Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Reading Level Capped

I'm so glad this has never come up for us.

DS' reading levels were so far ahead of his comprehension in the early years, it was ridiculous. He *could* read anything, without having the slightest idea what it meant. The school expressed the occasional dismay about his comprehension levels, but even those were always at least a grade level ahead of where he was, and I just kept pointing out that comprehension comes with reading. You have to be able to read something before you can comprehend it. And of course he couldn't comprehend everything he read, because he could read anything you put in front of him. But he certainly wasn't going to learn to comprehend it if he didn't read it. I said, "well, he could read those things when he was 2, but he didn't comprehend any of it -- see how much he's gained?"

The school here has never put any limits on what a child is allowed to read -- or at least, not my children. DD7 did come home a while back with a book from the school library that she told me "the librarian said this was a 5th grade book." I said, "well, she let you take it, right?" and she said, "yeah". I gathered that there might be one of those things going on, from that comment, but it didn't seem to be a problem.

That's very interesting. I was not given a report, just a copy of his IEP eval which showed the tests, scores and percentiles. I had to ask for grade level equivalents, which were then included. But no test report or anything.

Our meeting was re-scheduled for next week but there is an opening at a different school and I may snatch it up. Then cancel the meeting.

Irena, when I went to visit other schools I talked to one of the prinicipals about the reading level, saying that DS had actually been demoted at his current school. She was completely unconcerned and said that she is passionate about literacy and bascially that she's an "expert". She told me she would never have a child progress that fast through reading. Because the content would be way too advanced. I was dumbstruck and just stared at her, my mouth probably agape. So like you, I want to have a reasonable argument. But how can you argue with idiocy? And literacy "experts"? If a child can pass reading assessments at a higher level, then that shows they can handle the content, right? And surely there are books out there that are not too "mature". It's not like we're going to give them "Forever" by Judy Blume! Level Q on Raz-Kids is fine in terms of content/maturity. There are books that exist that don't have violence, sex, bad language, advanced social situations, etc.

Reading these comments brings back all the bad feelings that I had with my dd's third grade teacher last year (same teacher unfortunately from 1st through 3rd). They used a system to set the students' reading level (DRA?), and when my daughter told her that she could read every word of the three books at the highest level available in class and could she read at a higher level, the teacher responded "Well, the words are more difficult at a higher level and besides, those books are inappropriate for a little kid like you." DD came home crying after school. This was even after I had offered to get appropriate books from the library!!! That was actually the last straw for me and we have since switched schools.

Well that's probably because the school did it. When my DS was given it by the school - no report or analysis accompanied the results. (It makes sense - could you imagine your school recommending that grade level work is going to be too easy for your DS/DD? LOL - they'd rather gauge their eyes out I think!) But this time I took DS to a private tester and she said she would provide scores, interpretation/analysis of scores, and curriculum recommendations based on the scores. And she did. I am pretty happy with it just for my own info. I think my tester had a software program that assisted her with the scoring and the recommendations .. not entirely sure just a hunch. The report was entitled Academic Achievement Evaluation

Yeah, as far as I am concerned if I am sending in the book I have looked at it and decided the content is fine for my DS. Just to give some perspective, my DS's teacher was punishing DS for magic treehouse books so mature content was not her concern.. her concern was her "rule" about 'books must come from her basket.
Some of what I read *to* him can be borderline (not sex but violence/fantasy) but we have talks about it. I feel like that stuff is at my discretion. It really isn't THAT much of an issue (yet)- he is not beyond 4th grade in his reading. What I read *to* him is high school level so that can get dodgey.

Good Advice MON ... Thanks!

You are Lucky Nautigal!

We have been finding plenty of appropriate higher level books! The Ordinary boy series is very good. Treasure Hunters by James Patterson.(definitely higher level reading) George Brown , class clown is a funny serious.. very much 1st and 2nd grade boy humor!

We have been very lucky with the elementary school, all the way. It's beginning to unravel a bit in middle school, but still far better than what a lot of people have.

I'm jealous Nautigal!

As an aside, it turns out that the one and only other identified gifted kid in DS's class also has "attention issues." He's DS's buddy so...

Hmmmmm....