Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

walrussss t1_jdf49mb wrote

Reply to comment by iamthatis4536 in Why Kids Aren’t Falling in Love With Reading by drak0bsidian

Surprisingly common? I’m a third grade teacher and have never heard of this happening. Teachers do extensive training to identify reading levels and then you are supposed to have kids read slightly above their level if possible unless instructing something specific (like sentence structure or non fiction text elements). The only time a library would do this is if a student wants to read something that may be too mature. Then the teacher or librarian will probably double check with a parent or talk to the student about it. We do use various leveled systems so that kids can find ‘just right’ books on their own but you are never supposed to discourage a child from wanting to read something above grade level.

5

CuriousHaven t1_jdfq0lz wrote

Yeah, this is pretty common. I used to work for a major K12 vendor (in over 1/3 of all schools in the US) and I heard about this practice all the time from different customers (e.g., schools and districts). Sometimes it's locked by grade level (concern about kids reading material with themes that are "too mature") and sometimes it's locked by reading level (poor understanding of how leveled reading works). It shouldn't be implemented this way, but that doesn't stop plenty of schools from doing exactly that.

3

iamthatis4536 t1_jdfqbkb wrote

I think you are in an area with a lot more resources. We are a title 1 school and I’m pretty sure a lot of the parents aren’t actually literate.

My school in a different state was like then when I was growing up. I actually “failed” reading because I read everything in the library and they didn’t have anything else. Reading at home didn’t count. My spouse went to several schools in multiple states and they all had rules about which books you could check out when.

I’m actually surprised this is so surprising to so many people. These smaller school districts just don’t have the resources to keep track of which kid is reading at which level.

To be very fair to our staff, I have one child who is way, way above their expected reading level and the staff occasionally helps them “sneak” books. They are doing the best they can, and I’m in a situation to supplement reading at home.

But in all the areas I’ve lived in, there have been massive hoops to get through with reading. These are our current struggles, but some have been kind of insurmountable. I had one library that kept charging us for ruining books we had never even laid eyes on. Like we wouldn’t go for a month and get a fine for ruining a kids book when we didn’t have kids. Mostly I just wanted to highlight that sometimes just getting something to read can be really hard.

3

janellthegreat t1_jdhomc0 wrote

Related to limited resources, a second-hand story. A friend had a high school daughter who was graded on how much her reading level improved each semester. The daughter was a great reader, yet was at threat of receiving a failing grade. The friend had to go in and and demonstrate that the entire darn school library only had -three- books above her daughter's reading level, so how did they expect her to improve when there was nothing challenging left to read?

2

iamthatis4536 t1_jdhv4m9 wrote

I had a friend whose kids’ typing teacher only graded on improvement. So she had her kids bomb the test at the beginning of the term, then each week count the words, draw a line where it was one more word than the week before, then stop typing when they got there. All her kids passed with flying colors. That’s exactly how I would have handled the reading. My kid would be reading at a kindergarten level at the beginning…

3

Hour_Squirrel_4914 t1_jdhf495 wrote

My sister was an incredible reader and had a fourth grade teacher who did this. My mom pestered him asking if her reading level could be tested so that she could check out books that were more challenging. He finally agreed and she tested at 12th grade level.

His argument then became, "Just because she can understand the text, doesn't mean she can understand the theme. So, she needs to stick to the fourth grade reading level."

No compromise. No flexibility. No interest.

You can guess how many books she borrowed from the library that year.

2

Historical_Spring800 t1_jdmkbta wrote

I have come across this with school librarians for years at my kids’ elementary school. We took our kids reading into our own hands. I read a ton as a kid so was able to direct them toward my old favorites depending on the kid and their interests and they now find their own books. Everyone gets new books at birthdays and Christmas such as a fancy illustrated Harry Potter for the youngest or a Steven King series for the oldest. My second grader reads at a 6th grade level and tests in the 99th percentile consistently on standardized tests. His teacher still put him in a mediocre reading group because she wasn’t satisfied with his “decoding” skills. My older kids were also forbidden to read beyond a certain level during elementary school but still tested into the gifted classes and thrived in them. I think elementary teachers can only do so much when they have more kids reading below grade level so it is our responsibility as parents to do what we can at home.

2