The Truth About Leveled Readers

 

Boy Wonder is starting to read books.  I'm not sure how to explain it, but somehow he went from sounding out words in his phonics textbooks to reading sentences in real story books in a matter of weeks.  Hallelujah!  I just don't know if I could take another half hour of reading about AL and Tim from the Phonics readers.  The adventures of Little Bear and his conversations with Mother Bear are so much more enjoyable for everyone!

The Little Bear Level 1, I Can Read book is actually part of our reading curriculum.  Memoria Press uses a Charlotte Masonish approach to reading by using living books in place of reading textbooks for the curriculum.  Unlike Charlotte Mason, however, Memoria Press includes workbooks with questions and vocabulary review to aid in reading comprehension.  As a first time homeschooling mom, this is one workbook that I appreciate.  (A good CM homeschool mom wouldn't mess with workbooks but would ask the questions orally.)

Little Bear has turned out to be a wonderful experience both for my reader and for me.  My son actually understands what he's reading and is able to laugh throughout the stories.  Plus, he has managed the "new" non-phonetic words pretty well because he can put them in the context of what he is reading.  So reading is actually becoming a fun activity.  So much so, that I decided to invest in some more Level 1 readers that I hope we can appreciate reading together. 

When I went to Amazon, however, I noticed that other parents had written some very negative reviews next to some I Can Read books.  These reviews seemed to be a little nonsensical since they were about books like Curious George and The Berestein Bears.  These are wonderful early reader books!  Unfortunately, parents seem to think that Level 1 readers are going to be books where all the words follow easy phonetic rules.  These parents are wrong.


Leveled readers are wonderful tools for parents or teachers who are actively trying to help a child master reading.  These books are not so useful for teaching basic phonics sounds to preschoolers.  Just consider the titles of Little Bear or Curious George.  In the titles of these books alone, you have rules about silent vowels, long vowels, "ou" sounds, soft g sounds, etc. You can bet that these books include a lot of these rules, in addition to a set of sight words that are often identified for the reader on the front or back page of the book.

Parents need to understand that just because their 2 year old can identify the word c-a-t, doesn't mean that they are ready to read about Amelia Bedelia. Don't blame the leveled readers!  Level 1 is for beginning readers, not early preschoolers.  Even the I Can Read people say that Level 1 "books have short sentences, familiar words, and simple concepts for children eager to read on their own."  If you want simpler books, try out the Introduction to Reading Books from the I Can Read folks.  These are more appropriate for the preschool crowd.

Teaching somebody to read the English language is not the simplest task in the world.  It can be done through a systematic and patient approach.  And when it all starts to click and fall into place, your reader can enjoy simple Level 1 books.  If you try too early, everyone gets discouraged.  But if you're patient, these can be loads of fun!  Leveled readers are great teaching tools if they are used appropriately.