Comments on: How did I miss this?

By: Newbie

Newbie — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:59:05 +0000

The CTY horse class online was an excellent experience for our then third grader. She learned to THINK about what she reading, and it wasn’t Mom asking all these questions. Excellent teacher who really built a relationship with our daughter, even though it was all online, plus a phone call. Held her to a high standard, modeled excellent feedback skills.

By: Crimson Wife

Crimson Wife — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:00:59 +0000

Maybe have the student do an EPGY or CTY distance learning course? While independent reading is fine, I personally think there is a lot to be gained from having some sort of discussion about the literature being read.

I’m planning to have my verbally gifted DD do the EPGY “Reading and Writing About Literature” course as soon as I feel she’s up to the writing part (darn those uneven abilities!)

By: kevin

kevin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:52:01 +0000

Lexile levels are good for kids learning to read, but once kids get a high enough lexile level, the measure is pretty meaningless.
My son hit 1027 at the end of 1st grade, 1131 at the beginning of 2nd, and 1721 by the end of 3rd. He was *not* ready to read graduate texts at that point (though freshman college books were in range, if the subject material was interesting enough). By that point, we totally ignored reading level, and paid attention only to content (both factual and emotional). None of his teachers made him read “at his Lexile level”, luckily, as the elementary school libraries did not go that high.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:20:07 +0000

Thank you for this and the link to Shively’s blog. This is timely for me–I have a 5th grade son in the same boat. His school uses Lexile Levels for reading, which works for most 5th graders to match them to books. My son’s Lexile isn’t even in the ballpark of most elementary kids, and “learning to read” approaches just don’t apply. My son’s teacher told him he could read “all the way down” to books at the 900 Lexile level. Which basically means he is being told he can’t read anything by Steinbeck or Hemmingway, because they’re too easy. Silly.

These things just don’t apply once a kid gets to a certain point, and right now we’re hard-pressed enough just to find things that are interesting and age-appropriate (not too emotionally mature) for him to read at the same time.