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phey,

From my observation, I have realized that the reading grade levels are a bit inflated for elementary. I have no idea about middle or higher grades. For ex: Flat Stanley is a good first grade\second grade level book but Scholastic is showing it as 4.4. May be because a lot of kids do not develop good decoding skills by that age( beginning reading in K), they may not have patience to read it on their own but I bet most of them will understand the book if its read to them.

I would assume that when people say their child is reading at a certain level, they might be looking at these numbers only.

And different kids have different strengths, one kid might be excellent in comprehension ( comprehending 4-5 grades higher) but not a fluent decoder, other might be a fluent decoder (reading complex words) but not comprehending at that level or both. The best way to judge his to observe your child and expose him to appropriate books at his level rather than going by the norms.

I agree with this. I was shocked to see it rated at this grade level. My DS is in first grade and is only on grade level and he can read flat stanley. He finds Falt Stanley "completely inspid" though LOL.

I agree, Flat Stanley is something I would have read in maybe second grade...not 4th. By then I would have found it way way too insipid.

I assume everyone means something different when they post here, "my child reads at x level". For some it is prob a full understanding like howler karma stated...and for some I suspect it is simply they can handle pronouncing the words, and go though a paragraph of such and such book without trouble...though the self drive to read the entire book is not there.

My husband is just finishing reading 5 Levels of Gifted..after I finished it too. What we were trying to decided is how many years above grade level son is to fit it to the tables in that book. But I suspect that what parents reported to author is as diverse as what people report on this forum. I wish these milestones were better defined. Does "began reading" mean first time they notice their first word...or first time they string a whole sentence or even a whole book together?

I guess I am just trying to define all these terms, because I am a stickler for that type of thing:)

Well, I think that probably most of the parents who post here-here mean "reading" the way typical adults use the term. That is, decoding, articulating, and assessing meaning from the use of that written language.

The whole package.

Do most parents in real life use the term that way? My experience suggests not. I have known other parents to consider memorization of baby/board-books to be "reading" and others who considered phonemic awareness to be 'reading' in ways that I didn't think really crossed the threshold into actual literacy. But really, it's not my place to judge either way, so I don't.

I think that it may be hardest to know with whole language readers-- because they aren't using conventional decoding. So what becomes "reading" instead of "recognition of a memorized image?"

I think some of this relates, ultimately, to what a child can do with text in a NOVEL context. That is, can s/he manage to decode/recognize and extract real-world, independent meaning from text that s/he has never seen before? That, at least in my mind, is when true reading begins. This is what children are doing when they recognize the word "stop" (just like the stop-sign) in, say, a newspaper headline, or the instructions for the new toaster.


With emergent literacy, this is why it is often far more useful to evaluate on the basis of native behavior than on 'tested' behavior in artificial conditions. Some kids can memorize a stack of cards with Dolch entries without really 'reading' in any functional sense, and some kids can't memorize any of them, but can sound them all out without knowing what any of them mean... and some kids can read them silently and know what each term signifies.

This is something that leads early educators to be super-skeptical of placing too much emphasis on literacy as a marker of LOG-- because it's something that is so easy to hothouse in the age range 3-6yo. As a sole indication of LOG, I think (personally) that literacy is HIGHLY overrated for this reason. It's too dependent upon environment, IMO.


My DD's functional LOG seems way higher than her age at acquiring literacy (the way I define it) would have indicated. What I think was more significant, judging from ten years past that point-- is the rate of mastery. She went from c-v-c decoding to Harry Potter in way less than six months.

Now, I think a rate of literacy acquisition like that is indicative of high LOG, but far from a necessary condition for high LOG.

So in other words, I think that if you're looking for functional evidence, you don't need to have seen EVERYTHING on a particular checklist-- just any particularly striking thing that resonates firmly.

Mk13, fwiw, not all US schools go by reading levels - I think you just see it mentioned a lot because it's a number, it's something that seems quantifiable, and parents like to try to quantify. Our public elementary school measured reading levels twice each year for K-2 only to be sure that they were aware of children who were struggling or not making good progress, but they usually never tested past grade level and that all worked out ok for our kids. Children were allowed to choose the books they wanted to read, and the classes also always were reading one book together as a class.

phey, I wouldn't put much into what specific reading level your child is at this point - young children develop reading skills at very different rates, and you might find that some of your ds' peers who aren't reading much at all at his age will suddenly be voracious, way ahead of grade level readers in 1-2 years. We were always advised that the best thing we could do to help our kids learn to read was to read *to* them - hearing books read helps young children develop their comprehension. You can also ask them questions about what you read etc. We were still told to read to our children as late as 4th grade as part of their "homework" each night.

