Reading for 4th grade level and up

[Melenie]

What do you do for reading for these kids. I have a 6 year old who is reading above grade at the moment. We have finished phonics instruction to 4th and she is currently reading loud to me every school day and has 30min - 1 hour of free reading everyday.

 

For reading in school - she reads a Pathway reader chapter and an Aesop fable to me. These books will not last long, I need to get something else for her. I would prefer a book that can last us at least half a year. Something that has short stories or chapters that are challenging to a 4th grade level, but not too hard or completely over her head. Any ideas?

 

BTW - we do science and history reading as well, but I either find books that are above her or below here level.

 

I was also wondering what the rest of you do.

[galtgrl]

A book to last 6 months?! I don't think you'll find it if she's reading that voraciously- ask me how I know! :tongue_smilie:

You'll probably find frequent library trips the most effective solution - that's what we did.

[Melenie]

A book to last 6 months?! I don't think you'll find it if she's reading that voraciously- ask me how I know! :tongue_smilie:

You'll probably find frequent library trips the most effective solution - that's what we did.

 

You are right, I think I just need to shift my thinking here and get good literature and let her read to me from that. It would be nice to have a graded reader though and not have to keep looking for appropriate books on or just above her level.

[2smartones]

Agreed... the only thing that has worked for us is library books! Find a book (for yourself) called "Some of My Best Friends Are Books". It's a reading guide for gifted readers and lists lots of books for you to consider. Most or all will be found at the library.

Edited July 5, 2010 by 2smartones

[nmoira]

Try her on the first Freddy the Pig book, Freddy Goes to Florida. The series is fun, you don't have to worry about content, and she'll gain a fair bit of incidental knowledge along the way... and there are over 20 good-sized books in the series.

Edited July 5, 2010 by nmoira

[Staceyshoe]

Agreed... the only thing that has worked for us is library books! Find a book (for yourself) called "Some of My Best Friends Are Books". It's a reading guide for gifted readers and lists lots of books for you to consider. Most or all will be found at the library.

 

:iagree:

[Melenie]

Try her on the first Freddy the Pig book, Freddy Goes to Florida. The series is fun, you don't have to worry about content, and she'll gain a fair bit of incidental knowledge along the way... and there are over 20 good-sized books in the series.

 

Thanks, this looks interesting and the kind of thing that would appeal to her.

 

I have the "Some of my best friends are books" on my Paperbackswap list, I think it is time to buy it though.:tongue_smilie:

[MissKNG]

My big girl loves the Ralph S Mouse books - there are 3 in the series. I think they are 4th grade reading level.

[Crimson Wife]

My DD likes reading The Book of Virtues and The Moral Compass edited by William Bennett, and Everyday Graces by Karen Santorum. She also loves the Young Folks' Shelf of Books set that FIL gave her.

[Dmmetler]

I have a similar child, and something that's helped here is that when her former school cleaned out their book room, they let her take home some of the old readers. Not only are there a lot of nice stories in those older 4th-6th grade reading books, but many of them are chapters from longer books, which then leads her to the library to get those books. So consider trying to get your hands on the older school reading books at your child's reading level, just as a place to start.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Have you heard of Classic Worktexts? Or Shakespeare Worktexts?

[Melenie]

Wow, some great ideas.

 

Crimson wife - I have the Moral Compass and have been trying to find a way to incorporate it into our school day. For some reason I never thought of her reading it to me.:tongue_smilie: At least that is one book that will take her some time to get through. Thanks!

 

I am going to look at all the others that were suggested, thanks everyone!

[TracyP]

Try her on the first Freddy the Pig book, Freddy Goes to Florida. The series is fun, you don't have to worry about content, and she'll gain a fair bit of incidental knowledge along the way... and there are over 20 good-sized books in the series.

 

These look awesome and my library carries them. Thanks. :001_smile:

[Melenie]

Have you heard of Classic Worktexts? Or Shakespeare Worktexts?

