What an interesting shift in perspective!
Both seeing this teacher erect her walls, pushing back at the parent and making judgements about her without actually having tested the child or bothered to check the level for HP on a website...but also understanding that she does need control over what the children are reading and learning.
I understand that she feels uncomfortable letting a kid read HP for guided reading before she knows him a little better, because it will not be appropriate for every kid. but she seems to go into this with a very fixed mindset that she does not even want to find out that it might be.
I'd imagine this is extremely common among teachers, particularly in elementary school. What would be the right strategy for the parent I wonder? (Assuming the kid is actually perfectly ready and HP is a great choice for the kid to do the extension activities with the curriculum demands, which may or may not be the case....
Hey, I'm from a school system that starts out first grade teaching the alphabet. I'd probably have wept with joy if I had been allowed to do extension activities with anything resembling an actual book...
