Science Books - Readers
July 23, 2018 9:15 AM Subscribe
What reading level "i" and "j" books do you recommend that are focused on science to help my niece work on her reading this summer without her realizing she is working on her reading?
My niece just finished first grade. She is a reading level "i". She is supposed to be reading level "j" to be considered on grade level. My sister would like to work with her on reading.
My niece is awesome and smart and funny and sensitive. She is a middle child and has a lot of separation/individuation characteristics where she adamantly does NOT want to be like her older sister. She is sensitive to criticism and shuts down immediately if she feels like she isn't up to snuff. She also is very strong in math and science.
My sister's plan for the summer is to focus on my niece's strengths (science and math) and try to backdoor in the reading without her noticing she is reading more. Some ideas we came up with -
Doing science experiments, where my niece is given a lot of independence to do the science herself (such as reading the ingredients, measuring them out, writing down what happens, etc).
Reading cool books about science and math (and bonus points for female scientists and mathematicians) that are "J" level readers.
The second item has been a bit harder -as the "science" based readers are generally older and on a specific subject like "frogs" where she looses interest. We need fun and dynamic science readers.
Do you have any suggestions for "j" level readers that are science and math themed where my niece won't realize she is working on reading and instead working on science?
My niece just finished first grade. She is a reading level "i". She is supposed to be reading level "j" to be considered on grade level. My sister would like to work with her on reading.
My niece is awesome and smart and funny and sensitive. She is a middle child and has a lot of separation/individuation characteristics where she adamantly does NOT want to be like her older sister. She is sensitive to criticism and shuts down immediately if she feels like she isn't up to snuff. She also is very strong in math and science.
My sister's plan for the summer is to focus on my niece's strengths (science and math) and try to backdoor in the reading without her noticing she is reading more. Some ideas we came up with -
Doing science experiments, where my niece is given a lot of independence to do the science herself (such as reading the ingredients, measuring them out, writing down what happens, etc).
Reading cool books about science and math (and bonus points for female scientists and mathematicians) that are "J" level readers.
The second item has been a bit harder -as the "science" based readers are generally older and on a specific subject like "frogs" where she looses interest. We need fun and dynamic science readers.
Do you have any suggestions for "j" level readers that are science and math themed where my niece won't realize she is working on reading and instead working on science?
Best answer: Teacher-librarian here.
First- let go of the emphasis on reading level. Some teachers have become obsessed with this metric, but that doesn’t mean you should be. Fountas and Pinnell- the researchers who came up with Guided Reading levels- clearly and repeatedly state that levels are a tool for the TEACHER and should not be used by or even communicated with students and parents. And even if that weren’t true, levels are a subjective measure- both on the part of the people assigning a level to a book and on the part of teachers assessing a given student’s reading. And even putting that aside, I and J are contiguous levels and part of the same ‘band’- your niece is essentially where she needs to be.
All that said- you’re doing a great thing for your niece and it’s wonderful that you have time and energy to do this. Putting levels aside, the most important thing (imho) is to 1) read ANYTHING and 2) MAKE SURE IT’S FUN.
Ask her what she likes to read.
Read to her.
Read with her.
Take her to the library.
Ask the children’s librarian for recommendations.
Let her browse the stacks.
Don’t criticize when she picks Elephant and Piggie books, or if she wants to read those more than the science-y books you’ve checked out for her.
Read to her.
Talk with her about what you’re/she’s reading.
Take her to the book store.
Buy her books.
Let her struggle through the first chapter of Harry Potter (if she chooses)- my own daughter made terrific strides by doing the laborious work of pushing through stuff too hard for her BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO. Never tell her a book is “too hard” (tho taking breaks with stuff not so challenging is also good).
Read to her.
Sure, look for stuff she can read independently- in that H-K range is fine- but don’t limit her to that stuff, or suggest that reading it is somehow more important than reading the Amulet graphic novels she’ll want to check out.
As you mention, it’s not real easy to find good science non-fiction at those easy reading levels- your librarian may be able to make recommendations. However, I can’t emphasize enough how powerful reading to your niece can be. It exposes her painlessly to to the patterns of academic language, flawlessly demonstrates through example how pleasurable reading is, introduces key concepts and vocabulary she’ll need when later reading on her own, and in my own experience inevitably leads towards ‘let me try’ and ‘I’ll read this page’ and eventually “I want to read you this.”
posted by carterk at 10:21 AM on July 23, 2018 [8 favorites]
First- let go of the emphasis on reading level. Some teachers have become obsessed with this metric, but that doesn’t mean you should be. Fountas and Pinnell- the researchers who came up with Guided Reading levels- clearly and repeatedly state that levels are a tool for the TEACHER and should not be used by or even communicated with students and parents. And even if that weren’t true, levels are a subjective measure- both on the part of the people assigning a level to a book and on the part of teachers assessing a given student’s reading. And even putting that aside, I and J are contiguous levels and part of the same ‘band’- your niece is essentially where she needs to be.
