Reading over the summer

[yellowbee]

My K kid's guided reading group at school is at an end of third grade level right now. At home he reads anything from a first to fifth grade level. His teacher told us to keep reading over the summer a step or two above his guided reading level, and have him keep reading out loud.

 

I was thinking of just picking up a McGruffey reader at his level (if I can figure that out) and have him read to us from it each day. He is really good about switching things up on his own (fiction to nonfiction books), and just let him have the freedom to read whatever he wants the rest of the time.

 

Think this works? Would you do anything differently? I struggle at finding books all the time for him that are appropriate, so I thought if I did a bit of read alouds at home at his level I would feel better about keeping him going with what the school has him doing.

 

Edited to add in grade levels for the letter levels the school has told us.

[chicagoshannon]

I have no idea what any of those letters mean, but how about trying some non fiction. Maybe go to the science section of the library and pick out some of those books. Has he read The Boxcar Children? There are tons of them.

[yellowbee]

Thanks for the ideas Shannon! He has read a lot of the Boxcar children already and likes them. Our library just doesn't have a lot of them. Might just need to start tracking more down. :)

 

I went back and added in the grade level equivalents that the school has told us correspond to the letters they use. I am so used to updates in letters, I forget that they mean nothing outside the school. :)

[Kathleen.]

Try Scholastic Book Wizard.

[SKL]

Personally I'd let him read whatever he wants, independently, unless you have some specific skills you want to help him improve over the summer. Or unless he is resistant to reading independently. ... When my dd was that age, the only thing I asked her to read (and only occasionally) was nonfiction stuff like biographies. Biographies were chosen because they usually touch on various subject areas - history, geography, science, arts, citizenship, etc. My dd is a voracious reader and needed little encouragement to read fiction.