I have two young ladies in my fifth grade class who are reading at a 10th grade level. I want to differentiate and enrich their reading instruction, however, I really need a suggestion for a book for them to read. I need something which will be of interest to them, on their higher reading level, yet is of proper maturity/content. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!
I need something which will be of interest to them, on their higher reading level, yet is of proper maturity/content.
That is certainly a tough one! I struggled with this last year when I had more kids reading at a much higher level than the rest of the class. I had some reading at 7th grade level (10th grade? Wow!), but finding appropriate material was a pain in the butt.
I don't have any book suggestions for what you're looking for, but try the reading/books board. Posters there may have some good suggestions outside of the fifth grade board. I'd be interested in what they suggest.
Thanks for the suggestion to try the book/reading board....
We use Scantron to test the abilities of our students, I'm not sure if you are familiar with Scantron, however, they have a component which suggests areas that students need to work on, when I checked for these two students one suggested working on tenth grade reading materials, and the other eleventh grade....I was super surprised...but they are bright young ladies....and very creative!
Try some of the classics that high schoolers read. My son was the same. He is now reading Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
Another good one is A separate Peace John Knowles I think,
My daughter read "the things they carried" in 5th grade. It was a book about the war, but she said it was the best book she'd ever read!! I know it's on our 10th grade reading list for the local high school.
I have used lexile.com. You can use the section called "I don't know my lexile", choose grade level, and books I read at school are to easy. Then you get a choice of themes to choose, and finally a list of books that are age appropriate and higher levels.
There is also a feature where you enter the book title, and the lexile level will come up. Both features can be useful.
Esperanza Rising
Freak the Mighty
Walk Two Moons
Stargirl
Heartbeat
The trouble with a fifth grader reading at a tenth grade level is that they're really not. I have no doubt that these are excellent, far above grade level readers, but since reading is making meaning of text, they aren't really reading on a tenth grade level. I say that because they can't really, truly appreciate tenth grade texts for what they are. By tenth grade texts, I mean The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Pearl, The Good Earth, The Great Gatsby (far beyond a fifth grader)....so the titles I gave you aren't tenth grade titles. They're seventh and eighth grade titles, mostly seventh, because even when young kids can technically read a book, the book needs to not be inappropriate to their young age (as you stated).
You might try introducing them to a little Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream are among the most approachable of his plays and you can find a gazillion films of each.
Man, I read The Things They Carried when I was in college and it was extremely graphic and upsetting, if read with the proper maturity and perspective. That would not be a title I'd offer. There is a part where a guy gets blown to pieces by a grenade and his torso ends up hanging in the tree, all bloody, and the flashback is repeated over and over throughout the book. The language is really rough, too, in places. Just my opinion, but I wouldn't offer that one (although it is a TREMENDOUS book).
maryteach,
I agree with you. I have a student who tested off the chart that topped out at grade level 13+. She is a 5th grader. She can literally understand everything she reads, but she has not actually read anything on a 10-13 grade level. She just reads voraciously - devouring every book she is even slightly interested in.
Just today, I was looking up some books written by James Patterson for kids - the Daniel X series and the Maximum Ride series. I was really surprised to see that these books that are high interest for higher readers are written on a 4th-6th grade level. Then I was intrigued by the whole thing and began to look for some of the thriller/phychological killer books I'd read by Patterson. Most of them are written on a 4th grade level (according to the AR Bookfinder website)!!!!!!!! Incredible! Does that mean my 4th and 5th graders should read them? Absolutely not!
It's extremely challenging to meet the needs of our high readers. Authors write books for the lower readers. The shelves in our Barnes and Noble are filled with them, but when I try to find books appropriate for my high readers it gets a little harder. The books are readable, but the content is totally inappropriate! Of course, that's just my opinion!
*By the way, We listened to Daniel X on CD at the beginning of the school year, and my kids loved it.
11-02-2009, 05:36 PM
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