All that said- you’re doing a great thing for your niece and it’s wonderful that you have time and energy to do this. Putting levels aside, the most important thing (imho) is to 1) read ANYTHING and 2) MAKE SURE IT’S FUN.
Ask her what she likes to read.
Read to her.
Read with her.
Take her to the library.
Ask the children’s librarian for recommendations.
Let her browse the stacks.
Don’t criticize when she picks Elephant and Piggie books, or if she wants to read those more than the science-y books you’ve checked out for her.
Read to her.
Talk with her about what you’re/she’s reading.
Take her to the book store.
Buy her books.
Let her struggle through the first chapter of Harry Potter (if she chooses)- my own daughter made terrific strides by doing the laborious work of pushing through stuff too hard for her BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO. Never tell her a book is “too hard” (tho taking breaks with stuff not so challenging is also good).
Read to her.
Sure, look for stuff she can read independently- in that H-K range is fine- but don’t limit her to that stuff, or suggest that reading it is somehow more important than reading the Amulet graphic novels she’ll want to check out.
As you mention, it’s not real easy to find good science non-fiction at those easy reading levels- your librarian may be able to make recommendations. However, I can’t emphasize enough how powerful reading to your niece can be. It exposes her painlessly to to the patterns of academic language, flawlessly demonstrates through example how pleasurable reading is, introduces key concepts and vocabulary she’ll need when later reading on her own, and in my own experience inevitably leads towards ‘let me try’ and ‘I’ll read this page’ and eventually “I want to read you this.”
posted by carterk at 10:21 AM on July 23, 2018 [8 favorites]
I don't really know what the "i" and "j" mean, but The Boy Who Loved Math (a graphic biography of Paul Erdos) is listed as K-3.
posted by praemunire at 10:25 AM on July 23, 2018
posted by praemunire at 10:25 AM on July 23, 2018
Best answer: The Zoey and Sassafras books are fun and my kid enjoyed them in 1st grade.
"Each story in the Zoey and Sassafras series features a new magical animal with a problem that must be solved using science. There isn't a set formula for each book; Zoey sometimes needs to run experiments, while other times she needs to investigate a mystery, and yet other times she needs to do research. Zoey models how to keep a science journal through her handwritten entries in each story. Each story is complete with a glossary of the kid-friendly definitions for scientific terms used."
posted by belladonna at 11:06 AM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
"Each story in the Zoey and Sassafras series features a new magical animal with a problem that must be solved using science. There isn't a set formula for each book; Zoey sometimes needs to run experiments, while other times she needs to investigate a mystery, and yet other times she needs to do research. Zoey models how to keep a science journal through her handwritten entries in each story. Each story is complete with a glossary of the kid-friendly definitions for scientific terms used."
posted by belladonna at 11:06 AM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I agree that it's a tough range when a kid wants to read books that include words like "photosynthesis". Does your school district give you online access to leveled readers? Last summer we did a ton of our daily reading with Reading A-Z, which includes a good amount of science non-fiction. She might also enjoy Bedtime Math, which is probably strictly a little above that level but involves a short bit of reading and a bunch of talking about numbers. My kid could read it at a lower reading level with minimal support. Who Would Win? books came home from the library all through second grade last year at about that reading level. They're pretty silly, but factual. A science-adjacent thing that is also manageable at that age and reading level is recipe reading and baking. Big coffeetable books or reference books of animals, plants, etc are great for perusing; the language is more mature but there isn't a lot of it, and she can flip around to the thing she's interested in. The kid looks through our little Golden Guide collection pretty regularly. As far as general techniques, with harder books, one thing we'd do is have the kid read a paragraph per page on tougher books.
