Parents, I get it now. After nearly a month of trying to hunt down quality books at a Level M I fully understand the frustration many of you feel when trying to choose books at the correct reading level for your child. I know that schools urge you to help your child read books that are just right for them and that they expect you to be a guide in this process. And I know that the number of books that have been leveled by a professional organization pales in comparison to the number of books available to you at libraries and bookstores. And now I also know that it can be close to impossible to nail down books that are verified as being at that reading level, much less books about diverse characters or interesting topics.
When I was in the classroom, only a small portion of my classroom library contained books with a reading level assigned to them. My students were expected to browse the library, apply the skills they’d learned about how to select a book that they were both interested in and capable of reading. Then I would approve their selection or we’d have a conversation about why I thought they might want to rethink their choice.
With younger children, first graders just learning to read, those reading levels are enormously important. I have found that quite often a student who can read a Level D (for example) will well and truly struggle with almost every book in my library marked at a Level E, until that student is ready to move up. But when you reach the world of chapter books, where the experts can’t even agree on a book’s reading level, the lines become far more fluid.
Maybe your Level M reader has just made the transition up to books like Magic Tree House and still gets a lot of enjoyment out of books that would be considered a Level M. Maybe your reader is always striving or reaching and is almost ready for Level Nbooks. Basically, each child is different and while reading levels are meant to provide a helpful framework and guide, they are doing no one a favor if they are pigeonholing readers into a tight set of books. That’s not to say every reader can read every book, or that you should just jump from Magic Tree House straight to Harry Potter, it’s just to say that within a range, there should be flexibility, both on the part of the reader and on the part of those that have provided you with the reading level information.
The most important things to remember is that your child should be engaged, enjoying their books and comprehending what they’ve read. In the classroom, I had the luxury of years of guinea pigs reading the books in my collection and reporting back on which ones were good or dull or too easy or too hard. I didn’t overthink which books were Level M because I wasn’t dealing with a reading level. I was dealing with children who would talk to me about their reading. And through discussions with those children, I could tell whether the book they were reading was a good fit for them or whether it was too easy or too hard. And the best thing was, most of the time, the children could tell that too!
So talk to your children, check for comprehension, familiarize yourself with what a book that is approximately a Level M looks like and then let go of your frustration at seeking out books that have been labeled as the exact right level. Because my choice to try to locate books that had been verified as the right level rather than just using my professional experience and intuition was most definitely one that led to frustration.
I’ll be putting up a few more reviews of books I could find that were listed as a Level M (by someone, somewhere at least) and then at the end of the week, I’ll post a round-up of all the books on this blog which I think a Level M reader might be successful with and enjoy. Some will probably be listed as Ls, some as Ns, but it will give you a far wider and more interesting selection that trying to stay inside that pre-approved box.
