Does Timberlane have a trust issue?

[dmh]

Rob,
Easy to do your own research, look at the pages for other area high schools. Sanborn, Coe brown and others,
I also talk to parents from other schools, for example, an area school does not have Government and economics required as freshman, Juniors can take it as an AP classes. My graduate would have preferred that to watching West Wing as a Freshman. Beware however, if you talk to area parents about Timberlane they are often surprised about what we don't do.

[Rob C]

Sanborn only requires AP and Honors classes for 10,11 and 12th graders to read anything over the summer. Most of the list of required reading consists of very recent books, hardly classics.

Coe Brown does require all kids to read at least one book. Same here though on selection...unless you consider Jurassic Park a classic....

[dmh]

Sanborn only requires AP and Honors classes for 10,11 and 12th graders to read anything over the summer. Most of the list of required reading consists of very recent books, hardly classics.

Coe Brown does require all kids to read at least one book. Same here though on selection...unless you consider Jurassic Park a classic....

Problem with classics is they are often at a higher reading level than most of our kids can currently read. Tale of two cities is 10th grade reading level according to lexiles (which we as a district used for one year). World Studies taught in 10th grade watched movies when my kids were there versus reading because the kids were not reading at grade level. It used to be kids were told to read classics to improve their SAT scores.


Using lexiles, Diary of a wimpy kid is at a higher reading level that Dear Teen Me.

[Rob C]

Using lexiles, Diary of a wimpy kid is at a higher reading level that Dear Teen Me.

Using the Lexile score "Dear Teen Me" has a higher score than "Jurassic Park"...

PS - "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" also has a higher lexile score than "A Tale of Two Cities"...

[dmh]

What site did you go to?

lexile.com

Dear Teen Me has a lexile --880L.
Diary of a whimpy kid. The ugly truth -- 1000L

A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens 1490L. 710L and others some of the lower level reading level clearly marked



Typical Reader Measures, by Grade
Grade Reader Measures, Mid-Year
25th percentile to 75th percentile (IQR)
1 Up to 300L
2 140L to 500L
3 330L to 700L
4 445L to 810L
5 565L to 910L
6 665L to 1000L
7 735L to 1065L
8 805L to 1100L
9 855L to 1165L
10 905L to 1195L
11 and 12 940L to 1210L

[Resident]

Are you really comparing Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jurassic Park, and/or Dear Teen Me to A Tale of Two Cities? Seriously???!!!!

Can the school just make it simple? Provide challenging and worthwhile reading for the serious college bound student. A large percentile of students want to further their education beyond high school. Let's prepare them. By the way, it's not by reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Dear Teen Me. A suggestion, why not have a choice of only 2 books, Dear Teen Me or A Tale of Two Cities? Let the student decide.

By the way, according to my college graduate, my still attending college students, and their friends who attended other local area schools, state that very few high school graduates ever wrote a research paper longer than 3 pages. A hurdle that they are now challenged with in college. Maybe if the books they are reading had more content, it would be easier to write more than 3 pages.

FYI, the only research I've done is talk to college students who are in school now or recently graduated college within the last 2 years.

[Rob C]

What site did you go to?

lexile.com

Dear Teen Me has a lexile --880L.
Diary of a whimpy kid. The ugly truth -- 1000L

A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens 1490L. 710L and others some of the lower level reading level clearly marked

1490L is not Dickens.

The Dickens' authored book scores a 790L, 710L, and 990L depending on the copyright date.

[dmh]

What site did you go to?

lexile.com

Dear Teen Me has a lexile --880L.
Diary of a whimpy kid. The ugly truth -- 1000L

A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens 1490L. 710L and others some of the lower level reading level clearly marked

1490L is not Dickens.

The Dickens' authored book scores a 790L, 710L, and 990L depending on the copyright date.

I think Dickens is a bit higher level reading than 6th grade. However if it is then the school situation is even sadder, because I was told by a teacher that they could not read A tale of two cities in 10th grade World Studies as most students were not at that reading level.

[AlfredTwo]

By the way, according to my college graduate, my still attending college students, and their friends who attended other local area schools, state that very few high school graduates ever wrote a research paper longer than 3 pages. A hurdle that they are now challenged with in college. Maybe if the books they are reading had more content, it would be easier to write more than 3 pages.

FYI, the only research I've done is talk to college students who are in school now or recently graduated college within the last 2 years.

I hear similar stories from recent graduates of the high school were I teach (Bishop Guertin, Nashua) Of course those same students also say how glad they are *now* that they wrote much longer research papers when they were in high school.