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I am having a slight difference in opinion with DD6's first grade teacher about reading readiness.
DD6's first grade teacher tells me that dd6 doesn't read at the level she needs to be at right now to be on track to pass to second grade. Say what? This girl is so smart, you guys. She's super astute, knows all her math facts, is starting multiplication, and can do lego sets for kids ages 8+. She's just really spatially gifted. If I misplace something, I ask dd6. She will think about it, race off to some part of the house, and come back with my missing object. She thinks it's so funny that she can remember stuff but I can not. She says, "Don't worry mom. My brain is younger so it's fresher. It just works better." LOL.
I don't push early reading. I hate the early reader texts, "I Can Read" books, sight word lists, and sounding out words. I just hate it all. I want my kids to hear more words and expression from me reading books that engage them, vs them sounding out words and reading texts that use only 100 words or so to make these mind-numbingly boring texts... That's my personal bias.
Anyway, the teacher tells me that dd6 isn't reading at a high enough level and needs "special help" from a "reading specialist." I ask what that means, and if she'll miss recess or specials or anything fun, then she's not doing it. The teacher looked totally shocked, but I am pretty firm on this... So, she assures me that the reading specialist pulls them out during classroom reading, and works with a few students. Ok, whatever. A specialist can go through this process. Fine. Then I ask the teacher what the issue is specifically. She takes out a book that J didn't "pass" in reading, which is one level below where she "needs" to be. DD6 read it completely correctly, but she said "do not" instead of "don't" because for some reason her K teacher told the kids to do that when they came across a contraction. That was her one mistake in reading 4 pages of text. The teacher said that dd6 would not have passed that book based on how she read it. I asked why? The teachers said that even though she only missed one word, "don't", she had to pause before another word (seriously) and that her reading speed and expression were not where they needed to be.... SMH.
I told her that I doubted that dd6 would read such a boring book with enthusiasm. Again, shocked teacher lol. I told her that for my kids, I let them start reading when they are ready to read books that are engaging, so that they actually want to read vs "have" to read. All of my kids (even ds10 with all his issues) read well when they read books they are interested in. Dd1 didn't read independently until she was 7, but she started reading with Boxcar Kids because she was tired of waiting for me to read it to her. She got a perfect score on the SATs verbal portions. Ds13 and Dd13 were similarly (not) trained to read by me, and they both read at a 12th grade level in 8th grade. Then ds10 who hates reading, will read and read well and read voluntarily when he's reading something of interest to him. So, I told her, I'm just not interested in forcing my kids to read boring texts just for the sake of a test...
I can sympathize with her needing to test the kids and what not. This is the era of one-size-fits-all, and there is no leeway for variation in the curriculum.
But, FFS, DD6 will never pass the tests if the teacher isn't going to accept her accurate reading. I told the teacher that DD6 was reading slowly for 2 reasons: 1) she didn't want to make mistakes because 6 year olds now are afraid of failing tests (WTFWTFWTF) and 2) the text is boring and she probably doesn't care to know what the baby elephant eats for dinner...
Sigh...
I'm too old for this. Good luck to all you just starting out on this journey! Fight the good fight people!!
DD6's first grade teacher tells me that dd6 doesn't read at the level she needs to be at right now to be on track to pass to second grade. Say what? This girl is so smart, you guys. She's super astute, knows all her math facts, is starting multiplication, and can do lego sets for kids ages 8+. She's just really spatially gifted. If I misplace something, I ask dd6. She will think about it, race off to some part of the house, and come back with my missing object. She thinks it's so funny that she can remember stuff but I can not. She says, "Don't worry mom. My brain is younger so it's fresher. It just works better." LOL.
I don't push early reading. I hate the early reader texts, "I Can Read" books, sight word lists, and sounding out words. I just hate it all. I want my kids to hear more words and expression from me reading books that engage them, vs them sounding out words and reading texts that use only 100 words or so to make these mind-numbingly boring texts... That's my personal bias.
Anyway, the teacher tells me that dd6 isn't reading at a high enough level and needs "special help" from a "reading specialist." I ask what that means, and if she'll miss recess or specials or anything fun, then she's not doing it. The teacher looked totally shocked, but I am pretty firm on this... So, she assures me that the reading specialist pulls them out during classroom reading, and works with a few students. Ok, whatever. A specialist can go through this process. Fine. Then I ask the teacher what the issue is specifically. She takes out a book that J didn't "pass" in reading, which is one level below where she "needs" to be. DD6 read it completely correctly, but she said "do not" instead of "don't" because for some reason her K teacher told the kids to do that when they came across a contraction. That was her one mistake in reading 4 pages of text. The teacher said that dd6 would not have passed that book based on how she read it. I asked why? The teachers said that even though she only missed one word, "don't", she had to pause before another word (seriously) and that her reading speed and expression were not where they needed to be.... SMH.
I told her that I doubted that dd6 would read such a boring book with enthusiasm. Again, shocked teacher lol. I told her that for my kids, I let them start reading when they are ready to read books that are engaging, so that they actually want to read vs "have" to read. All of my kids (even ds10 with all his issues) read well when they read books they are interested in. Dd1 didn't read independently until she was 7, but she started reading with Boxcar Kids because she was tired of waiting for me to read it to her. She got a perfect score on the SATs verbal portions. Ds13 and Dd13 were similarly (not) trained to read by me, and they both read at a 12th grade level in 8th grade. Then ds10 who hates reading, will read and read well and read voluntarily when he's reading something of interest to him. So, I told her, I'm just not interested in forcing my kids to read boring texts just for the sake of a test...
I can sympathize with her needing to test the kids and what not. This is the era of one-size-fits-all, and there is no leeway for variation in the curriculum.
But, FFS, DD6 will never pass the tests if the teacher isn't going to accept her accurate reading. I told the teacher that DD6 was reading slowly for 2 reasons: 1) she didn't want to make mistakes because 6 year olds now are afraid of failing tests (WTFWTFWTF) and 2) the text is boring and she probably doesn't care to know what the baby elephant eats for dinner...
Sigh...
I'm too old for this. Good luck to all you just starting out on this journey! Fight the good fight people!!
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