 

These look great.:001_smile:

[MaMa2005]

DS (just turned 5) is reading on a 5th-6th grade level so I know your dilemma. We use the library extensively.

 

If your DD is interested in Greek mythology, Mary Pope Osborne (The Magic Tree House) has a set of six books about Odysseus' travels. They are written on a high 4th - mid 5th grade level. DS has really enjoyed them over the past couple of weeks. They don't take long to read, but boy, the conversations that we have had are incredible. :D

 

I think we all forget just how much our kiddos read. I just looked at DS's reading log for the summer library program. It started on June 1st and as of today, he has read 29 books - most being around 100 pages in length. And I wonder why I am always playing catch up :tongue_smilie:.

[Melenie]

DS (just turned 5) is reading on a 5th-6th grade level so I know your dilemma. We use the library extensively.

 

If your DD is interested in Greek mythology, Mary Pope Osborne (The Magic Tree House) has a set of six books about Odysseus' travels. They are written on a high 4th - mid 5th grade level. DS has really enjoyed them over the past couple of weeks. They don't take long to read, but boy, the conversations that we have had are incredible. :D

 

I think we all forget just how much our kiddos read. I just looked at DS's reading log for the summer library program. It started on June 1st and as of today, he has read 29 books - most being around 100 pages in length. And I wonder why I am always playing catch up :tongue_smilie:.

 

We just finished the series a few weeks ago. She loved them all!

[crazyforlatin]

DS (just turned 5) is reading on a 5th-6th grade level so I know your dilemma. We use the library extensively.

 

If your DD is interested in Greek mythology, Mary Pope Osborne (The Magic Tree House) has a set of six books about Odysseus' travels. They are written on a high 4th - mid 5th grade level. DS has really enjoyed them over the past couple of weeks. They don't take long to read, but boy, the conversations that we have had are incredible. :D

 

I think we all forget just how much our kiddos read. I just looked at DS's reading log for the summer library program. It started on June 1st and as of today, he has read 29 books - most being around 100 pages in length. And I wonder why I am always playing catch up :tongue_smilie:.

 

Tales from the Odyssey is wonderful. In fact, I think you recommended it to me! DD5 is reading that now, and I will have her read Sutcliff's version next. I'm also having a hard time finding enough books for her at an advanced level with appropriate content. I borrowed all the Magic Tree House books to keep her occupied and, even though it's easy reading for her, she's gleaned a bunch of facts. She's also reading your other recommendation, Time Warp Trio, which seems to be slightly more difficult than Magic Tree House.

[Jen in PA]

Don't forget nonfiction! There is a ton of great nonfiction out there for kids and I find that both of my dc often prefer it to fiction.

[zaichiki]

How about trying some of the read alouds from Sonlight Core K or Core 1? She could read them aloud to you (though it is usually meant to happen the other way around). They're terrific books. Our library has most of them.

[ElizaG]

Are you looking for something that's difficult for her to read, or just something that she'll find interesting and thought-provoking?

 

If it's the latter, you might take a look at Memoria Press's new Literature Guides, which are study guides for classic children's books. We've ordered a few of the 2nd and 3rd grade guides to check them out, and they look pretty substantial. Although our 6 year old is capable of reading at a 6th grade level, I think she'd get plenty of food for thought from an in-depth study of these books that are a "mere" 1-2 years above age level. ;)

 

The current plan is for us to take turns reading aloud, and do most of the workbook exercises orally. I'm hoping to give her an experience of books as something that can be savored slowly and discussed with others... not just inhaled by the stack like fast-food sliders. :tongue_smilie:

[Melenie]

Are you looking for something that's difficult for her to read, or just something that she'll find interesting and thought-provoking?

