How Weighing Grades on - AND REWARDING WANTS FOR - Leveled and Points-Based Reading Create Poor and Middle Class Adults
"For some kids, reading by levels and points worked as intended: it bettered their reading comprehension and gave them (though in fewer numbers) an advantage in reading sections on standardized tests," I wrote in my HubPages piece, The Case for Making Leveled and Points-Based Reading Voluntary Without Grades or Rewards in Schools.
"For many (and still growing) others, leveled reading has turned something for leisure that expands vocabulary and broadens people's outlooks of the world into drudgery. Many schools they attended as kids, or where their kids attend, often utilize the methods as part of Language Arts grades and/or use them as tools to earn extrinsic rewards like pizza parties and funfairs."
My elementary school was one of the lucky few when I attended it. It was in the minority of those that made Accelerated Reader (AR) optional. That meant that I was mostly ABLE to read Classical Music: The 50 Greatest Composers and Their 1,000 Greatest Works by Phil Goulding in my free time. One of the few negative side effects was me perseverating at least twice on classical music with my relatives only to be told off for doing so.
"When schools remove novels from the students' curriculum and replace challenging books with shorter pieces and worksheets, they are denying students the foundational reading experience for developing those regions of their brains that enable them to think deeply," Kelly Gallagher lamented in Readicide.
Novels aren't the main problem, I hear you. But schools weighing Language Arts grades on Accelerated Reader or any leveled reading program or attaching tangible prizes like parties, pizza lunches, bikes, and the ilk to high scores and/or books read only at students designated reading levels kill students' love of reading.
"So why do we use Lexiles for older kids?," Ricky Ginsberg pondered on literacy education blog Unleashing Readers, "Perhaps it is based on fear. We worry we arenât challenging our students, so the Lexile numbers give us the confidence and assurance to move forward. It appeases the nagging worry that maybe we arenât challenging our children enough.
âBecause if the number/letter on the childâs book is higher than the number/letter on the last book the student read, I am doing my job as a parent, as an educator, as an administrator, right?"
"Even worse, some parents/teachers make students internalize levels. A child will tell me, 'I am a G reader.' (Note: the child's school used the Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention System.) How does this G reader feel when the G reader is surrounded by J reader peers? What does this do for reader confidence?"
âI cringe when I hear about parents or teachers who strictly adhere to reading levels alone and wonât let children read books that are 'too high/low in their Lexile number.' I watched a mother tell her son that he couldnât get the train book that he wanted so badly because the number on the back cover was too high for him.â
âHe was disappointed, and he was even more disappointed when his mom selected a book that was not interesting to him. It really sucks the fun out of reading when you have to pick a book within your required sentence length instead of within your interests."
If leveled reading programs are weighted in a grade percentage, they would be crosses for literate autistic youth, especially the mainstreamed ones, to bear. Had AR been offered in 7th grade, in 2002-2003, John Crossingham's Learn to Speak Music would've been a good fit for this proudly weird kid whose celeb crush was Howard Goodall.
But Crossingham's Learn to Speak Music was published in 2009. Thus, I would've trudged through Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables; Michael Morpurgo's The Nine Lives of Montezuma, or Margery Williams's The Velveteen Rabbit.
Part of my initial disinterest for novels stemmed from being forced to read a novel during recess in my special ed class during my very first school year in Florida. I hated being challenged enough, preferring picture and nonfiction books and cans of Play-Doh. I had a HUGE meltdown when I had to read The Velveteen Rabbit one day.
There was a points system in which I and my other classmates had points taken off if we were out of line. My tantrum over having to read a novel resulted me in earning 23 of 24 points that day. (I'd usually hit streaks of 24 of 24 points, but the day when I was forced to read something substantial other than Nancy Carlson's I Like Me or Joy Cowley's The King's Pudding broke it.)
Reading the thread on Reddit's r/books made me realize that I wasn't alone in having to read something outside my narrow interests. (The only summer reading assignment I ACTUALLY enjoyed was Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife, given my history of watching domestic violence PSAs and documentaries, for English II Honors.)
"As a young kid, I was obsessed with dinosaurs, and scoured my elementary school library for any books about them," Metal-Lee-Solid recalled, "Eventually, the school librarian pulled me aside and told me I would not be allowed to rent any more dinosaur books - apparently, I needed to broaden my horizons.â
â(The librarian) presented me with a bunch of books I didn't care about, from books on baby animals to books about cars, and attempted to patronize me into being interested in one. But what actually happened is that I stopped reading books altogether for a year or two."
Most likely, Metal-Lee-Solid's school used AR as a weighted percentage of each student's Language Arts grade.
"In second grade my teacher didn't want me to read (the first couple of books of the Harry Potter series)," Kibassi commiserated, "because (she informed me that I) should always be as old as the main character. She got quite angry when I didn't stop reading (one of them), and I still don't understand why."
Schools that reward students for perfect scores via picnics and even cash prizes on reading quizzes are just as worse. "My daughter loves to read," a mother lamented in the comments section of the blog, Teach from the Heart, "but I watched her struggle to read forty AR books last summer for the Summer Reading Program.â
âBy the end of it we were having difficulty finding books on the list, and she worked her little butt off for that certificate and (a $10 Barnes & Noble gift card)."
"Iâve seen the damage (AR) can do," the original poster, Jen Marten, lamented, "I witnessed it for the first time when I tutored a struggling 5th grader... He hated to read. He hated being locked into a level. He hated the points associated with the books. But more importantly, he was humiliated when he didnât earn enough points to join in the monthly party or get to âbuyâ things with those points at a school store full of junky prizes.â
"Iâve seen kids run their fingers along the binding of a book, a book they REALLY wanted to read, but then hear them say, 'But itâs not an AR book,â or âItâs not my level.â Iâve watched them scramble to read the backs of books or beg a friend for answers so they can get enough points for the grading period.â
âAnd I watched it slowly start to unravel (my daughterâs) love of reading. Â Itâs why I gave her permission to practice a little civil disobedience and stop reading for points."
