How to ask teacher to re-assess reading level

[Earthmerlin]

Hi. I'm new to this site & forum but have been reading posts for some time now. I have a young Kinder who is bored stiff of her teacher's readers. My kid is VERY quiet & cautious & she is a people pleaser. The teacher's a veteran, has 24 students & I' m sure she's pretty good at reaching most kids' needs. I'm just concerned she's not fully challenging mine. At home my daughter can read words like 'beautiful, Arctic, eucalyptus, courageous' but is given readers with too simple words (i.e. 'shell, mad, zoo'). Her comprehension is through the roof too. When I give her more challenging readers she has taken to them with gusto & has said 'I like this book b/c its words & ideas make me think'. I have approached the teacher before explaining my daughter's unique characteristics (quiet but bright) but don' t honestly feel heard. As you can probably tell I supplement her schoolwork but believe she should also be challenged there as well. I certainly don't want her to associate reading as mind-numbing--that's my main concern.

 

Look, I'm also a veteran teacher & I get how hard it can be to reach all kids. But now it's my kid we're talking about & I have a vested interest in her outcome. I wonder if it's only fluency the teacher's looking for or perhaps it's the quick but loud kids that garner attention--there already are higher level readers in her class. Maybe she just believes a child nearly 1 year younger than her peers can't possibly rise to the 'lofty Kinder Core Curriculum' (her words, not mine). Ugggghhh!!! What do I do? We still have nearly 1/2 year left of Kinder & I feel I should broach the subject again but don' t want to seem like a 'my kid's a genius' parent. How do you politely yet firmly say' My child needs more challenge?' Any suggestions?

[SKL]

Did I understand you to say that your daughter is not in the highest reading group in the class?  If so, I would politely ask the teacher for her reasons.  Bring along a typical book your daughter has read independently at home, to show her what she can do.  See what the teacher says and if the answers don't satisfy you, address the specific issues.

 

My kids have never had any individualized reading instruction and they are in 3rd grade.  One of them was able to read Harry Potter at age 5.  It did not matter.  Some schools just don't bother with reading levels outside of free reading.  But if yours does have reading groups, your daughter should probably be in the top one.  It still may not exactly challenge her, but it might be less painful for her.

[newbieoftwo]

Is this Kindergarten? My daughter is in a wonderful Kindergarten class and can probably read at a 2nd grade level (estimating!), but she is very slowly moving up in reading level at school. Why? The school requires the student to show proficiency in each level before moving up. This means my daughter must bring home a reader at each level for at least a week so that she read it and show comprehension. I have a good relationship with the teacher as she was my son's teacher last year. She has mentioned several times that my daughter is not challenged at all by the levels so far. However, her hands are tied by the rules she has to follow. 

 

 

[Jennifer N.]

You've already gotten some really good feedback so I am just posting to commiserate with you.  If it's of any help to you.  We are in a similar position in our family with my 3rd child who is in 1st grade.  I pretty much let it go with my older two but decided to speak up with my 3rd.  I did ask about reading groups with my older two, was always told reading groups were held regularly, but they weren't.   This year my daughter is being assessed way below her reading level.  I've talked with the teacher about it but really we're not making much headway.  My daughter sounds a lot like yours, very good reader and student and also very compliant.  If talking to the teacher has done anything, it's just to make her more aware that while the assessment the school's using has assessed on a certain level, her reading skills are likely higher and the teacher seems to be spending some time with her in small group in the classroom now.  Whereas before during reading time (Daily 5 where we live), she was pretty much working on her own.

 

I keep asking myself what would my graduate professors do in this situation (I ask myself that question because they would sometimes share personal stories in class and I'd think, wow you said that to a teacher)?  I think they'd ask for conferences with the reading specialist and then the principal.  But I just don't see what good in the end that's going to do.  I have seen before on the boards here that others with children in public school seem to be in a similar situation.  It's baffling to me because where I taught and how I was trained as a reading teacher, I was expected to assess all my students to their top ability in reading (I always ran out of time for the above grade level readers but I did get them assessed to above grade level).  I also taught regular reading groups, more often with below and on grade level readers and about 2-3 times a week for the above grade level readers.  I wasn't perfect but I did meet with all my students every week.

 

At this point and as I told the teacher, I would just like my daughter to be exposed to higher level books in the classroom for her independent reading time etc.  My daughter is so compliant, at school that is, when I suggested to her to take a book from home to school she said, I don't know if I'm allowed to.  Also, she wasn't aware of where a lot of the chapter books in the classroom were.  So just by talking with the teacher, at least we got it cleared up, yes you can bring a book from home, and the teacher pointed out some book boxes in the classroom with higher level books that my daughter hadn't seen.  For whatever reason, my older two had ready access to higher level books for independent reading time in their 1st grade classrooms.

[Ellie]

My mother went through this with my youngest brother, which was remarkable because my mother was never very much involved with how we were doing in school. Anyway, she nagged the teacher until the teacher agreed to retest, and it turned out that my brother was reading at post-high school level (he was only 10ish at that time). Sadly, it didn't make any practical difference, such that she even homeschooled him for a year. o_0

 

Be that genius  kid's mother. You can do that and still be polite. :-)

[Momling]

I've had four public school kindergartners at various times and have volunteered tons of hours. At our kindergarten, the focus is not on academic achievement at all. The goals are learning how to interact with other people in the class, using tools like pencils, scissors, rulers, glue, and learning how to follow classroom directions. Sometimes these goals are met in the context of more traditional educational activities. They have the kids singing, doing arts and crafts, listening to stories, playing outside and practicing writing letters and numbers. But that's about it. At first it really bothered me... I'm very goal oriented and did not want just another preschool type experience for my kids. But looking back. I realize how glad I am that they had this fun, non-pressured, loving early educational experience. It's not that they couldn't have learned more, it's that I've found it's okay to start slow and gentle. I'd say if your kindergartner is happy, let your ideals of academic challenge at kindergarten level go. You can always after-school if you feel your child wants more. If she is thriving though, I wouldn't interfere.

[displace]

Kind of an older thread, but is your DD bored at school too or disliking school?  If she's "just" bored with the books that's one thing, but if the whole day is boring that's another.  I would ask for a teacher conference to help figure out something for your situation.  The school's main goal is to make sure all the children meet the requirements.   Depending on the school, they may differentiate to some practical level.  If she enjoys being with the kids and doing the stuff there... IDK.  If she is bored all day long I'd see about alternatives, whatever that may be in your instance: afterschooling, acceleration, gifted classes, testing, homeschooling, etc.  To be reading such advanced words at such a young age she may be quite gifted and that's a whole other topic (especially profoundly gifted)!

 

I understand the concept of just being a kid and not pushing academics, but there's also a very real problem of gifted students getting discouraged in school and not challenged, being bored and not living up to their potential.  There are some interesting books and ideas about gifted children and wasting potential.  There are other things to learn in kindergarten too, but gifted children are different in some ways and may need different instruction or guidance.