It’s very simple. Your students started reading in kindergarten. By first grade, most could get through a moderate picture book. By third grade, a straightforward children’s novel.
Many don’t start seriously trying to read music until middle or high school.
At that point, their taste is at the musical equivalent of “The Hunger Games”, but their literacy is not much past “Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus.”
How do you wrestle with this disconnect? Are you balancing to make sure that their literacy and their taste are both served appropriately?