Coming from someone who later in high school turned the lemon of resistance to reading The Velveteen Rabbit in my elementary school special ed class to enjoying my summer reading assignment involving Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife brings me to what packaged leveled reading can do for kids whose schools attach Pizza Hut meals and 10-pack sets of glittery gel pens: it fosters their entitlement mentalities.
âThis entitlement mentality starts at home," Robert Kiyosaki (I call him Lolo Bob K) informs in Why "A" Students Work for "C" Students and Why "B" Students Work for the Government. His bestseller - Rich Dad, Poor Dad - is 860L on the Lexile scale, but reading it just to be quizzed misses the point on getting financially educated in the first place.
"Sometimes it starts by trading money for time or love - in rich and poor neighborhoods alike. Sometimes parents buy their kids clothes, high-end athletic shoes, toys, and even cars - so the child can keep up with his or her classmates. If your childâs classmate is given a new bicycle itâs easy to feel entitled to a new bicycle, too. That is where the entitlement mentality begins.â
Of course, some schools that are lucky to teach basic economics at times independent of standardized testing prep educate student bodies on the difference between wants and needs. But for those that also reward students for hitting 100% on each quiz for books they are forced to read because it's within their reading levels via pizza parties or bikes, they are actually worsening the entitlement mentality.
Coming from a former impulse buyer, I honestly don't know the stats of adults like me whose roots of their spending habits stemmed from many attempts - ambitious or futile - to nail 100% on each AR quiz as kids. But what I know is that perfectionism, which is rooted from those experiences, make some of them deep in bad debt.
As the child who reads just for pizza and bikes enters middle and THEN high school, chances are that it will devolve into reading certain novels just to pass English Honors classes, let alone get an A. (Yes, some of them also weigh English grade percentages with AR/F&P/Reading Counts quizzes.)
Eventually, the child would graduate in the highest echelons of their senior classes because he'd read what he was told to read. Not to mention that thanks to the homework overload, he'd eschew fulfilling outside interests; vacations out-of-state except those for his extracurricular and/or athletic activities; and other family activities to graduate as a "good egg."
He'll eventually graduate in the top 10% of the college senior class, but even with a high-paying job and a frugal lifestyle, he'd probably worry about his next paycheck.
That ruffles Boston University professor Karen Arnold's feathers.
âWhile these students had the attributes to ensure school success," she wrote, "these characteristics did not necessarily translate into real-world success. I think weâve discovered the 'dutiful' people who know how to achieve in the system.â
âTo know that a person is a valedictorian is only to know that he or she is exceedingly good at achievement as measured by grades. It tells you nothing about how they react to the vicissitudes of life."
"While valedictorians may not change the world, they run it and run it well... But just because they could get Aâs doesnât mean they can translate academic achievement into career achievement. theyâve never been devoted to a single area in which they can put all their passions...
âThe opportunities to become famous or change the world as an accountant, for example, are few and far between... They obey rules, work hard, and like learning, but theyâre not the mold-breakers. They work best within the system and arenât likely to change it.â
Though leveled reading has good intentions for some people, it fosters what would become most other  kids' middle-class contexts as they grow up, especially with As and arcade tokens attached. "People with a middle class context typically donât get rich," my Lolo Bob K informs, "Many go deeper in debt to, 'keep up with the Joneses.'â
âInstead of investing, people with a middle class context just consume more. They buy a bigger house, take nice vacations, drive expensive cars, and spend money on higher education."
My proposal to schools is that they can keep their AR/F&P/Reading Counts quizzes, but it's time to detach the extra credit, weighted grade percentages, and extrinsic rewards based on WANTS off them.
If they can do away with those fluffy reading comprehension textbooks and daily reading logs (or at least make the latter WHOLLY optional) as well, that would be more beneficial to students. Gallagher suggests replacing them with a book flood - that is, having well-stocked bookshelves of school-approved books with a very wide variety of interests.
"(Students) need immersion in a book flood," he wrote, "and because many of our students come from print-poor environments at home, that book flood needs to be found at school. I have found that placing students in a daily book flood zone produces much more reading than occasionally taking them to the library."
Plus, when they pick up books or EVEN novels with positive plots about entrepreneurship, capitalism, and earning both portfolio and passive income among the said book flood, chances are that they'll be so inspired to actually set aside money to buy cashflow assets and/or own businesses when they get jobs as adults.
Just imagine a child picking up Lolo Bob K's Rich Dad, Poor Dad for Teens! He'll even sketch his own financial statement he'll soon receive as an adult and he'll know the difference between assets and liabilities.
"The reason a banker does not ask you for your report card is because your banker is not interested in your academic intelligence," he concluded, "Your banker is interested in your financial intelligence.â
âYour financial statement is your report card after you leave school. Itâs your report card as an adult. The problem is, most students leave school living in the past. A few bask in the glory of having been A-students in school. Many fail to focus on the report card for their future, their personal financial statements."
"This is why many A-students who may have had good grades in school have failing financial report cards as adults. And, on the flip side, (this is) why many students who struggle in school become financial geniuses once they leave that academic environment and enter the real world."
Once teachers include both nonfiction books about entrepreneurship, capitalism, and earning both portfolio and passive income and novels that portray either or a combo of the subjects in a positive light in their book floods, children will almost certainly realize more that their bankers won't likely care about what your Lexile or F&P reading levels were in school!
