Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Reading Level Capped

We had an awesome first grade teacher who set the groundwork in place for Matilda to read anything she wanted. She called me in to the classroom for a conference the second month of first grade (my daughter would have been 6 years and one month old) and told me that Matilda had a 98% average on renaissance accelerated reader program! and was testing too frequently... So, to take her up. Way up. She said she only wanted her to test on fifth grade books from then on out. I think I panicked more than her, because not sure of you guys experiences, but when you get to fifth grade level books, some things are taken for granted: like there is no Santa Claus or tooth fairy! We still believed in that. So, I basically read every series she read, first. Then we moved. I had built up her personal library with books leveled at fifth to seventh grade, and she had already tested in a bunch of harry potter books and Roald Dahl, etc before first grade ended. When we went into the new school. They had her AR record to log in and could see her year end average and points. They told me she could read any book there, and she did not have a goal or a limit. She finished up the schools k-5 reading goal her first month there (which sucks cause now she has nothing to aim for and -almost 4 more years of school) and was the youngest student to get honor reader and finish the program, only her first month at the school!

What we are finding now is that the topics she can read sometimes bore her. She isn't interested in anything but sci if and fantasy right now. I got her turned in to Percy Jackson this month, and am hoping she reads that series since I have screened it. But, then what? When I was her age I had a similar issue and read Stephen King. E-gad.

I have often thought of starting a blog for advanced readers who are young, just so other parents would know what series are safe for them. For instance, just skip Fudge by Judy Blume if your k class kid still believes in Santa and the tooth fairy.

And FYI, if you are using accelerated reader, you should know its a crappy program. They determine book levels by a formula that looks at how many words had more than two syllables. So, a complex series like Wrinkle in Time by Madeline Le'Engle is a fourth grade book, and something fluffy and simple like Harry Potter is fifth and sixth grade AR. We actually pulled back Wrinkle in Time from her, because it is such a beautiful series that I wanted to save it for when she and I could discuss all the complex themes together. Also, it's totally closed task and not sure how comprehension plays in. It's not understanding the literature, it's the ability to parrot back what you read. Matilda has good recall, so she has never made below an 80 on a book and her average stays around 95. If a child has consistently low scores, they either skipped passages or day dreamed. It's very straight forward and multiple choice.

I agree that Wrinkle in Time is sophisticated indeed (DD read the first book in grade 2 and I realized it was too early--she hasn't yet read the rest) but IDK if Harry POtter is "fluffy and simple" in the later installments.

I think your blog sounds like a great idea! We run into similar issues here. Action-packed, non-ruminative fantasy without a lot of internal pondering works best for DS5, though he also enjoys funny stories like Blume (same issue here with Fudge and Santa!)

To get back on topic, these stories are making my hair stand on end. Are you all saying that your kids are not allowed to read what they want during FREE reading? This is for times when they are just supposed to be reading SOMEthing--not during reading groups or whatever?

As a counterpoint, my kids have never been disallowed any books or asked to keep to one area, and have always been allowed to bring books from home as well. This was the case at both schools DD attended. We did have to ask DS's K teacher to make sure he could check out books from the whole school library (normally they have a "K area") which she did, and he can.

(This is not to say there have always been appropriate books in the classroom. There were not in DD's K and 1 classroom or in DS's K classroom, but I would hardly expect most K classrooms to have a lot of chapter books lying around. Both teachers made efforts to get some appropriate books into the rooms for my kids, and told me to send in whatever I wanted. Heck, DS's private PRE-K teacher gave us permission to check out books from the school library to have in the classroom for him.)

Ultra, I was told that my kids could not get library clearance into certain areas or even take AR tests on books without proven literacy. So, I just started my own library. My daughter memorized her AR log in and just started testing on her own books. Her teacher got weekly updates, and went and gave her clearance in the library to move beyond k-2... Which, by the way, has been useless. My daughter gets overwhelmed and brings home the biggest bunch of crud that I know she won't read, LOL.

She read a lot of fluff in k class. Rainbow magic fairy (same, AR is fifth grade in some of that, and its so fluffy), all the magic treehouse, all the junie b jones. She read harry potter (the first one) right before she turned 6. And yes, she stopped after goblets of fire. She was a little troubled by Cedric dying. So, I turned her on to percy Jackson, which is not as "deep" as the latter harry potter. But the first one is way fluffy compared to wrinkle in time in theme and content. By the way, your k class son might like the Charlie Bone books. They are like a gentle version of the Harry potter series, and they stay on the same level (fourth grade, ten points each) all eight books, where as potter grew up with the reader.

The Harry Potter books past book two are NOT fluffy and simple. They are MUCH more complicated than the Percy Jackson Books. In my opinion the first Percy Jackson was good, the 2nd meh and they went downhill from there. JKR quite deliberately aged each book up to grow with her audience unlike most authors, and the later part of the series have quite complex and adult themes. You really can't use the AR level to judge the complexity of the themes.

If she likes Harry Potter, go check out Diana Wynne Jones's kids books. (She writes adult novels as well.) I think she is a better author, her "worlds" hold together better than the HP world. And are less dark and more fun. I am particularly found of her "Chrestomanci" series. http://www.goodreads.com/series/43763-chrestomanci

As for the subject, we had this problem a bit in K/1st. But as there was very little free time in K, most of his reading was done at home anyway. But when the kids went to the library they were expected to pick out ONE book for their reading level, and any other except they encouraged they only pick from the picture books. What I did that helped was I volunteered during library time, and then I ended up with a bit more say/credence with the librarian.

Yep. Thank you for being shocked. Seriously because sometimes I feel like I am the only one who finds this practice insane!

Oh, I think harry potter and percy Jackson are both fluffy. No slam on Harry, more of a slam on AR.

I did want her to read Percy Jackson because there are surprisingly few books in the genre she likes that are first person narration. We went through her books over winter break trying to find some, as we were discussing the differences and why an author would pick a different narration style, and couldn't find any examples.

We have Chrestomanci on the TBR pile. It sounds awesome.

Yeah, those accursed Rainbow Magic books have bizarrely high reading levels. All the leveling systems are really flawed, IMO. I mean, of course they are--they're done by a computer. The day I learned that Beloved by Toni Morrison is 5th grade Lexile is the day I gave up on this whole leveling concept.

"Here, sweetie. Now that you're done with Fluffkins the Kitty Fairy, how about some Morrison?"