 

If it's the latter, you might take a look at Memoria Press's new Literature Guides, which are study guides for classic children's books. We've ordered a few of the 2nd and 3rd grade guides to check them out, and they look pretty substantial. Although our 6 year old is capable of reading at a 6th grade level, I think she'd get plenty of food for thought from an in-depth study of these books that are a "mere" 1-2 years above age level. ;)

 

The current plan is for us to take turns reading aloud, and do most of the workbook exercises orally. I'm hoping to give her an experience of books as something that can be savored slowly and discussed with others... not just inhaled by the stack like fast-food sliders. :tongue_smilie:

 

Mostly a book at or above her level that she can read to me. I want to be able to correct any errors in pronunciation, we can discuss vocabulary words, talk about punctuation and so on.

 

She reads lots of books by herself, both fiction and non fiction. These are normally "comfortable reading" either at or below her level.

[Melenie]

How about trying some of the read alouds from Sonlight Core K or Core 1? She could read them aloud to you (though it is usually meant to happen the other way around). They're terrific books. Our library has most of them.

 

Thanks, I am going to look at these and it would be great if I can get them at the library.:001_smile:

[ElizaG]

Mostly a book at or above her level that she can read to me. I want to be able to correct any errors in pronunciation, we can discuss vocabulary words, talk about punctuation and so on.

 

She reads lots of books by herself, both fiction and non fiction. These are normally "comfortable reading" either at or below her level.

 

I guess my approach is a bit different, in that I don't feel the need to ask DD to read above her current comfort level. It seems to me that gifted readers tend to keep advancing at a fast rate on their own, no matter what their parents or teachers do. In the meantime, I'd like to offer her books that have rich language and interesting content, so we can spend our time digging into the sentence structure, precise word definitions, plot analysis, etc. She's naturally wired to be a very strong reader; my hope is to help her become an equally strong writer and literary scholar.

 

FWIW, I looked up the "grade level equivalents" (based on the lexile score) for some of MP's book selections, and as I suspected, they're relatively high.

 

2nd grade: Little House in the Big Woods (4.2), Mr. Popper's Penguins (4.9)

3rd grade: Farmer Boy (4.3), The Moffats (5.2), Homer Price (6.6), Charlotte's Web (4.9)

4th grade: Heidi (7.9), The Lion, The Witch... (6.1)

5th grade: Robin Hood (9.0), The Hobbit (8.1)

 

 

Maybe I'm delusional, but I think DD can get a great deal out of studying these books over the next few years, even if she's able to read them with relative ease (and even if she's already read them on her own, or heard them as read-alouds, as is the case with a few titles). :001_smile: There's a lot of depth in this list.

[lisaj]

My DS6 is reading at a high school level (per several comprehension and other standardized tests), and I've been figuring out options for the past year.

 

First thought... I'm sure we all know that reading ability is different than reading comprehension, and both are different than critical thinking reading skills. The latter is generally what is tested on the SAT and other achievement tests. I just offer that because I've met a lot of people who assume their children are at a certain reading level just because they can physically read books for that grade level. Reading level itself is tested differently, which is important to know as their primary educators.

 

We have consulted with reading specialists to make sure we're not leaving any holes by dropping out of the standard reading group types of programs that they do elem school. While my DS doesn't need "reading lessons" per se, he could still use practice with higher level critical reading/analyzing. When we start 1st next month, we'll try Critical Thinking Resources' Reading Detective, grades 5-6.

 

We also use a lot of middle school reading portals. We found one on Harry Potter, and it not only had the reading comp quizzes, but tons of great creative writing ideas to go with it. Some of them are designed for the classroom, but they're easy to modify.

 

We also tie a lot of our "school reading" in with our study of SOTW. For ex, when we studied Greece, we took a month and read every book on Greek Myths that we could find. You can always find LA activiites to go with these subjects online, too.

 

Finally, we're going to sign our son up for EPGY's online literature course, as well as the math and grammar ones. It looks like the literature piece has them read books on their own and then work on the comp through exercises. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds a lot like the lexile program DS was doing through his elem. school last year when he was in kindergarten.