FWIW, most of the kids my kids went to school with were able to read Flat Stanley in first grade... I never paid attention to levels on books, but it surprises me that FS would be rated 4th grade? Most of my kids' friends in 4th grade were reading much longer, more complicated chapter books, things like Warriors etc.

polarbear

ps - just saw your note re reading Five Levels of Giftedness... which prompts a question - are you working your way through figuring out school placement, or just trying to get a feeling for where your ds is at? This is jmo, of course, but I'd try to listen to your gut instincts, follow where your child leads, and not place too much worry over where your child lands on the 5 Levels book charts. OTOH, if you think he needs more challenge at school, it's going to help to keep work examples and to try to get testing.

Howler Karma...what is c-v-c decoding....I need help decoding that one
I think I agree with you on the rate being more indicative. For my son, the rate was high--from simple sight word recognition to reading Lorax in a few months. But years later he is still not to independently reading long chapter books...but I think it is more an issue of leaping to the finer print and intimidation of being responsible to read an entire book by himself.

polarbear- I agree that continuing to read to him is important. Not only is it awesome bonding time, but it is a great chance to daily up his understanding of words, and also super fun for me to revisit books from my childhood. We are voracious readers around here--all of us. And we are just trying to figure him out. Not in school yet--just began homeschooling on a more structured basis (if you consider 30 minutes a day structure;). We are simply trying to figure where he is at so we can hopefully plan better for the future by plotting a trajectory. (Like are we going to have to pay for college five years earlier than normal;) ?)

The original flat Stanley books are fairly simple and quite fun. The later ones seem aimed at older kids and a bit pretentious.

Oh and it took me a while but CVC is consonant vowel consonant.

I go by the level of the books DD can pick off the shelf in the library and read cold. She needs to be able to enjoy them, read fluently (at least 60 wpm without stumbling) and understand plot subtleties. She may be able to read books at about a grade level higher, but the level at which the above is a "sure thing" is surprisingly consistent.

I have been using Fountas and Pinnel (GRL) ever since we found out that is the leveling system used by all three schools we have applied to. We were told that the grade level equivalents (for instructional level) were recently changed to the following in a handout:

Kindergarden:
A
B
C --Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You see?
D

First Grade:
E--Go Dog Go, Morris The Moose
F
G
H--A Kiss for Little Bear
I--Hi, Fly Guy
J--Henry and Mudge, Fire Cat

Second Grade:
K--Tales of Oliver Pig, Mercy Watson to the Rescue
L--Judy Moody (Book 1)
M--Magic Treehouse, Freckle Juice, Flat Stanley (Book 1)

Third Grade:
N--Catwings
O--The Boxcar Children, Ramona the Brave
P--The Fantastic Mr. Fox

I believe that Kindergarten used to go up to C etc. So, apparently expectation are indeed rising in schools. Also, sometimes there are large differences between Lexile, DRA, and GRL. And, the scholastic grade level equivalent frequently seems to be too high.

Have you tried the Ready Freddy book series? They are about the same level. (L-M, late second grade. But, in my experience easier than Magic Treehouse as for as print and complexity.)

My DD6 is in first grade and reads many books that come up in fourth-sixth grade reading lists, yet I don't say she is reading at any particular grade level. Her reading rate is exceptionally fast (faster than many adults), her comprehension is great, and decoding is a real strength. When I say she is reading at the level of a particular book, that means she reads it independently, quickly, effortlessly, and with enjoyment and comprehension. Many books she reads are in the 800-900 lexile level wherever that may fall. At that level she reads for enjoyment with no strain. If I had to pick a grade, I'd say third to fourth even though many of her books say 5th etc. Kids in our district are often high achievers so expectations may be different. My DD read Magic Treehouse in kindergarten and is now onto books like "Guardians of Ga'hoole" and "The Borrowers." With that and verbal scores in the 99.9th percentile, including a reading score of 163 out of 165 ceiling, she still isn't up for a grade skip!