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

[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.

I must admit, as a bookworm as a child and as an adult, reading this list just sucks the joy of reading right out of me. Could I read in K? Yes. Could I answer any or all of those questions in K or 1? Probably not.

I'm not sure I could answer some of them today about the books I read, like a text to text relation, and relate the text to self.

[Anonymous]

some schools designate a top level for each quarter. for the first quarter it may be 6 or whatever. so the top readers who are into chapter books will go to 6 and make no mistake there are probably a handful of fluent readers in your DD's class just like her.
then the ones reading below the top group will go to level 5 and so forth. so everyone will be in reading groups below their real level.
there are also a handful of mcps schools that make kids in k answer mclass comprehension questions in writing. that's not really developmentally appropriate but helps the school in showing "progress."

[Anonymous]

We've been told this as well and for writing. Our DD who is reading chapter books has great verbal comprehension but lousy written comprehension and her written responses are very incomplete so it's been helpful to get books that are very basic. i.e. 10 words on a page or something.

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

[Anonymous]

Our teacher created a chapter book section in the classroom library for the more fluent readers. DS loves it. Perhaps the teacher would be open to doing the same for your class, OP?

DS has never mentioned or seemed bothered by the fact that the baggie books are very simple because he has a lot of access to more challenging books whenever he feels like it. It's all "school" to him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm bothered by the fact that DD's kindergarten teacher has been sending books for her to read at home and these books are way too easy for DD. I corrected the teacher and asked for higher level reading, but now it bothers me. Should she know the levels of her students?

Maybe you don't know the level of your child.

Reading and comprehending are different skills and there is a lot to learn from repetition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Er yup, thanks for pointin' that one out. Idiot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher created a chapter book section in the classroom library for the more fluent readers. DS loves it. Perhaps the teacher would be open to doing the same for your class, OP?

DS has never mentioned or seemed bothered by the fact that the baggie books are very simple because he has a lot of access to more challenging books whenever he feels like it. It's all "school" to him.

Isn't that the norm? DC's K classroom
has the full series of magic tree house

[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.

I must admit, as a bookworm as a child and as an adult, reading this list just sucks the joy of reading right out of me. Could I read in K? Yes. Could I answer any or all of those questions in K or 1? Probably not.

I'm not sure I could answer some of them today about the books I read, like a text to text relation, and relate the text to self.

This is an interesting list. I've never taught K-12, but, as someone who teaches at the university level, I have students who've clearly had the kind of training that supports their ability to answer the questions the pp lists, and some who clearly haven't. The former group are more successful students.

[Anonymous]

You know, I watched a documentary about Finnish schools whose students undergo a sinlgle test throughout the entire school. The reasoning is that the teacher should know without any testing where each student is.

I spend more time with DD than the teacher. Why would you assume I don't know her reading level? I do. I don't need fancy tests to know, but just to prove the point at school she is testing for 2nd grade level.

So why on Earth would you be sending toddler books for her to read? I can only attribute that to a mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know, I watched a documentary about Finnish schools whose students undergo a sinlgle test throughout the entire school. The reasoning is that the teacher should know without any testing where each student is.

I spend more time with DD than the teacher. Why would you assume I don't know her reading level? I do. I don't need fancy tests to know, but just to prove the point at school she is testing for 2nd grade level.

So why on Earth would you be sending toddler books for her to read? I can only attribute that to a mistake.

what is a toddler book??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know, I watched a documentary about Finnish schools whose students undergo a sinlgle test throughout the entire school. The reasoning is that the teacher should know without any testing where each student is.

I spend more time with DD than the teacher. Why would you assume I don't know her reading level? I do. I don't need fancy tests to know, but just to prove the point at school she is testing for 2nd grade level.

So why on Earth would you be sending toddler books for her to read? I can only attribute that to a mistake.

Well, you could ask the teacher that. But I wouldn't refer to "toddler books". And I would phrase the question as, "I was wondering how you decide on the reading level of the books you send home with DD?", rather than "DD is a much better reader than those dumb baby books you send home with her, you lazy, incompetent fool!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know, I watched a documentary about Finnish schools whose students undergo a sinlgle test throughout the entire school. The reasoning is that the teacher should know without any testing where each student is.

I spend more time with DD than the teacher. Why would you assume I don't know her reading level? I do. I don't need fancy tests to know, but just to prove the point at school she is testing for 2nd grade level.

So why on Earth would you be sending toddler books for her to read? I can only attribute that to a mistake.

Well, you could ask the teacher that. But I wouldn't refer to "toddler books". And I would phrase the question as, "I was wondering how you decide on the reading level of the books you send home with DD?", rather than "DD is a much better reader than those dumb baby books you send home with her, you lazy, incompetent fool!"

Agreed. My DD read "those toddler books" until first grade so you need to check your tone. Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Maybe--just maybe--DD likes the "toddler books"!

[Anonymous]

I can't speak for others, but the reason I assumed you might not know her reading level is because you don't come across as having a high degree of cognitive flexibility, which suggests you might now know what is in someone else's mind.

In any case, I think its very bizarre that your take-away from the fact that Finnish teachers know their students very well is that teacher expertise is trivial relative to your momma sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Er yup, thanks for pointin' that one out. Idiot.

Looks like you missed learning some things yourself in kindergarten, like how to treat others...