The teacher is not aware of my DD's reading level

[Anonymous]

My guess is that the kids are grouped into reading groups and your dd is in the highest group-which is assigned books at the level of the lowest member of the group. So if there is a group of the 5 strongest readers, they will all be reading books at the level of the weakest reader. Teachers don't want 20 different reading groups, and in K they don't really care about nurturing advanced readers, they are trying to catch everyone below up to the minimum.

That said, its really not a big deal. I'm sure you have lots of great picture books at home for her to enjoy.

[Anonymous]

Mom of a grade 8 student and a graduate here.

OP, rather than assuming the teacher doesn't know how well your daughter reads, why don't you ask her for harder books? Or go to the library and choose harder books and see how she does?

There is a lot more to reading than the words on the page.

[Anonymous]

Our K teacher sends home books below the reading level to help with fluency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She is reading them fluently at home because she has read them a million times at school in her reading group!

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can she tell you happened in the book when she's done reading? Can she anser questions about the book? Can she extrapolate to other situations, ie "Mary picked the bear in the book today, what do you think would have happened if she picked the lion?"
It's not just sounding out the words, reading comprehension is the skill

+1, just so you're aware, teachers do not use the reading levels that you'll find assessed on books or online. Teachers have tests they administer to children. Children pass the level or they don't. To pass the level, typical things children need to do are:

--pronunciation
--inflection
--doesn't lose place in text (and if does, can find place in text)
--can retell accurately, without looking back, to include setting, characters, in order, specific details
--can give the author's purpose
--can do a text to text relation (how does this text relate to another text)
--can relate the text to self (how does this text relate to the child)
--Does the child use the characters' names or just pronouns
--"uh" and any other words other than the text counts against the child during the assessment

The child also needs to pass BOTH the fiction and non-fiction levels to "pass" onto the next level. Non-fiction is obviously much more difficult.

So when parents say, "Sally is WAY beyond this level," often, Sally is often right on that level. The "easiest" part of reading can be decoding (are the words pronounced correctly) because, in large part, once a child knows how to read, she can read most things. If, however, that same child is unable to answer the required questions to pass the reading level, the fact that she could pick the same book up and read it aloud beautifully does not mean anything whatsoever.

can we pin this post to the top of the message board I swear this comes up at least once a week that some parents complaining that the teacher doesn't know how advanced little Larla is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can she tell you happened in the book when she's done reading? Can she anser questions about the book? Can she extrapolate to other situations, ie "Mary picked the bear in the book today, what do you think would have happened if she picked the lion?"
It's not just sounding out the words, reading comprehension is the skill

+1, just so you're aware, teachers do not use the reading levels that you'll find assessed on books or online. Teachers have tests they administer to children. Children pass the level or they don't. To pass the level, typical things children need to do are:

--pronunciation
--inflection
--doesn't lose place in text (and if does, can find place in text)
--can retell accurately, without looking back, to include setting, characters, in order, specific details
--can give the author's purpose
--can do a text to text relation (how does this text relate to another text)
--can relate the text to self (how does this text relate to the child)
--Does the child use the characters' names or just pronouns
--"uh" and any other words other than the text counts against the child during the assessment

The child also needs to pass BOTH the fiction and non-fiction levels to "pass" onto the next level. Non-fiction is obviously much more difficult.

So when parents say, "Sally is WAY beyond this level," often, Sally is often right on that level. The "easiest" part of reading can be decoding (are the words pronounced correctly) because, in large part, once a child knows how to read, she can read most things. If, however, that same child is unable to answer the required questions to pass the reading level, the fact that she could pick the same book up and read it aloud beautifully does not mean anything whatsoever.

can we pin this post to the top of the message board I swear this comes up at least once a week that some parents complaining that the teacher doesn't know how advanced little Larla is.

If you couldn't tell, I was a first grade teacher, previously. You have no idea how many times parents told me that their children were above this or that level. I would gently explain that, no, the child was not. I attended lengthy training in how to administer this testing. This isn't just grabbing the back of a book and saying, "Oh sure, you're reading level x." Now all this said, for this particular child, her level may or may not be above what the book is that she is bringing home. That does not mean that the child's level is where the mother is assessing her level at by the child's ability to decode a book at that level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our K teacher sends home books below the reading level to help with fluency.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our K teacher sends home books below the reading level to help with fluency.

