Rivka Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 My kindergartener (6 in April) has liked reading for some time, but it's just crossed over into a full-time passion - she's moving ahead by leaps and bounds. I was expecting a more orderly progression, so I'm at a bit of a loss for what I should be doing with her reading education. Last week I asked the librarian for suggestions that were about at a third-grade reading level. She gave us one of Judy Blume's The Pain and the Great One books. I came home from work one afternoon to find that Alex had read the whole book - 107 pages - on her own. I flipped through and asked a couple of comprehension questions, which she answered fully and easily. This afternoon, while I was at work, she read three Magic Tree House books. I think she still needs to be reading aloud to me. We tried a nonfiction reader (Step Into Reading series) about Abigail Adams recently, and it was surprisingly difficult - it had a lot of big words and she made some stumbles. She's admitted that she skips over some hard words when she's reading to herself, although it doesn't seem to impair her overall comprehension much. And she has some pronunciation issues - she recently corrected my pronunciation of "myth" because she thought it should rhyme with "scythe." But I'm not sure what I should have her reading to me now. Should I keep raising the difficulty level until she's stumbling? Should I let her fly through books which are pleasurable and fun, figuring that we'll still run into pronunciation issues? And how do I find books at her reading level that are appropriate to her age? I don't want to limit her to just the classics, but at the same time, stories about the middle-elementary social world are really beyond her. We get our "language arts" (literary terms, etc.) from Five in a Row, so we don't need to do anything differently there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Books she reads to you should be a little challenging, so you can help her with new skills. Books she reads herself should be at her level or below - not frustrating, just enjoyable. Google "scholastic book wizard" and it will help you find books at her level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyLittleBears Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 I agree. Reading to herself should be fun and not require work. You don' want her to dislike it. Also, reading easier books actually builds fluency. (3r's by Ruth Beechick) Books she reads to you should be a bit more challenging. Sort of like a follow up to reading lessons. You're doing a great job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarrieF Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Books she reads to you should be a little challenging, so you can help her with new skills. Books she reads herself should be at her level or below - not frustrating, just enjoyable. Google "scholastic book wizard" and it will help you find books at her level. :iagree: Because of her age and the "newness" of her reading ability, definitely still have her read aloud to you so that you can guide her in pronunciation, fluency, etc. As far as reading for enjoyment, I think Sonlight has wonderful readers/lists, so maybe just browse their lists for ideas that are age/content appropriate, then give her some good reads and get out of her way! :001_smile: That is really a wonderful "problem" to have! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennynd Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 each kid are different, so I am just stating what my son did when he was in K, He taught himself how to read when he was 22 months, he was and still is a fabulous "decoder". when he was 4 , we knew that he reads high level but with no comprehensive and we seek for help from school and got none. (well, he was 4) .. anyway a little b**tch**ing, My point is that u probably need to check her comprehensive, if she understnd what she reads. Why not let her read whatever she liked... if not, for us, we start to strength the boys vocabuary and it helps a lot, he is reading RL6 book and recalling detail and all that. I believe that is really starts that it is fun to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Absolutely let her read easier books on her own. And there are so, so many for this stage. Wonderful ones and fun ones! Obviously, there are the series books. Many of them are like Magic Treehouse - the writing seems extremely repetitive to an adult audience, but the focus on plot helps kids cement understandings. So things like Ivy and Bean, Judy Moody, Stink, Cam Jansen, The A-Z Mysteries, The Secrets of Droon, The Time Warp Trio, Flat Stanley, etc. But it sounds like she could do slightly harder series books too - Spiderwick Chronicles, Boxcar Children, Clementine, Hank the Cowdog, Tashi, The Fairy Tale Detectives, etc. Then you can look at some of the books that are often considered read alouds for the early grades. Some of them might challenge her slightly, but the literary quality is going to be a little higher, so things like Mr. Popper's Penguins, Charlotte's Web, many of the books by Beverly Cleary, many of the books by Roald Dahl, many of the books by Dick King-Smith, etc. But I would push her a little for reading aloud to you - just a little though. Sometimes just nonfiction will do it - it's often written so differently so that even if it's supposedly the same level, kids who fly through fiction get stuck a little (and vice versa). One of my sons is almost at this stage. He's at the 2 chapter books a week rate now, but the speed at which he's increasing just astounds me. In another month or two, I'm sure it'll be practically a book a day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivka Posted January 22, 2011 Author Share Posted January 22, 2011 Oh, I know she should be reading whatever is easy and fun for her independent choices. She has plenty of Magic Tree House, Secrets of Droon, A to Z mysteries, Disney fairy books, etc. and I'm happy to let her tear right through them. But I collected them with the idea that they would be the right level for "school" reading, and now I'm scrambling to figure out how much higher up I need to go to find the right level of challenge. This is a kid who was reading Green Eggs and Ham six months ago. I think that if she'd been reading at three I would be more prepared now. As it is, I have a nicely-selected list of grade two books that is going to be useless for school. I just filled her "reading time basket" with nonfiction (DK Eyewitness Readers, If You Lived in... books, Jean Fritz biographies), and I will take a look at some K-2 read-aloud recommendations. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 I'd also recommend that you obtain some books on tape; perhaps your library has some. If you can get some of the books that she has been reading herself, it will be a good opportunity for her to hear some of those harder words that she may be skipping over. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Interesting--I've been taught that books kids read aloud should be at or just below their level. You are going for read aloud fluency there, and shouldn't use challenging books. However, books you read to you child should be above their ability to decode, at least somewhat. I think the disconnect in the advice some are giving you and I am giving you is that many folks think the "teaching books", the school books, if you will, have to be read aloud by the child during the lesson. Actually, the child can read for comprehension silently during the lesson, then the passage can be talked about--and read aloud by the parent. The child can then also read the passage aloud, after having read it silently and after hearing it read, to work on the pronounciation/vocab and other skills. Does that make sense? So, you can go harder with school books, but don't expect perfect read aloud ability. I guess I'm saying don't confuse reading aloud ability with reading ability--comprehension. Both are important, but they are two different skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 (edited) Decoding skills, pronunciation, comprehension, social readiness and many other areas of reading can be at all different levels. Give her books at a variety of levels, and ask her to perform only with the books that are at the correct level for that area of reading. So work on pronunciation with easier books, than you work on comprehension with, if you notice a disconnect in these two areas. Let her be the guide, unless you notice that isn't working. Most children strive to be stimulated but not overwhelmed. They often know what they need. If you are going to use a prepared curriculum, make sure it easy enough, rather than challenging enough. She can challenge herself during free reading. My 6 year old insisted on being allowed to read the adult novel Jurassic Park, but struggled to complete the PS first grade reading curriculum :-0 Edited January 22, 2011 by Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChandlerMom Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Interesting--I've been taught that books kids read aloud should be at or just below their level. You are going for read aloud fluency there, and shouldn't use challenging books. However, books you read to you child should be above their ability to decode, at least somewhat. I think the disconnect in the advice some are giving you and I am giving you is that many folks think the "teaching books", the school books, if you will, have to be read aloud by the child during the lesson. Actually, the child can read for comprehension silently during the lesson, then the passage can be talked about--and read aloud by the parent. The child can then also read the passage aloud, after having read it silently and after hearing it read, to work on the pronounciation/vocab and other skills. Does that make sense? So, you can go harder with school books, but don't expect perfect read aloud ability. I guess I'm saying don't confuse reading aloud ability with reading ability--comprehension. Both are important, but they are two different skills. Previous post talked about books read by a child for fun (easy) and books read aloud BY the child (at level or slightly challenging). That isn't incompatible with what you are saying, since books read aloud TO a child (by an adult) can be at a higher level than the child reads (either for fun or aloud). So I don't see a disconnect. :) As to difficulty of books read aloud BY the child: don't want to split hairs here, but I think the newest readers should be reading aloud at or below level and the more confident readers at or above. I think this one depends ALOT on the individual child and where they are in the reading spectrum, it's hard if not impossible to come up with a "rule". One option is to just have your dc read a page or chapter of whatever they are reading for fun aloud to you, then they can read to themselves. When dd was really burning thru her first books, I would read aloud to/with her books she'd just read since she enjoyed that and it caught any misread words. Books on tape would probably have the same effect. With 7yo DD, she burns thru a 130 pg book in 30 minutes, but resists moving to bigger/tougher novels. I don't worry it since she also devours non-fiction written at a MS or even adult level, so I figure as long as the content of her fiction for fun is age appropriate (Judy Bloom hater here, :D), I just keep stocking up from the public library and call it good. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 To me, I let my kids read whatever they want on their own for fun. However, for reading aloud to me, which is what I think Rivka was talking about, I have them read things for very short intervals that are at or just above their level in order to challenge them. Reading a page from the read aloud book is a good example of this. I do this because I find that it doesn't matter how much they practice a reading skill in a controlled workbook or with a game - it won't really cement until they've practiced it with a book and the best way to get them to do it is aloud with me. However, I would say that the majority of reading kids do should be easy for them and therefore a little below their level. If that makes any sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Go here http://www.dianefrankenstein.com/curiosities/ if you like the tips then try Frankenstein's book, Reading Together. I bought the e-version on iBooks, and after reading a bit of it got a few of the suggested titles, who knew ds would like a book about a girl raccoon (Francis) :001_huh: Anyway it's a good read twelve bucks well spent;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmacnchs Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 I look at Sonlight, Ambleside Online, and Veritas Press for booklists of great books to read. My dd LOVES to read as well and I was running out of stuff for her to read so I just checked out all of the Sonlight, AO, and VP Kindergarten books from my library. After she read all of those, we moved on to 1st grade books and now are onto 2nd grade books. I chose these so I wouldn't feel the need to read the books before she read them (a difficult task b/c of how quickly she devours them) since I trust these curricula. I let her pick out books (her faves are babar, curious george, clifford, and franklin, but then again, she's 4) at the library to read by herself and I get those books from the previously mentioned lists for her to read to me. After she reads them to me, she will also read them to herself later before we turn in the books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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