A friend has a child in first grade in the Concord, Massachusetts public schools. This is one of the richest suburbs in the United States and Concord is considered by Massachusetts standards to have excellent schools. Here’s a recent email: “[Johnny] is finishing reading the second Harry Potter book. Below is what he brought home from school today.”
(Child’s name changed.)
What’s a “priority word list”?
That is a stop words list [1]
I think Johnny was in the “Using Search Engines on the Web” class and his words list was misplaced with the reading class. A small mistake by the school, easily correctable.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_words
“her” and “she” on the list; “his” and “he” not.
Somehow doubt the 1st grader finished reading the 2nd Harry Potter book, but every child is a prodigy in their parent’s minds.
Jack: A 7-year-old cannot read Harry Potter? Did you try a Google search before posting your doubts? https://www.reddit.com/r/booksuggestions/comments/3yjft9/what_should_my_7_year_old_daughter_read_after/ is a quick find regarding a 7-year-old who is on Book 6 of the series (with a response from another user whose 7-year-old twins have finished the entire series).
A child reading a child’s book is a prodigy? John Stuart Mill was considered a prodigy in his day because he could read Greek at age 3. Is the American standard for prodigy now simply “able to read”?
Having just recently read the books, I had the same thoughts as jack crossfire. A 6 year old COULD read the Harry Potter books, but probably wouldn’t understand most of it, and a lot of the stuff in it probably wouldn’t be appropriate for a 6 year old.
I remember reading the Narnia series of books in 3rd grade, which was roughly the same level of reading as the Harry Potter series, and with themes that are a bit more child understandable / appropriate.
Scholastic seems to agree, though even I think their “Grade Level Equivalent” of 6 is a bit dumbed down. (http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/harry-potter-and-sorcerers-stone)
Not to brag but both of my kids started reading before 3 and by 7 were reading Harry Potter and comparable full length books. They were and are bright (Wharton/MIT) but I wouldn’t call them prodigies. That my wife is a reading professional so that we had lots of materials & software around the house and that she knew the right techniques for teaching reading surely helped but the fact that they were pretty bright helped even more.
The tendency in America is to teach to the lowest common denominator but in reality there is a wide range of abilities and if you let each child move at his own pace, some can move quite fast. Obviously at age 7 you lack the life experience to understand the full emotional meaning of love and death on a deep level (I’m not sure I did until I was decades older) but they were able to follow the plot and characters as well as anyone.
When my son entered 1st grade, he had a particularly thick headed 1st grade teacher who wasn’t going to let the fact that my son was a fluent reader disrupt her plan to teach each child in her class how to read at the pace of one letter per week, with the rest of the school day taken up with cutting out paper leaves and turkeys and pumpkins and such (as appropriate for the season). After a few weeks of this, my son announced in class, “if I have to cut out one more leaf, I’m going to kill myself.” Whereupon we received a call from the school psychologist expressing concern that my son was suicidal. Apparently hyperbole was another concept that they were not familiar with.
Both my daughters finished the third Harry Potter book before starting grade 2. We emphasized reading at home from a very early age and they are both still avid readers. Harry Potter isn’t that hard to read and the story is very engrossing and engaging for young people, a great combination. I think the biggest mistake a parent can make is underestimating what a child is capable of both intellectually and emotionally. You don’t have to be a genius to know that.
My kindergartners in a NH public school brought home a longer and more difficult word list than that.
@philg
So, what’s your point (if there is one)? My kids went to the same school, with the same reading list, and read the Potter series at the same age. I’m not going to brag other than to say that the reading list has *nothing* to do with future achievement or lack thereof. Concord schools (Lincoln, too) are fantastic and there’s a philosophy behind this “lowest common denominator” approach at this age. If you (or your email parents) disagree with this approach it can easily be resolved by taking advantage of the many fine private schools in our area. Don’t want to pay for private school? Here’s a list of places you might want to consider moving to get a more demanding word list for your budding prodigies:
https://k12.niche.com/rankings/public-elementary-schools/best-overall/s/massachusetts/
My anecdotal personal experience is that the factor that mattered most for our kids was the peer group, not low expectations from parents or teachers. Your mileage may vary, as generalizations are just that and each child is different.
(P.S. Lexington is also close to Hanscom, so your commute won’t be affected much!)
Wow. Even “see spot run” is at a greater level of intellectual difficulty.
That’s sad.
Reading and comprehending are two separate things. You’ve no doubt seen the meme that partially reads, “I know some of these words”.
All parents think their kids are smart, but blast through that. Start with fundamentals and build on it just as this first grade class is doing. Do not consider this a waste of brain. Consider it as reinforcing the foundation such that reading and comprehension can become easily utilized toolkits.