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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My favorite LC story is the year my kid jumped from level E to level M in reading in a month. Why? The story she was tested on for E was about baseball and she couldn’t guess what some of the words were, which was supposed to be easy… Only we’d just moved to the country and she’d literally never heard of baseball, so had zero framework to even sound out from. (Like “pitcher” and “base” and “diamond” were all at Level E because you could guess from the first letter and the picture if you’d ever heard these words… but actually pitcher is not on the same level as dog  as LC claimed (cvc and common/easy to depict words were the same) and is very hard for a kid to figure out if she’s never heard the word and doesn’t even recognize the sport. Then suddenly a different teacher declared her at Level M because she could read a Level M book about a topic she was familiar with (so where the first letter and guess method worked). Absolute lunacy.[/quote]

Do you get any sort of idea where your kid is reading when they are above grade level phonics? For example, if a Kindergartner is reading at the end of first grade, it isn’t reported or noted anywhere?  [/quote]

A PP. My school district evaluated the kids in terms of lexiles.  That's a different assessment system.  I think they will be using iReady for this in the future. It doesn't have anything to do with Calkins or phonics.

https://readingrev.com/blog/jgon5w7jjk5analqa9bcmjm9h4hxwv#:~:text=A%20text's%20Lexile%20level%20is,indicates%20a%20more%20challenging%20text.

The big emphasis on lexile assessment started in first grade in our district and lasted until about fourth grade.

You may not get much assessed in K if your child is NT.  I believe at my school they just noted whether the kid was able to keep up with the class.  Report cards covered the skills the kids could demonstrate at the expected level. And any mild skill deficits were explained.[/quote]

Ok thanks- I guess phonics instruction is tailored to their Lexlie level then?[/quote]

PP.  No. Lexiles are a measure of their reading development. Roughly, reading speed and fluency. And lexiles loosely correspond to K-6 grades.  I thought your question was related to how you could get a measure of your child's advancement in reading.  It sounds now like you want diagnosis of phonics-related strengths and weaknesses.

Phonics is about the correct reading and reproduction of sounds.  Teachers  should listen to your kid and determine if your kid has specific gaps in their phonics training or reproduction capability and work on the gaps in small reading breakout groups.

There aren't levels in phonics similar to guided reading.  There are more basic/critical lessons and more advanced material.  You either know how to read and say specific sound patterns/letters or you don't.  The process of phonics education reviews and drills these patterns.  A curriculum is an organized set of lesson plans that covers how phonics instruction will proceed (what will be taught, when it will be taught, what materials does the school have to support the lessons).

If you want information on your specific child, ask your teacher to share observations and maybe some drill sheets on phonics lessons that your child needs to work on.  They may be able to give you a few ideas that will allow you to match bookstore-purchased workbooks to your child's level of development.[/quote]

I am just confused.  If my kid is reading above grade level and knows long vowel patterns in the end of, they are correctly reading Magic tree house books.  Does that mean the phonics focus switches to the “reproduction of sounds’ like they get spelling lessons then?  So if they can do cat, dog and CVC words easily, is the K teacher supposed to give lessons in how to spell long vowel patterns?

Sorry, I’m just not understanding what this is supposed to look like vs what we receive for instruction. [/quote]

Ask the kindergarten teacher for examples if you don't know from materials your kid brings home.  Kindergarten is very flexible in what is taught and how it is taught.

If you have a Kindergartener who can read Magic Tree House already...you are unlikely to have many problems going forward.  You can go to a store and buy some 1st and 2nd grade phonics workbooks and go through them with your kid one time to convince yourself she knows the basics.

From time to time, look at her written work and make flash cards out of the words she spells wrong and incentivize her to learn to spell them.  Take your kid to the library and check out what ever she wants and buy bags of books at used booksales.  Magic Treehouse is a good bridge to much longer elementary books.  My generation moved into things like Beverly Cleary next.  This generation likes Warrior Cats.  Around 2nd grade, do your own spelling tests.

1st grade is a busy time.  Your kid will have lots to do during 
that grade.  The teachers do a lot of assessment in 1st grade because of the importance of fixing any big issues early.  So you should let your teacher know at the first conference that you are eager for information on how to best improve her skills.  Which sound like they are already past 1st grade for reading.  I do not think you will get a lot of advice in kindergarten because there are relaxed standards for student accomplishment while they get kids socialized, read a little, and print a few words, etc.

This is the best I can advise you as a layperson with teen children.  I'm sure your teacher can help you/partner with you.  You should not stress over the content of the kindergarten year.  It's not a make or break year.[/quote]

Thanks for your post PP![/quote]

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