Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Leveled reading systems

DS actually really likes Raz-Kids. I'm not sure why. But the school does it differently where the teacher assigns them books from their guided reading level, and then they have to read all 16 or whatever books and pass the quizzes before they can move onto the next level. So DS had to wade through a lot of books that were way too easy, and even now that he's whipped through about 6 levels in a couple months, he says it's still too easy. I don't make him listen to the audio, so he "fast forwards" through that part so the system will count it as done.
The quality of some of the books definitely isn't great (esp. the fiction books!) but I figure at least DS will get in some practice with dumb multiple choice reading tests, which will be so important as we move forward. No way to get into gifted programs here unless he does well on computerized reading tests.

We opted out of AR, which I believe was developed both to test comprehension and motivate reluctant readers. Teachers of DC have been open to us opting out as they are obviously bookworms.

Segue was a word that took me forever to recognize when hearing it. Even into college, I read "seg-goo" and heard "seg-way" and never put the two together.

My sons are learning new words from reading. We have had to correct their pronunciation on a few, but overall they are using the words in the correct context, which is good. I can remember it took me a while as a child to recognize "insomnia" when I heard someone use it in a sentence, as in my head it was pronounced in-SO-mania. LOL

My DS told me that he listens to the books on RazKids in order to learn how to pronounce the words he hasn't read previously. He then "fast forwards" through the reading-only portion. He is fortunate in that he seems to learn new words after one or two exposures, so this works for him.

For a while he was just listening and not reading along, and then trying to do the quizzes after only listening. That didn't work very well, so now he reads along with the audio version. His goal is to get to "z," so we we will see what happens. He is doing raz-kids on his kindle instead of playing minecraft, so I am not going to complain.

Funny aside re the pronunciation: My kid has been reading a lot of books with storylines involving Irish Mythology . Well, let me tell you, the prounuciation of Gaelic does not correspond well at to English...LOL For eaxmple, "Sidh" is prounounced "She" and "Cuchulainn" is pronounced Koo-hoo-lan (or something). Not sure how much permanent damage it is doing to him lingusitically but he loves the Irish mythology!

We just switched DD's school. She's in first grade with a reading level of 4.2-6.1. (Not sure how the range was figured on that.)
I do feel that the books she is bringing home are at a higher "level" than than some of the books she was reading from her book box at her old school.
Her new classroom has a lovely library with much more variety and many more chapter books! I don't know if this is typical of all AR classrooms, but I am impressed at what she has to choose from.
I think the biggest thing is understanding words she hasn't read before and how to pronounce them, but that comes with time. You should hear her pronounce Eucerine lotion….Eek urine!!!

Continuing to read aloud to kids helps especially if emphasizing isolating new words. Traditional dictionaries, online dictionaries, or the free online pronunciation resource forvo can come in handy. For example, here is eucerin.

Now that is a new word for me.

Thanks for the link to forvo.com. I still read aloud to DD nightly. Her favorite book is the dictionary:-) We are constantly looking words up!

Personally, I can't wait till my poor DD can stop answering stupid multiple-choice reading comprehension questions. She can write the most beautiful short answers and literary text analysis (I don't know what else to call it--it truly is analysis, and far above grade level), but she will overthink those stupid questions and get them wrong more often than seems reasonable for a child of her ability. I know she understands what she reads, but especially when it comes to "Was the author trying to convey a fact or opinion about the dog when he said that..." stuff, she starts to sort of go crazy and will end up guessing wrong.