Reading levels and the level of reading instruction is often a point of difficulty for gifted kids in early grades. Teachers are obligated to make certain that every child in the class be reading at grade level. As someone paying taxes to support public education, I also want everyone in that classroom to be able to read. I believe it is best for society. Rant all day long about teacher evaluations and tenure and anything else, but at the end of the day, I want to know that everyone can read sufficiently to understand their electric bill, and also to tell that the other thing that came in the mail is not a bill but a scam.
As a result, though, the child who is already reading fluently is easy to overlook in the classroom. Sometimes these teachers are not familiar with the contrast in progression of skills for a typical student compared to a gifted student. Sometimes teachers pick up on weaknesses that we as parents do not.
When you sense that your child isn’t getting reading instruction at an appropriate level, and your child is not drawing benefit from that instruction, then it’s time to ask questions. My job as parent advocate is to work together with the teacher to find mutual goals for growth in the child and to motivate the teacher to work with a child even though he is functioning above the level of her responsibility. I think the reading level issue is many parent's entry into the world of gifted advocacy.
First, it helps to understand reading assessments. Our district, along with many others, uses the DRA. Other assessments are different in detail, but any reading program worth its salt will focus on a similar triad accuracy, fluency, and comprehension.
The DRA reading levels are numbers, which if you divide by 10, can be translated into grade.month format. That is, a DRA level of 24 is targeted to the average child in the 4th month of 2nd grade. Be aware that Reading Recovery levels are similar to DRA, after which they diverge. It's a similar issue with the lettered Fountas and Pinnell levels and the A-Z levels. It’s helpful to have a reading level equivalency chart handy, especially in the early years. DRA Reading levels ending in ‘8’ are the highest level for a given grade level. Be aware that being told your child reads at a 38 might signal that the teacher stopped assessing at this level, and not that your child made errors at this level.
DRA tests fluency, accuracy, and comprehension. For a typically developing child, this is a good test, as all three are needed to progress in reading. DRA leveled books are leveled in such a way that the expectations of each skill progress together. For children with disabilities or vast asynchronicities, some of the levels will become impossible walls to climb.
In DRA-speak, each child should have two levels: the instructional level and the independent level. The instructional level is the level at which the child makes errors in at least one of those skills. The teacher should be able to report, “Johnny is instructional in fluency at a level 20.” The independent level is the level at which the child passes all three of the skills at a particular level, and therefore can likely read a book at the level with relative ease and minimal frustration.
Accuracy is quantified as a percentage calculated by the number of reading errors or skipped words divided by the total number of words in the passage. Passing is generally ~90%, but I think it increases with higher levels. This is difficult for children who typically read a lot faster than they can read orally.
Fluency is a combination of reading pace, with words-per-minute oral reading benchmarks that increase with increasing level. Fluency also includes a very subjective “measure” of how much voice the child puts into the reading, including pauses for commas and periods. This is difficult for children who mostly read in their heads.
Comprehension for the DRA is not answering a series of questions about the passage, but determined based on retelling the story. The child closes the book and tells the teacher about the story he just read her. Points go towards telling it in order, naming characters, and at lower levels, including information contained in the pictures and not in the text. At higher levels, students need to answer questions that require inference – 18 requires coming up with the moral of the story, 38 requires inferring unstated intentions of characters in the story. 38 requires a level of inferential sophistication that many young children simply don’t yet have the maturity or experience to answer sufficiently. Stories include things like sleep overs, airplane trips, and other things that younger or economically disadvantaged students might not have encountered. At 28, the student does the retelling bit through writing. A child whose writing skill develops out of sync with his reading, will likely struggle to pass beyond a 28 unless the teacher scribes the answers.
Next: How to probe the teacher for reading levels and to guide the teacher towards providing your child with appropriate instruction.
As a result, though, the child who is already reading fluently is easy to overlook in the classroom. Sometimes these teachers are not familiar with the contrast in progression of skills for a typical student compared to a gifted student. Sometimes teachers pick up on weaknesses that we as parents do not.
When you sense that your child isn’t getting reading instruction at an appropriate level, and your child is not drawing benefit from that instruction, then it’s time to ask questions. My job as parent advocate is to work together with the teacher to find mutual goals for growth in the child and to motivate the teacher to work with a child even though he is functioning above the level of her responsibility. I think the reading level issue is many parent's entry into the world of gifted advocacy.
First, it helps to understand reading assessments. Our district, along with many others, uses the DRA. Other assessments are different in detail, but any reading program worth its salt will focus on a similar triad accuracy, fluency, and comprehension.
The DRA reading levels are numbers, which if you divide by 10, can be translated into grade.month format. That is, a DRA level of 24 is targeted to the average child in the 4th month of 2nd grade. Be aware that Reading Recovery levels are similar to DRA, after which they diverge. It's a similar issue with the lettered Fountas and Pinnell levels and the A-Z levels. It’s helpful to have a reading level equivalency chart handy, especially in the early years. DRA Reading levels ending in ‘8’ are the highest level for a given grade level. Be aware that being told your child reads at a 38 might signal that the teacher stopped assessing at this level, and not that your child made errors at this level.
DRA tests fluency, accuracy, and comprehension. For a typically developing child, this is a good test, as all three are needed to progress in reading. DRA leveled books are leveled in such a way that the expectations of each skill progress together. For children with disabilities or vast asynchronicities, some of the levels will become impossible walls to climb.
In DRA-speak, each child should have two levels: the instructional level and the independent level. The instructional level is the level at which the child makes errors in at least one of those skills. The teacher should be able to report, “Johnny is instructional in fluency at a level 20.” The independent level is the level at which the child passes all three of the skills at a particular level, and therefore can likely read a book at the level with relative ease and minimal frustration.
Accuracy is quantified as a percentage calculated by the number of reading errors or skipped words divided by the total number of words in the passage. Passing is generally ~90%, but I think it increases with higher levels. This is difficult for children who typically read a lot faster than they can read orally.
Fluency is a combination of reading pace, with words-per-minute oral reading benchmarks that increase with increasing level. Fluency also includes a very subjective “measure” of how much voice the child puts into the reading, including pauses for commas and periods. This is difficult for children who mostly read in their heads.
Comprehension for the DRA is not answering a series of questions about the passage, but determined based on retelling the story. The child closes the book and tells the teacher about the story he just read her. Points go towards telling it in order, naming characters, and at lower levels, including information contained in the pictures and not in the text. At higher levels, students need to answer questions that require inference – 18 requires coming up with the moral of the story, 38 requires inferring unstated intentions of characters in the story. 38 requires a level of inferential sophistication that many young children simply don’t yet have the maturity or experience to answer sufficiently. Stories include things like sleep overs, airplane trips, and other things that younger or economically disadvantaged students might not have encountered. At 28, the student does the retelling bit through writing. A child whose writing skill develops out of sync with his reading, will likely struggle to pass beyond a 28 unless the teacher scribes the answers.
Next: How to probe the teacher for reading levels and to guide the teacher towards providing your child with appropriate instruction.