What is your Kindergartener's Reading Ability Right Now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:About like yours, OP. She can read a whole level 1 book, with help. The caveat-- she always scrutinizes the picture on a page before she starts reading. When she encounters a word she doesn't know, she tries to guess based on the picture, rather than looking at the letters and sounding it out. This annoys me, and makes me wonder how much she's really "reading", versus recognizing sight words and guessing.

This is my dd. Her teacher said that this is an important first step because comprehension is as important as decoding. Her suggestion to to help the kid at least figure out the starting sound, and then make a guess based on that and the picture. But, yeah, it's hard to keep from being annoyed, like she's not even trying.

[Anonymous]

DS can decode well. Does not like to read books but reads labels and signs: Trash, restroom, Clean Day - label on soap, etc. His comprehension however is nowhere near his decoding: Can read "dunce" but asks what it means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just find it hard to believe that the majority of kids start Kindergarten "reading". I think people define "reading" in different ways though. Some people say their kids are reading when they can sound out a few simple words and some mean their kids can independently read a book. I can tell you that my five year old is absolutely not reading - not sounding out words. I hope she isn't too much of an outlier. I've been told by many that learning to read happens at different ages for all kids and they all seem to catch up to one another by third grade. We'll see if that's true in our case.

OP here. True, I don't know how people are defining it. I'm going by what other parents are saying. The head of school told us that they expect kids to make progress from their initial starting point, but that they don't expect all kids to be able to fully read by the end of kindergarten. Her own child wasn't reading fluently until the end of 2nd grade, when it suddenly just clicked. And now she never stops. There must be a huge variation on skill development. I just don't know how to identify potential problems. My brother could read in 3rd grade, but had no ability to comprehend what he was reading. That's my biggest concern, although it seems to me my son has a clue about what he's reading and relates to it.

I am not an expert by any means (just a parent who has read up some and has talked about it with teacher friends.) But I believe if your child can comprehend when read to, they can generally comprehend once they can read it for themselves. And the way to test that / work on that is to ask your child questions when you read to them. So if you read to your son and you can tell from your questioning that he's really 'getting' the information in the story, then you can be fairly confident that his comprehension is just fine.

[Anonymous]

My son has about 500 sight words memorized but I woukdn't say he's reading yet. He can sound out the beginnings if words but gets lost putting the middle and ending sounds together. But he can "read" many books based his large vocab of sight words. He guesses at the rest and often gets them right by using the beginnings sounds of the words coupled with the pictures.

[Anonymous]

My son is a young kindergartner (July birthday), and he can read Level 1 readers pretty fluently. We just had our teacher conference today, and she said he is her second best reader in the class.

My older two children were not reading this well in K. My oldest (who was an old kindergartner with a Nov. birthday) was reading some words here and there. My middle child was not reading at all, but was reading by the end of kindergarten.

And to the person with the Junie B. Jones reader - once I read those books I discouraged my oldest daughter from reading them becasue I thought she set a bad example. She's 11 and is a brat now, so apparently it didn't help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:About like yours, OP. She can read a whole level 1 book, with help. The caveat-- she always scrutinizes the picture on a page before she starts reading. When she encounters a word she doesn't know, she tries to guess based on the picture, rather than looking at the letters and sounding it out. This annoys me, and makes me wonder how much she's really "reading", versus recognizing sight words and guessing.

This is my DD too. I actually think that it's helpful. She's putting things in context and synthesizing the entire page. Also, she's got to be recognizing the words. She's reading them word for word.

[Anonymous]

Second grade level at the start of K. DC was very determined to learn to read and loves reading. I read nothing into it other than the fact that DC is very determined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Second grade level at the start of K. DC was very determined to learn to read and loves reading. I read nothing into it other than the fact that DC is very determined.

OP here. I love that. My son was very determined about learning how to swim and taught himself in a week. It's really cute when they have that internal drive to do something. Amazing to watch, and you realize how little you matter in that drive.

[Anonymous]

We just had parent teacher conferences and found out he's reading on the first grade level (with comprehension).

It is not unusual at all for some kids not to be reading at all and some kids to be reading a grade or more ahead. Its kindergarten. I personally feel the stress to force children to read too early is NOT a good thing (speaking as a teacher and parent). Reading consists of several developmental skills (tracking, decoding, memory, comprehension, etc).

The main thing is you want your child to have a healthy and good relationship with books and with reading and to be developing and progressing.

[Anonymous]

I have no idea but he is spelling words to me. Is spelling linked to reading?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son isn't at the point of sounding out words on a page, but can tell you which word is which in a title or in a page, so he has basic phonics awareness. I would hesitate to say that he isn't "reading" yet, though. He is working on other important reading skills such as predicting, making personal connections, and retelling. It seems that we get so caught up in this idea that a child

I'm not sure what this means if he isn't sounding out the words - that he knows sight words?

This means the PP can't bear to admit her kid isn't the most advanced, so rationalizes by says "I would hesitate to say he isn't reading yet". Flat out her kid can't read- it's not the end of the world, he is in kinder, why is it so awful to admit it? Quoting an article from Scholastic might make her feel better but it doesn't make her kid into a reader.

[Anonymous]

For what its worth my DD was sounding out at 3 and was one of a couple of kids who could read fluently in the pre-K before leaving. In K, according to what she tells me there are definately other readers at least on par with her reading wise but there are varying levels.

The thing is although she has the ability to read and comprehend, Magic Tree House or other chapter books she really does not have the interest of attention span to pour through it.

[Anonymous]

I would just say as the parent of older (college aged) kids...don't get too excited either way about your kindergartener's reading ability. Two of our kids were reading at the 2nd ant 3rd grade levels in kindergarten. They graduated from high school as good, but not great students. Another one of our children had absolutely no interest at all in reading. She was definitely not reading in kindergarten. She wasn't really reading on level until second grade. She graduated from high school a National Merit Scholar. Her ACT and SAT scores were insanely nigh. And she is a sophomore in college on a full academic scholarship. Even as a very young toddler, she loved books. She loved to be read to. She loved to look at books. She just had no interest in learning to read until she got older.

[Anonymous]

To the parent of college-aged kids, thanks for posting. It's hard to see past the early years, even when teachers tell you it all evens out by 3rd grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would just say as the parent of older (college aged) kids...don't get too excited either way about your kindergartener's reading ability. Two of our kids were reading at the 2nd ant 3rd grade levels in kindergarten. They graduated from high school as good, but not great students. Another one of our children had absolutely no interest at all in reading. She was definitely not reading in kindergarten. She wasn't really reading on level until second grade. She graduated from high school a National Merit Scholar. Her ACT and SAT scores were insanely nigh. And she is a sophomore in college on a full academic scholarship. Even as a very young toddler, she loved books. She loved to be read to. She loved to look at books. She just had no interest in learning to read until she got older.

Well, this begs the question do you think your younger daughter is more intelligent, or is she simply a more persistant dedicated student. There's a difference in raw ability and execution.