Muddling through Middle School

[Davina]

Do you read your history and science spines aloud to your middle schoolers?

 

Last year I read SOTW2 out loud to the youngest(10yo) and she completed the Medieval Creek Edge Task Card keeping a binder full of her work.  The eldest(12yo) read hers (K12s HO) independently. She also read through selected historical fiction and worked through the Medieval Creek Edge Task Cards.  She was more than capable, but I don't know, history just felt flat this year.  There was less discussion.  It was just a do the next thing thing.  We had similar issues with science.

 

So, I was thinking about just reading aloud to both of them from the same history/science spine.  Am I doing them a disservice?  How do you foster independence and still enjoy things together?  

[2_girls_mommy]

Kind of. I consider the encyclopedia they work out of the spine. I don't read aloud from that. Once a week or so, I have my dd12 read through her KHE, do an outline which usually requires some help, add dates to her timeline, and tell me what she read about. DD14 is using the History of the Ancient World as her spine. She reads that alone and makes a note page for every chapter. She tells me what she reads about. But I have some kind of read aloud or two going at all times that is in the general time period that I read to both and discuss, and we watch history videos together. 

[egao_gakari]

We use SOTW as a spine with additional independent work each class. They like being read aloud to, and they still love the coloring pages. After the SOTW chapter, review questions, and map work, the older one goes off to read a related chapter from the OUP series (Ancient China right now) or Kingfisher, or Horrible Histories, or occasionally a primary source. Younger one goes off to read a You Wouldn't Want To..., a Kingfisher, or a Horrible History. I have them write down some facts from whatever they read, and record any dates on their timelines.

 

I don't think reading aloud ever has to fully stop--even when I was in high school my mom would sometimes help me with my assigned reading by reading it aloud, or having me read it aloud.

[Farrar]

It took practice for my kids to be able to read and understand for nonfiction. I think you are doing them a disservice if you don't practice that skill in some way beginning early in middle school, if not 4th or 5th grade.

 

However, it doesn't have to be through reading a history spine specifically. And if you do your teaching while reading - stopping for discussion, questions, etc. as you go - then I get why changing up something that's working might not be a good idea. And reading aloud can continue to be a great way to tackle difficult material with middle schoolers.

 

So... two different goals that can come together by them reading the spine. But don't have to.

[HomeAgain]

We used Jackdaws and Read Like A Historian for middle school, at least past ancients through early modern. The one year we did do the CEP task cards and that was actually great. He'd spend his week researching and then do a presentation while I asked questions. We didn't do every task on the cards - some were boring, some didn't feel like a good learning experience (like make a poster) but he and I would come up with others to do instead. The following year we did almost all research based with a few readers thrown in.

[Alice]

My middle schooler mostly reads on his own. I usually read the same materials and then we meet and discuss it. I have found that in middle school my son both wanted independence and still wanted to do things together. A lot of it was finding the right balance. For example, we read his logic book together (I read out loud and we discussed as we went). He was perfectly capable of just reading it and doing the exercises on his own but I could tell he still liked the time it took to hang out on the sofa and read together. 

[Davina]

Thanks for your replies.

 

I am just trying to gauge what level of involvement for myself. The challenge for me with middle school is stepping back enough that they can take ownership, but not stepping back so far that I leave them floundering. I think maybe I stepped back a little too far. Maybe what I need to do is keep both girls in the same history book and just make sure that I read ahead of them so that I can keep everything fresh in my mind. This way we can still discuss pertinent topics and decide which ones to explore further. Guess I am finding out the logic stage means more independent work for me as well. Sigh.

[Penelope]

No. I read fiction to them for fun, but not school books. But we do get together regularly to discuss what they read. Sometimes that might be less discussion and more "lecture" by me, but I don't just read the book aloud to them. I know that would have tried my patience as a kid, and I know that the times we have done it, it doesn't work as well.

 

For history, talking about what they are learning about might be twice per week, with the other days for talking about their literature, science, grammar, writing. When we do a focused period on primary documents, we do all of it together, but usually they read it aloud, or we take turns.

[katilac]

I have a rising senior, and we still read history together  :001_cool:

 

It's much easier for me to just have us read and discuss together, rather than her reading, me reading, and then finding yet another time to get together and discuss. This was even more true when her sister was still at home. For us, the discussions are also more spontaneous and lively when we do it this way, and it took less of my time (I didn't have to make notes as I read of things I wanted to remember when we had discussion, etc). 

 

This year, we actually read science together also. She had done biology and chemistry in a more standard manner, but we wound up doing geology together. With the more standard subjects, my admittedly rusty knowledge was generally enough for me to help her and clarify things as needed, with maybe just a quick scan of the text as needed. We also had a teacher's manual with all of the correct answers, lol.

 

With geology, I had very little background knowledge, and we did not have a TM or other resources. I would have had to read the text anyway in order to be of help and create assignments, and again, reading together was just easier. One great benefit was that we did have many more in-depth discussions than we did for her other sciences, and would go off on rabbit trails as we read, looking up info in more depth and finding videos and such about events they referenced. I was also quite surprised that this method didn't take her any longer than reading on her own, I think because we read and discuss as needed until she pretty much 'gets it' the first time. It sticks in her memory, and she needs very little dedicated study time. The reading and discussion is her study time, for the most part (and the text does have a review for every chapter that we already read in full).  

 

As long as they are gaining the skill of comprehending non-fiction in some manner, I don't have any problems with reading texts with them at any age, if they enjoy it and learn well in that manner. My oldest had no patience for the 'learn together' model, lol, so it does depend on the student.

[cintinative]

I have sort of the "opposite" issue--my eldest son's reading comprehension on his IOWA came back lower this year and I have been reading aloud for Bible, science and history.  So I am going to be working in more time for him to read more independently and learn to take notes from the material.  The reason for combining my two to read aloud was because I didn't feel my youngest (just finished 4th last week) was ready for independent work. That said, I could have done as Farrar suggested and had them read the HO by themselves and then I could read the OUP aloud. I think that will be my plan come fall for HO2 and OUP.  For science, I planned to have my son read it independently although I expect some push back from my oldest who will probably want me to read to him.