I grew up without a television.
Me too. Not many of us can say that.
In retrospect, I'm not sure it was a good thing. We craved TV and watched it constantly at other people's houses. And one of my siblings has never really developed a sense of moderation for TV and movies; I wonder if it's still a forbidden fruit type thing.
We have two TVs in our house; none in the bedrooms. We used to monitor what the kids watched carefully -- mainly because the youngest would watch things that'd scare her (even things like Courage the Cowardly Dog, which you don't think of as scary), and then she'd get scared and would sleep in our bed for two weeks.
This past weekend, I came home from school, and my step-brothers happened to be at my mom's house- my one brother was whining and complaining about having to read 100 minutes every week for school, and he was only reading a comic book! (I find nothing wrong with comic books, and read comics and graphic novels myself all the time, but they are generally easier to read, because they're less words and more pictures). When I was his age (11) we had to read chapter books for school, and weren't allowed to read comics at all. He went on whining and complaining for 15 minutes about having to read- it was so disappointing to hear.
I'd liken comic books to fast food -- fine for a treat, but not a substitute for everyday nutrition.
To become adult readers, kids need a couple things to happen: They need to read chapter books, which gives them a sense of characterization and plot -- you can't get that from a short story. And they need those Young Adult books; middle schools are full of frustrated high school teachers who want to teach Tale of Two Cities and Macbeth, and they can get their bright students to move their eyes across the words -- never mind that the themes are too mature for those kids -- and they think it's a "win". Kids really need to become comfortable at every stage of reading.
Lexile and AR are two different things. At his old school where they did AR, my DS (who is an awesome reader) loved seeing how many points he could rack up. A fairly straightforward system.
Lexile is used at his current school. It's not as easy to understand; for instance, the Wimpy Kid books have higher lexiles than the first Harry Potter book....there are other examples, that's just the first one I could think of. They are told at library time that they can only look within their lexile range; it is very frustrating for DS. He just wants to read things that interest him, not what he is told to do. Sigh.
We've never been in an AR school, but my sister in law tells me that her kids' elementary school uses Lexile scores to determine what books are "acceptable" for the AR program. She says that they don't want the brightest students grabbing quick/easy books just to get the quick/easy points. They only give points to kids who are reading at their Lexile level.
Perhaps schools run AR differently.
I agree with you that kids should be allowed to read what they want to read. For example, my oldest soooooo loved the Magic Treehouse books. Even after her reading level (and age level) was far beyond that series, she still loved to read them no the sly -- though she would've denied it to her friends.
Of course, now I'm
afraid to take my kids to the library, in case there is someone else there judging my parenting skills and ready to post about them on a message board.
That woman could very well have been me. My kids are required to read books from specific genres for school. Then, they have to take an on-line quiz. It can't be a book for which they have already seen the movie, it can't be a book they've already read, and it has to be at their grade level. Maybe that's the reason this poor mom was rejecting all her son's choices. WE DON'T KNOW.
I have two daughters and a son. The only one that LOVES reading is one daughter.
The best thing about this thread is that there are so few spelling and grammatical errors!
(And yes, I think that's because everyone who responded is a reader.)
You know, that's a fair statement. If they were choosing for school, the mom might've been enforcing the teacher's guidelines -- doesn't really sound like it, but when you hear it 2nd or 3rd hand, it's always possible. I just told the story about my sister-in-law's negative experience with the AR program; I could imagine her telling my niece to choose something elese -- something that'd get her AR points. And since that program pushed her to read excessively for the AR points, she wouldn't have let her get something else "just for fun" during the school year -- she'd have known that the child wouldn't be able to fit it in.
You're right about the spelling/grammar too. I tell my students constantly that reading is the best way to improve many things: Spelling and grammar are just the tip of that iceberg. Alas, they don't believe me.
....There's not much to do while you're waiting for a nibble, but I love sitting on the dock early in the morning, it's so peaceful and beautiful. Good reading *and* fishing! Different strokes, eh?
When we moved to 'town', I practically lived at the library. I really don't remember reading too many 'kids' or 'young adult' books......went straight for the hard stuff, lol. I always have something to read, altho when I finish an 'intense' book, I wait a few days to start anything else and usually find a 'soft' read. Love all kinds except erotic or most romance type novels. Love thrillers, horror, fantasy, christian....all types. One of my dd's is the same way & my other dd reads occasionally, while my boys are not readers.
