DD being required to read below her ability

[BathshebaDarkstone]

DD 8 has a reading age of 12. Her last reading book was Kaspar Prince of Cats by Michael Morpurgo. Her new one is one of the Rainbow Magic series. Her teacher said she had to pick a shorter book because she took too long to read the last one. The problem is that they don't have short books for her reading age. I feel that if she doesn't read at her level she won't progress. WWYD?

She may be able to read the words that a 12 yo can, but does she know what they mean?
Is she understanding the concepts behind stories with more difficult vocabulary? Can she infer the necessary information to make sense of the book?
Can she read them out loud with the right tone and meaning?
If she has not reached these levels yet, the teacher may be trying easier books to help her develop these aspects.

As I posted before, age equivalent scores can be misleading and should be used with caution.
I would be asking the teacher to explain what she means by 'took too long' to read the last book and what the implications of this are for your dd in class. Was this in relation to her peers? Aren't there enough books to go round?

Not sure how relevant this is and not a stealth boast but fact - here goes anyway...OP, my DS2 was assessed as having a reading age of 16 at 7 years old. That was the top of the test range so that's where they stopped - reading age test measured vocabulary, understanding, inference, meaning and foreshadowing. He was identified as G&T, and is now at Cambridge on a six year science degree. the primary school teachers tried to keep him reading at very roughly the same pace as the most able in the year on class readers/shelved books, and he got fed up, but their reasoning was two-fold 1) that he could read whatever he wanted at home (as someone has said up thread) and 2) a LOT of what he could read was beyond his emotional maturity and dealt with issues that he sometimes had difficulty assimilating. As time went on it became clear that rather like your DD he defaulted to non-fiction out of choice, and I sometimes think this was because he was self censoring fiction choices, bored with less stimulating reads but wary of unrestricted books. His choice by the way, not ours. He has a massively scientific brain and I'm afraid that he doesn't do huge amounts of reading for pleasure now, although he always says he will do so when he's not as busy studying! So I would say enjoy your DD's ability and see it as an indicator of how she is learning and encourage her to read widely, and if non fiction is her bag then that may simply be because she is like my DS and her tastes and interests are also developing early. But I am sure that our primary's decision to gently restrict our son's reading in school prevented a lot of problems that might otherwise have arisen with a child who was having difficulty fitting in at the time because of his academic ability. HTH

Yes I sort of agree about age equivalent scores. My ds got really high score in reception, and could decode to that level, but his understanding of books was far from it.

But in this case, the child is already YR3/4, so I just assumed that the teacher should know her proper ability, not just her decoding skill.

Just let her read whatever she feels like. I started reading at 2 and have always speed read, average at 1500 words a minute (I hate it!)
I read anything and everything and nothing was ever restricted to me or encouraged (as in this is a harder book, read it)
She will likely self balance, just keep her reading!

Seeline yes she can read them out loud with the right tone and meaning, she has done right from reception. As for content, I've researched GAT booklists and there are plenty of good books with suitable subject matter. It does seem to be about the book length. I think they're supposed to read a book a week. As for availability, she's the only one in year 3 reading long chapter books.

If they had shorter books at her level the problem would be solved.

She does also enjoy fiction, she loved Kaspar and wished it had been longer! I bought her Poppy Pym and the Pharaoh's Curse today as their topic's ancient Egypt and she's now obsessed with that too, she read it until suppertime then continued until bedtime!

"she's the only one in year 3 reading long chapter books."

Maybe that's the problem. School may be struggling to deal with only one high ability child. Certainly the same case with my ds with maths.
Luckily with reading, my ds's school have quite a lot of advanced readers, they are quite relaxed about it.
I wonder though, there must be children who are more advanced than your DC in YR4, 5 and 6? What are they doing with them?

My ds reads his favourite books for fun reading, but for homework, he reads longer Roald Dahl or Michael Morpurgo kind of books, and takes more than a week to read. No problem there.
If the school want her to read more than one book a week, can you just list all the books she read for pleasure as well?

You should talk to the teacher and find out what they would like to do with your DC.

But how can the school be struggling just because she reads well? That does make sense. A free reader doesn't cause any problem or struggle in itself.

Also I would have thought that unless the year group has an unusually high number of very low attainers there will be other children in year three who are free readers now.

Doesn't Make sense

In my experience the majority of year 3 readers are on long chapter books.
I really can't see the problem- if you have a child who is a good reader and loves books there is no way to stop them reading! I used to be reading under the bedclothes with a torch at that age if I didn't want to put a book down.
All she needs is a library ticket and free rein. If she reads things too easy it doesn't matter as long as she enjoys it- she will move on.

"In my experience the majority of year 3 readers are on long chapter books"

Same here.