At home, my child reads harder books than the books he brings home for his 100 Book Challenge reading. Does this mean my child is in the wrong color level?
Sometimes a student may want to read a difficult book on a subject of particular interest; this kind of challenging, interest-driven reading is fine, as long as a student is able to enjoy and understand the book. Several years ago, many fourth- and fifth-grade readers pushed themselves through the Harry Potter series, books written on a seventh- to eighth-grade reading level, because of their keen interest in the characters and the fact that all their friends were reading the books. We certainly want to support this kind of kid-driven reading. Often, as a student learns more about a topic, a challenging book can become “just right.” Students will want to spend some time reading a range of books—easy books to gain confidence and fluency, challenging books that tell stories a child wants to read or convey information a student wants to learn—but most of the reading time should be spent with books in his independent reading zone, because this is the zone in which children learn the most f
