How does your public school differentiate instruction if you have early reader?

[Anonymous]

All great info posters. Thanks so much! Our school is a magnet school and in the past, I know a good part of the class is non-English speakers. That is part of the reason I am concerned about reading since many of the students come into K not even knowing the alphabet. The reading specialist seemed very impressed and surprised by my son's abilities I think b/c most of the K students they get come in not really knowing much English at all. My son is also biracial w/ a Hispanic last name so perhaps that also surprised them that not only does he speak English fluently but he also reads. He loves reading and has reached a point when he is reading on his own sometimes. Off topic- Can anyone recommend some series that he might like reading? We tried Nate the Great but he couldn't get into them. I am getting kind of bored of the Step Into Reading series myself. He loves non-fiction but it isn't easy finding those kinds of books on his level. Our local library is under construction so I can order books from the website and pick them up there. I can't go there and browse. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Both of my kids liked the Cam Jansen books by David Adler. They also liked Magic Tree House, and they have the reference books, which will help feed the non-fiction interest.

[Anonymous]

re: Books. DS loves non-fiction books on animals like Nature's Readers. Scholastic has a Science readers series. (Here's one of them: http://www.amazon.com/Tropical-Forest-Scholastic-Reader-Level/dp/0439269946)

I don't know if these are too easy, but how about the Poppleton series?

You might get some other good ideas here:

http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do

[Anonymous]

OP, I have found "Some of My Best Friends Are Books" (2nd ed.) by Judith Halsted to be an excellent resource for parents of advanced readers. Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: That is part of the reason I am concerned about reading since many of the students come into K not even knowing the alphabet.

Wow, seriously?! Even my two-year old knows the alphabet... Did others find this was where some of the kids were in their DC's K classes as well?

OP, thanks for this post. Very interesting.

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP. Even some of my son's friends who are starting K next year don't know all of the letters. They may know half of the uppercase and half of the lowercase but that's all. They think my son is some kind of genius. I think the moms think that K is still the way it used to be when it is really not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: That is part of the reason I am concerned about reading since many of the students come into K not even knowing the alphabet.

Wow, seriously?! Even my two-year old knows the alphabet... Did others find this was where some of the kids were in their DC's K classes as well?

I guess it depends where you live, PP, but we live in Arlington and there are many schools (central/south) where 50%+ of the population is ESL. There are kids who come into class not only not knowing the alphabet, but some of them don't even know how to hold a book the right way. Sadly, many of these parents are so busy supporting their families with 2, 3, 4 jobs that they just don't have the time to read to their children. Fortunately, in a district like Arlington there are ESL teachers who come into the classroom to help during the "work" time, which helps free up the teacher and assistant teacher (a luxury MoCo does not share, unsure of Fairfax and DC) to work with the other children.

Our school breaks out by reading group (group of 4-5 kids were fluent readers by the time they entered K), and teacher sends home a book every night (or as often as you return it) that is reading level appropriate for each kid. So, for example some kids will be bringing home the VERY early readers and others will be taking home chapter books.

As another PP said, I think each school works differently. I've talked to some Arlington parents who are disappointed with their school's approach to differentiated instruction for their early readers, and others whose children are pulled out into a "gifted" group for reading and math. Ultimately, many parents supplement the in-school instruction by visiting the local library with their children, reading TO their children and encouraging nightly independent reading.

[Anonymous]

Wow, seriously?! Even my two-year old knows the alphabet... Did others find this was where some of the kids were in their DC's K classes as well?

As the PP said, kids in a K classroom will have a HUGE variety of skills. The ability of the school to meet the needs of early, advanced readers is going to vary tremendously by school. A school with many ESL or other kids not at grade level is going to have a harder time meeting the needs of the advanced learners because they will naturally focus more on kids who need more intensive intervention. So it's a time/resources balance. Also, frankly, many teachers are better able to do outside the box differentiation for advanced learners than others. This is why when people say things like "oh all kids here are advanced and the schools have no problem meeting this need" are NOT speaking for all schools. Even within a school, the difference from classroom to classroom can be different.

And being "fine" varies from kid to kid. Some kids do OK working in a classroom where the work is generally below their level but still fun. They enjoy the social aspects and the play aspects (such as they still are) and the specials. Other kids have less well developed coping skills and may really and truly suffer. And of course, there are all types of kids and experiences in between. In my child's FCPS ES, there was very little offered to her in grades 1 and 2 in terms of differentiation. (She went to a private K.) They were truly miserable years for her. Third was better and 4th even better. But I wouldn't wish those 1-2 years we had on anyone.