as an aside.

Is there a website or can someone fill me in on the various reading levels. Our district just moved to the DRA, which is apparently letters. I am amazed at how easy the books seem. But worse, they aren't even good writing or literature. How do you figure out these different systems.

Cat

Does it start with a "T" and end in an "E"?

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.

YEP! My DH just bought one of the new ones. He has been reading non-stop and he's not a huge reader. Change that, didn't used to be

They are addicting! DH did the specs on them all and that's the one he opted to get me for Xmas (he's a techy). At the time only the sony one was out.

They really are awesome though. I even dropped mine on accident and the screen didn't work right and I called @mazon and they shipped me a new one and I got it in 2 days! It was only a few months old but still.... that was nice! I was honest and told the guy I dropped it. He asked if I dropped it below shoulder ht. and I said yes, from waist level and he sent me one at no charge! I was THRILLED!

The books DL's are so easy, you click to buy and it's there instantly. Can't get any easier. You can also get the first chapter of any book for free before you buy it to see if you like it. Can't beat that!

One other great thing, you can change the font sizes and there is no glare (it's crazy technology, not like looking at a backlit computer screen or cell phone. It's more like an etcha-sketch. THe letters just sort of appear.)

It also always goes right back to the place you left off in the book, which is great. One thing that took getting used to was it doesn't have page numbers because it depends on your font size and what not, but it does give you a percentage completed. It didn't take long to get used to but it used to annoy me. Now, I am fine with the % done.

Okay, enough raving about it, but it just goes to show you, they are really cool

I'm an iPad lover - awesome for books and a computer too! Only downside Is here, can't scroll in the text box, very annoying! But reading on it is awesome and the interactive book apps are fun too.

DeHe

Okay, now I am intrigued - I'm going to start a new thread and see what people love about whatever they have. After all, the holidays are coming up!

Do you really think the teacher would properly assess your child and actually have to teach DD diff curriculum than the rest of the class and have to get some new books etc. If all the kids are assessed around the same level then her/his job is easier. Either that, or teacher too lazy to do proper assessments. And let me guess teacher will defend herself by saying her reading comprehension is not up to par LOL LOL

SOrry to hear this but you are not alone.

Oh my gosh! Why didn't I think of that? Both of my kids are AWFUL in this regard: on a couple of occasions I've come home with one child, gone into the house, prepped dinner and walked out to the car with my other child, only to have child one leap out of the car in alarm and yell, "what!? I'm not going with you too!" not realizing that we've been home for a half hour! I mostly find it irritating in the winter when someone has to put on boots in order to go retrieve a child from the car for dinner

And yet...it sure is hard to stay angry when your kid is "misbehaving" by reading!

I use the iPhone. Took me awhile to think of it, but if you select a word in the textbox and grab the corner of the highlight and pull down it acts like you're scrolling. And I love the preview function on this forum.

I've narrowed down which assessment she probably used--it's most likely for Fountas & Pinnell leveled books, though it could be a DRA test. I have a feeling she must have been following this guideline I've found online for administering assessments:

For DRA:

So happy to know my dd is "making it" and doesn't need instruction.