(Not to get too off-topic but I is in no way below grade level; typical second grade reading level range starts at E, and there is a ton of overlap from year to year. I sounds totally average. My kid was around G at the start of second grade and was toward the bottom of the average range, but had completely leveled out of needing extra help on reading.)
posted by tchemgrrl at 12:25 PM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
(Not to get too off-topic but I is in no way below grade level; typical second grade reading level range starts at E, and there is a ton of overlap from year to year. I sounds totally average. My kid was around G at the start of second grade and was toward the bottom of the average range, but had completely leveled out of needing extra help on reading.)
posted by tchemgrrl at 12:25 PM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
I agree with what others have said about reading levels - the push to get everyone to a particular level very early is not in line with what we know about how reading skills develop. So kudos to you for keeping the pleasure of reading front and center. I really like the “Let’s Read and Find Out” science series, which has been in print forever. A lot of them are at levels in the neighborhood of what you are looking for, and they have good illustrations.
posted by mai at 3:11 PM on July 23, 2018
posted by mai at 3:11 PM on July 23, 2018
Here are many books still in print available on Amazon, and you can also find them at the library.
posted by mai at 3:13 PM on July 23, 2018
posted by mai at 3:13 PM on July 23, 2018
Best answer: So, I'm not great at remembering vocabulary levels from books we had 15 years ago, but Amazon says K-3 for Stone Girl, Bone Girl. It's a picture book about Mary Anning, who discovered some of the first big dinosaur fossils in Britain. We also had a copy of Digging up Dinosaurs, by Aliki, which looks more like a reader, but had rather babyish illustrations.
Probably too high a reading level, but my kid really liked the idea in Chattanooga Sludge, a book about cleaning up polluted water through tanks of plants. Husband recalls reading that many times.
And there's a reader about Descartes (Cartesian coordinates) that I vaguely remember. It says ages 7-9 (which is maybe too old). It's a Step Into Reading book with a lexile score of 0560, if you can translate that. I'm recommending it because it introduces a cool math idea.
A lot of kids who "love science" particularly love nature, but if this kid, who seems to like doing things, loves machines, then The Robot Zoo and The Way Things Work are really interesting to pore over.
posted by puddledork at 4:36 PM on July 23, 2018
Probably too high a reading level, but my kid really liked the idea in Chattanooga Sludge, a book about cleaning up polluted water through tanks of plants. Husband recalls reading that many times.
And there's a reader about Descartes (Cartesian coordinates) that I vaguely remember. It says ages 7-9 (which is maybe too old). It's a Step Into Reading book with a lexile score of 0560, if you can translate that. I'm recommending it because it introduces a cool math idea.
A lot of kids who "love science" particularly love nature, but if this kid, who seems to like doing things, loves machines, then The Robot Zoo and The Way Things Work are really interesting to pore over.
posted by puddledork at 4:36 PM on July 23, 2018
Best answer: The I Hate Mathematics Book despite the name I think is specifically for kids who love mathematics and science. Cartoons, riddles, jokes, tricks, all sorts of things to tie math to the everyday world, but not in a word problem sort of way. Read it 40 years ago and still remember it.
Maybe the Macaulay books like City or Pyramid as well as The Way Things Work mentioned above.
I also loved collections about plants and animals at that age with lots of pictures, especially ones that included "weird" ones (archer fish, skinks, corpse flowers, etc.) I'd never heard of. I still remember one series like that fondly with about 2 pages per animal, but doubt it's still in print.
posted by mark k at 9:07 PM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Maybe the Macaulay books like City or Pyramid as well as The Way Things Work mentioned above.
I also loved collections about plants and animals at that age with lots of pictures, especially ones that included "weird" ones (archer fish, skinks, corpse flowers, etc.) I'd never heard of. I still remember one series like that fondly with about 2 pages per animal, but doubt it's still in print.
posted by mark k at 9:07 PM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: A text from my sister this morning: Those metafilter suggestions are gold. Please thank the teacher/librarian for their explanation. I've been trying to research this stuff some and their context is so helpful. They had some great suggestions and validated some of my other thoughts on "as long as she enjoys it..." We are heading to the library today and I will look for some of the titles suggested
Thanks Metafilter!
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 11:20 AM on July 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
Thanks Metafilter!
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 11:20 AM on July 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
Your niece also might enjoy the "Magic Schoolbus" books. They have some that are easy chapter books as well as some that are more like picture books/graphic novels.
posted by belladonna at 9:26 AM on July 25, 2018
posted by belladonna at 9:26 AM on July 25, 2018
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Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer Science And Other Incredible Things
There is also this TED kids' talks playlist that showcases several child "scientists" including girls.
And last but not least, The Kids Should See This playlist of science videos.
(The last two are not books but... meet them where they are etc).
posted by rada at 9:22 AM on July 23, 2018