+1

The point is, that it likely isn't below your child's reading level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our K teacher sends home books below the reading level to help with fluency.

+1

The point is, that it likely isn't below your child's reading level.

Well, no, it's that the reading level is what the child is doing in class. As someone quoted above, the instructions for the guided reading programs say to send books below the level they are doing in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another reason why you can’t determine what a 2.1 means (as opposed to your teacher) is this:

This book:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/inside-house-haunted#cart/cleanup
and this book:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/magic-school-bus-fights-germs#cart/cleanup

are both 2.1 “grade level” equivalent books. One is a DRA of a 16 and one is a DRA of a 24. That means one is a grade level of almost the end of 1st grade and one is closer (but not that close) towards the end of second grade.

You can look up the level on Scholastic's website. Like today she fluently read a book with DRA 18. I'm not saying she's genius, I'm just saying she shouldn't ve bringing home from school books for 3 year olds.

[Anonymous]

We had the same problem with our DD in K. She went in there reading chapter books aimed for 9-12 year olds and was beyond anything they had in the classroom. She used to sit and read stories to the other children, during "choice time" which they loved but always struck me as weird.

Our K teacher tried to get harder books from the library for her, but it was actually the librarian who was resistant and trotted out the "no chapter books for K" rule. So ultimately there was zero challenge for our child in K. She enjoyed it but it was effectively a wasted year.

I feel for the K teachers who have such a huge range to deal with but ultimately their target seems to be teaching to the middle and bringing the slower readers up to that. The advanced readers are left to their own devices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had the same problem with our DD in K. She went in there reading chapter books aimed for 9-12 year olds and was beyond anything they had in the classroom. She used to sit and read stories to the other children, during "choice time" which they loved but always struck me as weird.

Our K teacher tried to get harder books from the library for her, but it was actually the librarian who was resistant and trotted out the "no chapter books for K" rule. So ultimately there was zero challenge for our child in K. She enjoyed it but it was effectively a wasted year.

I feel for the K teachers who have such a huge range to deal with but ultimately their target seems to be teaching to the middle and bringing the slower readers up to that. The advanced readers are left to their own devices.

Even the advanced readers have a peer group. You can see from the posts to this one question alone confirm that.

P.s. Wasted year? You do know kindergarten is about a lot more than reading, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If you couldn't tell, I was a first grade teacher, previously. You have no idea how many times parents told me that their children were above this or that level. I would gently explain that, no, the child was not. I attended lengthy training in how to administer this testing.

You really shouldn't be dismissive of parents. Involved parents like myself who read with them every day know exactly where their children are in reading skills. I bet I spend more time watching DD read than the teacher and I don't need extensive testing to tell me. I know exactly where she is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another reason why you can’t determine what a 2.1 means (as opposed to your teacher) is this:

This book:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/inside-house-haunted#cart/cleanup
and this book:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/magic-school-bus-fights-germs#cart/cleanup

are both 2.1 “grade level” equivalent books. One is a DRA of a 16 and one is a DRA of a 24. That means one is a grade level of almost the end of 1st grade and one is closer (but not that close) towards the end of second grade.

You can look up the level on Scholastic's website. Like today she fluently read a book with DRA 18. I'm not saying she's genius, I'm just saying she shouldn't ve bringing home from school books for 3 year olds.

DRA 18 is not the fluency level alone. That is usually the easiest piece to the reading puzzle. Did an educator pass her on a DRA level 18 for both fiction and nonfiction? If not, she is not on that level academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our K teacher sends home books below the reading level to help with fluency.

+1

The point is, that it likely isn't below your child's reading level.

Our teacher said that she was being instructed at a certain DRA level at school. Those are the books she reads at school. She also is encouraged to read at that level at home. In addition, to build fluency she also reads a set of books below that DRA level.

That is how the teacher explained it to us.