Reading Comprehension Assessment
Find a Conversation
| Wed, 10-06-2010 - 6:36pm |
I would be grateful for any suggestions.
My DS is in first grade and his teacher uses the A to Z leveled readers. He has the same level reader as he did last because to get to the next level the children have to state the characters, theme, and what happens in the beginning, middle, and the end. He reads each book in about 30 secs and declares it to be too easy (which he did last year as well). If you ask him any questions, then he states that he doesn't know.
The thing is he actually had a book from last May (he remembered and I didn't), and he told me details about the book before opening it. He reads for pleasure books at a much higher level, and often will discuss plot details that interest him (days, sometimes weeks later). DS had a hard time completing assignments even coloring assignments last year because his pace is slow and careful. If you ask him questions about what happened during the day he will say he doesn't know. Usually if you ask about specifics he will say he doesn't know and then answer.
- High school program changes: thoughts? 17
- English frustration, could use some ideas.... 16
- Brag about dd's first high school experience 12
- Holy Asynchrony, Batman! 4
- Graded on English for math assessment? 9
- Subject acceleration: math 30
- Any experience in gap years? 13
- Which side of 2E child is more important for placement? 8
- asynchronous high schooler 13
- So, who's got parent/teacher conference this week? 5
Memeber Support
| Q: | Where can I change my password? |
| A: | Log in, go to Edit My Preferences, and click the Account tab. Make and save your changes. |
My advice is to just let him be, until such time as he complains about reading books that are too easy.
I think part of this will solve itself naturally, as RobbieScottysmom points out, when he makes that connection between his answers and the type of books he gets. However, that said, I would also be careful that he doesn't have an expressive language disorder that is making it difficult for him to complete these types of assessments. My ds10 had a very difficult time with these, because he couldn't answer the inferential questions well. Like your son, he was reading at a wildly higher level at home, and I knew darn well he was actually comprehending the books, too. It seemed to be only in answering the teachers' questions that he had trouble. Two things helped - the first was that I actually looked at some of these quizzes. I'm sure if you ask the teacher to see the assessments, it will be enlightening. It might be that he is just skipping through the book so fast that he can't remember, and if this is the case, there's really nothing you can do. Part of school is learning to do stuff that you don't like, and that's often a tough pill to swallow for kids who are used to engaging, creative activities at home (yep, you have to memorize the times tables... yep, it's boring)...
You may have to figure out the real problem.
If his pace is so slow and careful, and he says 'I don't know' as a first reaction, he may be a perfectionist and he may be developing a fear to fail. I may be completely wrong here, but your description reminded me of my middle daughter in grade 1-2-3 and her behavior (she too was a very strong reader). There's no better way to prevent yourself from failing than by not doing an assignment (like the reading assignments) at all... Right because he knows the book is so easy, he's putting even more pressure on his own shoulders because 'if it's so easy, than he canNOT make a mistake in the test'. What helped in my daughters case was that her teacher made 'deals' with her. She would tell DD how many questions she wanted to be correct, and by doing so she taught DD how to demand realistic goals. DD learned that making mistakes was part of the process and nothing to be ashamed of. It was 'expected' of her... There's always questions that could be interpreted in more ways, and hence more difficult to answer...
Thank you all for taking the time to answer.