We threw out an entire series of books that had titles like, "We Live in the U.S.S.R." They were published in 1988. Talk about bad timing, eh?
As for the fiction - the kids take one look at the dusty, colourless dust cover and don't touch it. A lot of these books are being republished in new editions, which we buy, push, and then point out the old editions when six kids want the new one at the same time. Every copy of Mrs. Frisby is currently out, because I'm reading it to my lit group. :)
I have a beef about the way our reading was assessed. I was told in grade 4 that I had a grade 12 reading level, because I had a huge vocabulary and liked to make use of it. I also had very good context-clues skills, so I could often make a good guess at unknown words. But the idea that I could have read a twelfth-grade text with any level of comprehension is absurd. I was probably reading at what we would consider a grade 8 level at that time, based on which novels I was reading and understanding. The thing is, parents remember being told what grade level they were reading at, and when their child doesn't meet the same numbers, they think their kid doesn't read as well as they did at that age. There are times when it's true, but it's a lot less frequent than parents or the general public believes.
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Date: 2005-03-11 08:28 pm (UTC)As for the fiction - the kids take one look at the dusty, colourless dust cover and don't touch it. A lot of these books are being republished in new editions, which we buy, push, and then point out the old editions when six kids want the new one at the same time. Every copy of Mrs. Frisby is currently out, because I'm reading it to my lit group. :)
I have a beef about the way our reading was assessed. I was told in grade 4 that I had a grade 12 reading level, because I had a huge vocabulary and liked to make use of it. I also had very good context-clues skills, so I could often make a good guess at unknown words. But the idea that I could have read a twelfth-grade text with any level of comprehension is absurd. I was probably reading at what we would consider a grade 8 level at that time, based on which novels I was reading and understanding. The thing is, parents remember being told what grade level they were reading at, and when their child doesn't meet the same numbers, they think their kid doesn't read as well as they did at that age. There are times when it's true, but it's a lot less frequent than parents or the general public believes.