Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy "Just right reading levels"

This sounds like the kind of dross that just needs to be ignored. You cannot fix willfully bovine stupidity. Give your kids
the books that you know they can understand and enjoy reading. End of story.

If the school books are truly too easy and she gets nothing out of them, I would not subject her to that. Sometimes you have to put your foot down. You have little control as to what they force her to do at school, but no one can force you to comply at home, esp. at this age where if she is graded, the grades don't really matter. I wouldn't say anything about it (unless the teacher grills you), I would just fail to follow instructions.

This kind of thing makes me 'ragey'. What are you supposed to do for 30 minutes if your child finishes reading the book in 5 minutes and you are not allowed to substitute any other book? Are they saying she is supposed to read the assigned book six times?

How is limiting what a child reads supposed to improve their reading? I agree with PPs just let her read whatever she wants at home.

Yesterday was the first day of grade one for DD. She's already said that they books they have in the class are baby books I'm hoping that as we get into the year they don't try to keep her in the grade one level reading box.

We changed schools partially because of a reading policy like the one you described. They drilled in to the kids that they had to read the books they brought home from school that were "just the right level" and they had to record the titles of the books they read at home in their reading log, so "substituting" reading material was difficult. They were told they had to read the books they brought home for their homework, and that they could spend additional time reading other books, but only in addition to reading the assigned books.

My twins would insist they "had to" read those books for their homework because they would get in trouble if they read something else. One of my twins went from really enjoying reading to hating it because of being forced to read early reader books over and over both in class and at home in first grade.

I may be totally off base, but it seems to me to be a way to try to force "evening out" of the children's reading levels, or at least the perceived reading levels.

After we changed schools, both twins reading levels were assessed to be 3-4 years higher than the levels previously reported by their previous school.

Another supporter in total agreement with you. I could not believe the fight my older son and I had to put it up to stop this ... And his friend who loved reading and who was a very advanced reader at an early age actually began to HATE reading and literally regressed (his parents though in total agreement with me did not fight as I did). I wrote about it on here, I believe. It really is absolutely crazy. My younger son is also an advanced reader but he is much easier going than my older ne but I still plan to make this a priority at our GIEP meeting. I also wrote a letter of complaint about the practice to the district...

The staff do get to have some control over what comes into their classrooms, but they're loony if they think they have any say whatsoever regarding what happens in your home, and they seem like they might need a reminder. And since the entire reading program is designed to solve a potential problem your DS does not have, I would notify the teachers that your DS will not be participating, and they need not worry about sending any of those books home with him.

And if there's any squawking in response (we didn't get any when we did this), they might need a further reminder of who is ultimately in charge of your DS's education (hint: it's not them).

My son was actually getting 'in trouble' ... as in *punished* for reading books that I sent in for him to read during independent reading time. When I found out I hit the roof. I was shocked at the level of resistance I got from the administration over such an issue. They would rather have the kids sit there and zone out and come to hate reading rather than "disobey" this protocol. Absolutely crazy.

Thank you NCLB! Now schools need to hold kids back at the beginning of the school year to prove that the children are learning.

Can you just send in books for them to read?

Ultimately, because I was such a witch about it and caused such a stir, we had a meeting wherein the teacher and I would agree on books for my kid to read. First, I had to fight to get him tested beyond the grade level. Teacher was very reluctant to do that even tho he hit the ceiling so I worded it as that I was worried that he was not progressing, etc... I put it in writing (with these "concerns") I included special ed director, etc. I mean, they could not just say, "oh he's ahead so we don't test him and he needs not to progress or learn all year." Basically, I made it so they would have to say/admit that to say "no" to testing. (I believe I got help with that here so you can search it here). As a result they pulled "reading specialists" from the next grades up to test him. The testing showed him 2 grade levels above. Then, teacher went through "her collection" and brought us, for our approval/"thoughts" a 'Great Illustrated Classic' I think it was 'Man in Iron Mask'... We agreed to that. And DS was excited about reading time again. After that, I bought more gretat illustrated classics to send in (Treasure Island, Dracula, etc.) because, of course, they were not prepared for how fast he finished the book they gave him. And then, there was peace, learning and excitement to learn again. Basically, I won. It was not easy. However, it was worth it because I see now how it affected his friend (regressed and hates to read). Honestly, I think part of it was that the particular teacher that year did not like the other kiddos seeing how far ahead my child was in reading. she really did not like that - she felt he was "showing off" I think that was more the issue with us...But not sure. The following the teacher was completely fine with whatever my kiddo wanted to read and she tested him, etc. Now the battle starts with my younger DS. Hopefully, since they have already been down this road with me, they will cooperate better.

Yeah, what? I don't get it. I can just imagine what would happen with my DS and this policy.