First Alex... somehow, Alex got into a below grade level reading group this year, based on how he tested at the end of 1st grade. I realize, compared to the 7 year old Harry Potter readers that he's not *above* grade level, but I certainly think he's at grade level. The school has a reading scale where books are ranked A-Z, A being the easiest. He ended 1st grade at about a J level (and I believe that G was grade level). When I first noticed him bringing books home this year, he had F books. I emailed his teacher and we have chatted back and forth, but it comes down to that the school's evaluation shows he needs to work on fluency and comprehension. What I'm gathering is that when he was tested, he was asked questions like, "What was your favorite part?" and he said, "I didn't like the book" or "What happened next?" and he shrugged. From my reading with him, I'm pretty sure that he does understand what he reads, but I can totally see that he doesn't communicate well. So for the last month when we read at night I've been drilling him so he'll know how to answer. Don't have a favorite part? Fine, but tell the tester why you didn't like the book.
Anyway, at conferences, I was going to have to sign something to the effect that Alex isn't at grade level but the teacher and his reading group teacher have agreed to retest him soon before that happens. And, I've been volunteering in Alex's class for reading and there is no doubt in my mind he's at the same level as those kids. So hopefully Alex will test well this time and we can move beyond these too easy books he's bringing home. For goodness sakes, he's been reading to me from Bunnicula for the past week, and doing great. He reads smoothly and with inflection and stumbles over about 3 words per page, which I was told was a good indicator of a book that's challenging but appropriate. I just looked it up, and it's a Q book, reading grade 4.9.
Alex's teacher also said he was frustrated with Alex's listening skills. I refrained from telling the teacher that I live in a house filled with males lacking listening skills. I even have to make direct eye contact with my HUSBAND and have him repeat back pertinent information if I want to have a hope of being heard. So I told the teacher good luck with that one, I agree - but short of electrical shock treatment I don't have any idea how to help Alex with that one.
And while we're talking about Alex, here's some homework he did earlier this year. He had no help, I didn't even see him do this worksheet. All he had to do was draw a picture with those lines and he came up with this elaborate Wall-E scene and even colored it. Behind grade level, my ass.
And, our little Adam... Adam was evaluated twice. Once with the district's old standards and once with the revised. According to the old standards, Adam is doing great, and has met nearly all the goals for Kindergarten. Like, yeah, he might as well just stay home this year (ha ha ha, I told his teacher). But according to the new standards, he's behind grade level too. Already. Somehow, the district magically expects kindergartners to already be reading simple pattern books like, "This ball is blue. This ball is red." With a little help, Adam can get through a book like that, but he's by no means fluent yet.
With this new standard, Adam's teacher has 6 out of 38 students that are at or above grade level. What a disservice to these kids to start them right off the bat as labeled behind. Adam's teacher thinks he's close enough to grade level that she's not going to do any of the special things she's supposed to do for "behind" kids so he's not really affected, but I'm still in disbelief over the new system. For crying out loud, 1/3 of Adam's class are native Spanish speakers who barely know 5 letters of the alphabet and some still can't write their own names. How are they ever going to get caught up under the new system? Poor Alex would have really tested poorly in kindergarten. He went to a play-based preschool and had no formal reading skills. Adam at least had a foundation from the Montessori school but it's still crazy to expect kids reading before they hit the public school system.
And here's what Adam's working on. Every day the class practices their letters. As a behind grade level student, he finishes early and has the chance to play quietly or embellish his work. *All* his letter sheets come home like this. They are completely decorated, and on some of them it's more obvious that he traced the letters multiple times with different colored markers.
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