Something to keep in mind about reading lower level books- I love reading, anything & everything, I read non-fiction, fiction, biographies, autobiographies, Atlas's, dictionaries, encyclopedias, magazines, etc. Many of the fiction books I'm reading right now I've rediscovered as I'm previewing them to be sure the content is suitable for GS9. They're on many jr. high/high school reading lists, so I don't think they're at my 'reading level', but quick reads can be very enjoyable if the subject is interesting.
I know GS9 would sometimes read 2-3 Magic Treehouse books a day this past year just to bump up his total AR points.
Reading books at different levels builds different areas in reading ability. GS9 has loved reading very low level books to his younger cousins. He's learned to read expressively and learned to give others pleasure by reading to them.
I really don't make a big deal about what level GS9 is reading, unless he gets lazy and only picks books at a level below his ability just to rack up AR points. He realized this past year that he had the highest reading level in his class when they assessed their reading levels for AR. It went to his head, briefly, but then he just accepted eveyone had different levels.
eta: I noticed when GS9 would take a break from harder books, and read easier books for a week or two, he'd take a big jump in reading ability when he went back to the harder books. It seemed he'd take a bigger jump than if he'd just stuck out reading a book that was stretching his ability at the time.
Last edited by OHGrandma; 07/29/08 05:38 AM. Reason: more info
