I remember reading the lord of the rings trilogy myself, followed by chronicles of narnia and then the first and second chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I read all of these in the 4-5th grade time frame.

Then in my 6th grade year it was pretty much as describe in other posts, they would take me from my regular class a few times a week and we'd do various testing or perform a play or some other art related project. I was never interested in the art/drama stuff so it was all very boring for me.

I was also put in bi-lingual classes from K-3rd for some reason even though I was 100% American whiteboy, they thought it was good for my overall education if I were to learn spanish. Not sure if these are related, I don't remember much of my childhood either.

Now I have a 10yr old son and although he's doing fine in school there's no way he'd have the ability to sit and read through these. Either I was much more advanced or the education system has changed considerably.