[Melenie]

 

 

Maybe I'm delusional, but I think DD can get a great deal out of studying these books over the next few years, even if she's able to read them with relative ease (and even if she's already read them on her own, or heard them as read-alouds, as is the case with a few titles). :001_smile: There's a lot of depth in this list.

 

Of course you are not delusional, but my need for an at or above grade level "reader" is more for oration practice than for plot analysis, in dept discussions or even the exposure to great literature. Yes, I want all of that, but that is not what I was seeking here.

 

Right now, DD chooses to read below her level for comfort and in our school time I challenge her with reading words above her level, expose her to new vocabulary words and help her with pronunciation. Reading aloud is the first steps in learning how to be a good orator and for us this is an important skill to develop early. Especially for my shy 6 year old.

Edited July 7, 2010 by Melenie

[kmacnchs]

I would prefer a book that can last us at least half a year. Something that has short stories or chapters that are challenging to a 4th grade level, but not too hard or completely over her head. Any ideas?

 

 

Kipling's "Just So Stories"?

[kmacnchs]

What was suggested to me was getting age-appropriate read-alouds and instead of reading them to her, have her read them to you! I am doing that with my 4yo right now. She has been reading McCloskey, Kipling, R.L.Stevenson, and Longfellow (there are books with their words with illustrations). Most of these suggestions I got from the Ambleside Online website.

 

It took her a couple of days to get through Rikki-Tikki-Tavi but she enjoyed it and it was challenging for her! (perfect combo!)

[ElizaG]

Of course you are not delusional, but my need for an at or above grade level "reader" is more for oration practice than for plot analysis, in dept discussions or even the exposure to great literature. Yes, I want all of that, but that is not what I was seeking here.

Okay, fair enough. I'm not familiar with oration practice, at least not in this context. Is this something from Quintilian?

 

Anyway, the MP suggestion still stands, as it looks as if nearly all their titles are rated above 4th grade level. Of course, it might not be feasible to spread a single one out over half a year (especially as there might be a mutiny from little people who want to know the ending :D).

[Melenie]

Okay, fair enough. I'm not familiar with oration practice, at least not in this context. Is this something from Quintilian?

 

Anyway, the MP suggestion still stands, as it looks as if nearly all their titles are rated above 4th grade level. Of course, it might not be feasible to spread a single one out over half a year (especially as there might be a mutiny from little people who want to know the ending :D).

 

I first read about it in the WTM, suggesting that you let a child read out loud until 6th grade to correct any errors, practice fluency and so on. The oration part I cannot remember, it could be from Classical Conversations or Latin Centered Curriculum or a number of articles on line. I can look a little later and get back to you if you would like.

[Mommy2BeautifulGirls]

I'm hoping to give her an experience of books as something that can be savored slowly and discussed with others... not just inhaled by the stack like fast-food sliders. :tongue_smilie:

 

 

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

[ElizaG]

I first read about it in the WTM, suggesting that you let a child read out loud until 6th grade to correct any errors, practice fluency and so on. The oration part I cannot remember, it could be from Classical Conversations or Latin Centered Curriculum or a number of articles on line. I can look a little later and get back to you if you would like.

Thanks for the offer; I'd appreciate it, if you get the chance.

 

While I've seen convincing arguments (from SWB and others) in favor of continuing oral reading throughout the elementary grades, this is the first time I've come across the idea that we should be seeking out challenging material for this activity. Most people seem to give the opposite advice, i.e., that we should have them read passages that are somewhat easy for them, so they can devote their attention to the presentation rather than the content. I'd be interested to know the reasons for the other point of view.

[Melenie]

Thanks for the offer; I'd appreciate it, if you get the chance.

 

While I've seen convincing arguments (from SWB and others) in favor of continuing oral reading throughout the elementary grades, this is the first time I've come across the idea that we should be seeking out challenging material for this activity. Most people seem to give the opposite advice, i.e., that we should have them read passages that are somewhat easy for them, so they can devote their attention to the presentation rather than the content. I'd be interested to know the reasons for the other point of view.

