I teach 3rd grade. I have a student who, according to our star reader test, reads at a 6.5 level. I fear that the content in these books may be inappropriate for an 8/9 year old (or not interest her). Any books/authors come to mind? I know that Laura Ingalls Wilder and Scott O'Dell are good ones. Please help! Thanks!
You are right to be concerned about the themes of the novels at her reading level. Personally, I can't think of a single 6th grade book that I would want a 3rd grader to read- or that a 3rd grader would be interested in. Same problem though with a 6th grader reading adult level books. I will be interested in ideas people submit here but I would probably encourage this reader to read outside of his usual genre (encourage historical fiction for the reader who usually reads science fiction, etc.) or steer him to Newbery books which are always good even if the theme is mature.
Do you have AR? You need to look at the interest level as well as the reading level. Look for books that are high RL, low IL. You can do a search for quizzes through AR...
The Dear America, Dear Canada & Royal Diaries series (published by Scholastic I think). A large number of the 3-5th grade girls at my school have been keeping them checked out of the library.
