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278urmombiggay t1_jdevh73 wrote

Reply to comment by VisualGeologist6258 in Why Kids Aren’t Falling in Love With Reading by drak0bsidian

At one point in my elementary education we were restricted by reading levels and could only read a higher level after we took some test that showed comprehension of what we read. I'm sure someone remembers the name for this but I don't. Long story short, I read a book that was at one of the highest levels and passed the test and after that my teacher kind of shrugged and said I could read whatever I want. Limiting students is useless, especially when they're so young and their sponges are like brains.

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Beamarchionesse t1_jdf0a38 wrote

For some reason "AR" is ringing a bell in my head, but I can't remember what it stood for. [Searches] Accelerated Reader?

Reading was the skill that came easiest to me. This unfortunately ended badly. Because in the 4th grade I was testing for a 9th grade reading level. That meant I wasn't allowed to use any books below that grade level for my assigned books. Since the elementary school was a little short on books that advanced, I got stuck with dreck like The Yearling. Do you have any idea how boring The Yearling is for a nine year old?

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Projectsun t1_jdff4ju wrote

Oh wow ! What a flashback. I remember AR ! I feel on the spines, there would be a grade or something. I also learned quite early ( my mom read to me from a young age and I wanted to do it on my own during insomnia bouts) but i do not feel we weren’t allowed to read above. And if the school restricted me, my parents never would. I remember vividly , Sorcerer’s Stone being my first large chapter book , getting it right when it came out.

After absorbing the Roald Dahls and such. I think a key part missing, and there are studies to back this, is parents reading to the child from 0-3.

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Beamarchionesse t1_jdfhj5a wrote

I got lucky in that respect, I think. For reasons, my grandmother paid for me to go to Catholic school. There was a nursery attached, and from 8 weeks old on, I was with the nuns from 7am to 6pm, Mon-Fri. They read to us. A lot. They also made us copy pages of the encyclopedia or the Bible anytime we misbehaved.

...I had an excellent vocabulary by the time I was seven. I had also developed a deep love of reading. Nuns are perhaps not the best judges of what children should be allowed to read. They let me go through their library and pick whatever I wanted. The school went up to eighth grade, so there I was, eight years old and trying to read The Count of Monte Cristo. [I needed Sister Barbara to explain a lot of it to me, but she was usually doing needlepoint and actually never seemed to mind.] [TBF I did not grasp the book until I was older, I just thought it was super cool that he escaped from prison and went on a Quest for Revenge]

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Projectsun t1_jdfxd99 wrote

My parents are just avid readers ( tbf my dad is also a writer ) so I think they just naturally started us early. I was a bored child so my mom just kind of homeschooled me before K and it made it hard to get me in the right class after.

However, they did the same with my younger brother , only 2 years younger , and he is definitely not the same type of reader. He went full on comic / graphic route which makes sense ! I think the underlying solution is freedom Of thought and expression. Let kids enjoy and experience new things and they will continue that later :)

Now, I yearn for that free reading time of youth. I have to divide so much now, and decide where to put it

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Beamarchionesse t1_jdj09lr wrote

Yeah, I don't like when people get judgy about what kind of books people like. Lots of fiction is written for entertainment. I don't like Scorcese movies [they're always depressing]. It doesn't mean they're not good or that I'm dumb. People who read Tom Clancy and John Grisham books just want a fun spy thriller/government intrigue book. People who like graphic novels like the combination of art and story. People who like Colleen Hoover probably would have been the same people reading the novels that Catherine Moreland of Northanger Abbey loved so much in 1812.

I might not like everything, but what do I know, I love a good fairy tale retelling or a Sarah Dessen book as much as the next girl.

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Projectsun t1_jdj4p05 wrote

Exactly! But I think the base understanding is that entrainment / etc is opinion based. Then it opens up much more. Still seems to come down to: let people enjoy what they want if it’s not hurting anything :)

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VisualGeologist6258 t1_jdezf28 wrote

I don’t think I ever had reading level restrictions growing up, but at home I read a lot of Jules Verne and HG Wells. Obviously all the symbolic and thematic content flew over my head, but I don’t remember ever having a problem actually reading it.

Kids will read just about anything if it piques their interest enough. I’m especially fond of the Canterbury Classics series, which compiles authors like the ones mentioned above into user-friendly and easy-to-read omnibuses. I read Verne and Wells through them and just last year I found one for Robert Louis Stevenson, who is another favourite.

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vivahermione t1_jdfb645 wrote

>Obviously all the symbolic and thematic content flew over my head, but I don’t remember ever having a problem actually reading it.

And that's OK, because after that first pass, you probably understood it better the next time you encountered it.

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janellthegreat t1_jdhp8gz wrote

I have a student who, putting it mildly, was a reluctant reader. I started asking if he might be dyslexic from kinder- and I kept being told, "no, I am trained in reading intervention, he is with age-typical ranges." It is not until he was at threat of failing the state test did they screen him. Yup, mildly dyslexic. One year of intensive intervention with a fantastic educator, and now I can't get books out of that kids hands. Some of his favorite to read are processional references for computer programmers. I doubt he has full reading comprehension, but loves it. And that is all I care about. Does he love what he is reading? Great, read.

And then we ignore the homework that says, "after your 20 min at home read time, write about how the setting influences the story."

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Sea-Box-8736 t1_jdf227c wrote

Was it the DRA reading level tests or something like that? I remember having to do something similar in first grade.

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