How do i know if my kid is reading at the correct level?

“Good morning. I’m Mrs. Lilla, and I’ll be your teacher this year for English class. I guarantee by the end of the year that I will be your favorite teacher,” I start every first class with, mostly as a joke. Since sarcasm is my first language, it’s difficult to turn that off when I am in teacher-mode.

To my surprise, a teenage girl in the back of the room shouted “Um, no way, lady!” as the other students snickered.

I had my biggest challenge for the year already pegged.

You see, that class (and most I’ve taught in my career) was loaded with students who were reading at the elementary level but walking around our high school building. They had been explicitly and implicitly told for so many years that they weren’t good at reading. So now, they had a built in defense mechanism. It was easier for them to have “behavior problems” than for people to think they couldn’t read. What they didn’t know about me yet, though, was that I was about to make them all fall in love with reading.

There’s a lot that goes into an entire year of teaching reading, but it really boils down to a few simple steps.

1. You have to teach at their level.

To me, there is no such thing as a reading level they are “supposed” to be at. Sure, there are high stakes tests and assessments that are written at a certain level, but you won’t get growth if you are teaching too above or below their reading level. To determine their reading level, you can google search some leveled short stories. Have your child read at the level you suspect them to be. Then, have a discussion with them about it. If they can carry on a conversation with you and answer your questions, then check the next level up until they start to struggle. That first level of struggle is the level you teach at. The level below is where they should read independently. Don’t fixate on where they are “supposed” to be. Instead, teach them well and build confidence where they are. Meet them where they are and push them forward. You’ll see the growth accelerate quickly when you do it this way.

2. You need to introduce themes or topics they enjoy sometimes!

Students have to be exposed to texts that are windows and mirrors. Windows expose them to a life different than their own while mirrors help reflect topics that they see in their own lives. I have found that they love reading BOTH types just as much. This allows them to disagree with characters or discuss how consequences are different or how settings can change people. Since the world is full of different cultures, viewpoints, and personalities, reading offers students a way to experience it while being safe to respond in an authentic and real way. It allows students to think and prepare for moments they may encounter in life.

Or, they are just obsessed with zombies, and I have to find a short story for Tucker to read about them while searching for a story about soccer academies for Lia. :) What’s really cool, though, is putting both of them together after reading their different stories and asking them to compare and contrast. Through those discussions, I know they really learned because they liked what they were reading.

3. On the other hand, you do have to read things they may not think they’ll enjoy.

Now, while reading our favorite topics is a right we have earned as adults, students aren’t so lucky. They will have to read some classics that they may not want to read. My favorite was Romeo and Juliet. Nothing like Shakespeare to get struggling readers to want to skip my class. Haha. However, I loved the play so much that they began to love it too. We would get into lively debates about so many of the themes in the story that they started to see how something written hundreds of years ago still applied to their lives too. I’ve seen classes with different teachers hate it, though, so you really have to put on your sales cap and sell the heck out of the story!

4. If you can get them talking about what they read, you know they understood it!

Talking about what they read is the quickest way to tell if they understood what they read. First, you want to make sure they understood the plot - did they get the characters, setting, conflict, and resolution correct? If not, then you can build in reteaching and maybe a lower level passage to work on it. If they did get that right, then you get to dive deeper into the text and start to analyze it. This is where the exciting conversations happen because, often, there is no right or wrong if you can support your opinion with textual evidence. I have seen literature so different after having students teach me a new viewpoint during these discussions, and it’s been one of the best parts of my career!

Today, I have an eleven-year-old at home that would rather play soccer or watch “fails” on YouTube than pick up a book to read, and so I am needing to use all my tricks at home too! He gravitates toward nonfiction, so we found the I Survived books written as graphic novels. He will read anything in graphic novel form, so those are what he reads independently. On long car rides to practices, games, or tournaments, we listen to a fiction book on tape together that is a level higher than he currently reads at. We pause and discuss when exciting things happen, and he has to recap after every session. I can see the shift happening in him - he’s starting to see that reading isn’t a chore. It’s a gateway to new worlds. Worlds he has never dreamed of and worlds he desperately wants to be a part of! There’s still hope that he can turn into the reading nerd that I am - if I do my job right!

I have faith I can do it. I mean, remember that student who said there was no way I could be her favorite teacher? She still messages me on Facebook today (ten years later) and keeps me updated on her life and what she’s reading. I think I proved her wrong. ;)

It’s a challenge I loved. Every day. But don’t let me fool you - it was DEFINITELY a challenge. Getting students to want to read is not for the faint of heart.

I’m ready for it, but you may not be. And that’s okay because you’ve got me in your corner. You don’t have to do it alone.

-Kristin