 

As her teacher, I choose to challenge her in this way. She loves words and we enjoy coming across new words together. :001_smile:

Edited July 8, 2010 by Melenie

[TracyP]

Thanks for the offer; I'd appreciate it, if you get the chance.

 

While I've seen convincing arguments (from SWB and others) in favor of continuing oral reading throughout the elementary grades, this is the first time I've come across the idea that we should be seeking out challenging material for this activity. Most people seem to give the opposite advice, i.e., that we should have them read passages that are somewhat easy for them, so they can devote their attention to the presentation rather than the content. I'd be interested to know the reasons for the other point of view.

 

Oops. See below.

Edited July 8, 2010 by TracyP
double post

[TracyP]

Thanks for the offer; I'd appreciate it, if you get the chance.

 

While I've seen convincing arguments (from SWB and others) in favor of continuing oral reading throughout the elementary grades, this is the first time I've come across the idea that we should be seeking out challenging material for this activity. Most people seem to give the opposite advice, i.e., that we should have them read passages that are somewhat easy for them, so they can devote their attention to the presentation rather than the content. I'd be interested to know the reasons for the other point of view.

 

I choose books that are challenging for my dc to read aloud. TWTM suggested this so you could help your child with pronunciation and comprehension of unfamiliar words. With a 4 yo reader this also gives us the option to read much more interesting books than would be at/below his reading level.

 

ETA: I think this is a skill/age difference. For us this is to become better readers. To become better at presentation it makes sense to use books below reading level.

[nitascool]

Kipling's "Just So Stories"?

 

I just had to laugh. Really I almost woke the kids I was laughing so hard. Remembering the first time I tried to read "Just So Stories" to my boys. In the end I had to give up and get the Audio Book.

 

For example:

 

 

HOW THE WHALE GOT HIS THROAT

 

 

 

ON the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved

(hehe mommy am I your best beloved? No I am! his brother says),

there was a Whale, and he ate fishes (

fishes mommy what do you mean fishes, that isn't a true word is it? followed by a five minute discussion on why fishes is a proper word even though we don't use it in today's vernacular).

He ate the starfish and the garfish,

(what's a garfish?)

and the crab and the dab, and the plaice

(mommy stumbles on unfamiliar word... children laugh)

and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel,

(what are...)

and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth--so!

(Why did you say so like that? What does that mean?)

Till at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea,

(that can't be true because God only created once and there are lots of fish now. No, fishes, lots of fishes.)

and he was a small 'Stute Fish,

(is a Stute fish like a flute fish can we look that up online?)

and he swam a little behind the Whale's right ear, so as to be out of harm's way. Then the Whale stood up on his tail and said, 'I'm hungry.' And the small 'Stute Fish said in a small 'stute voice, 'Noble and generous Cetacean,

(What's a Cetacean?)

have you ever tasted Man?

'

 

So you can see that there was no way we could use this massive collection of stories as a read-aloud and me keep my sanity and hora of perfection... hehe

[alisonslp]

how about the old McGuffey readers? We have used them as our readers because they are great stories that teach morals, character, family devotion. I also like them because their difficulty level is much more advanced than the readers of today, but the content is very innocent for the most part, even in the upper books, because of the time period in which they were written. All of my children have loved reading them. The stories are mainly short - 10-15 minutes each - and they have vocabulary words linked to the stories. the twins (9) will be finishing level 4 at the start of this year (they read at a 7-8th grade level). Most stories are fairly easy for them but there are always a few vocab words that are new to them.

 

I would also highly recommend the color fairy books by andrew lang. There are several colors. I believe the first is the blue one. they are collections of old fairy tales and snippets of famous stories.

 

A couple of others I would recommend would be the grim brothers fairy tales and Hans Christian Anderson collections. These stories were written several decades ago and have higher level vocabulary than the watered down versions of today. You could also read several versions of the same fairy tales and discuss differences, why the author might have changed parts, etc.