Required Reading?

[Black-eyed Suzan]

How much (if any) independent reading do you require in any/all subjects? None is a perfectly acceptable answer.   :)

 

I'd love a subject-by-subject breakdown, too, if applicable.

 

I'm usually on my phone and can't see signatures, so please include your students' ages.

 

Thank you! :) 

 

 

[HomeAgain]

2nd grade- occasionally a historical fiction, definitely a reading book reader (reading aloud to me), and a book basket of 1/2h per day.

[Jackie]

7 years old, none.

 

She has taken a couple classes through Athena’s, including a Literature class, and I required that she finished all required work for the classes, including assigned independent reading.

 

She is a very strong reader, and reads for 2+ hours per day, and is perfectly capable of discussing what she has read.she would almost certainly balk at required material, though.

[purpleowl]

My DDs are almost 9 and newly 6. The info below applies to both of them. (DS, 3.5, is just now learning to read.)

 

I assign books (usually novels) for reading as a subject, done three days per week. Usually it's a chapter or two per assigned day - depends on how long and how dense the chapters are. Sometimes they really like the assigned book and will read more than that at a time or will ask if they can read extra at bedtime. 

 

They read together from a science encyclopedia each week as an intro to that week's topic. 

 

I try to have an outside reading for science, history, or both each week. These are generally not novels, but shorter books that they can read in one sitting, or else I direct them to choose a certain amount from the book to read.

 

I don't feel like I have to do any more than that, because beyond those things, they are reading PLENTY in their free time. I do the "reading as a subject" thing to make sure they are reading a wider variety than they might choose on their own; frequently, they'll choose to reread books they've read for school reading later on.

[mathnerd]

I assign one every month. I rotate between Fantasy/Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Adventure, Classics and non-fiction. I store book recommendations from various sources on a spreadsheet and try to rotate through these categories and ensure that all the categories are covered. The spreadsheet helps me track what gets read and when. If I find that we were not covering the Classics category enough, then, I might assign 2 classics back to back.

 

For free reading, my son likes non-fiction books (mostly science and space related) and popular fiction (the Rick Riordan, Nick and Tesla kind). I try to find something connected to his latest free reading book to assign for required reading. So, my pick for required reading might range from Ancient Gods to robotics etc.

[lewelma]

Age 14: 2 hours a day.  

 

1 hour literature (16 classics a term, intermixing short and long novels/novellas of his choice from a long list I provide)

30 minutes: science textbook/tradebook (he helps choose the book, one book typically per year for past few years)

30 minutes: national geographic (1 article per week, his choice long or short depending on the week)

 

He cannot read math on his own, and he cannot read WWS3 on his own.  So he can read content but not skill development materials.

 

At age 11: I required 1 hour literature (his choice from a long list), 30 minutes nonfiction (his choice from library).

 

Ruth in NZ

Edited January 10, 2018 by lewelma

[Pegs]

My 8yo should be in vision therapy but isn't (long story). We're pushing on anyway and working towards building up his reading stamina, with a goal of getting up to 30 minutes in one sitting, twice a day.

 

He reads from the non-fiction books we check out every Monday, and we construct a mini-book on that topic by Friday.

 

On weekends we have more time for buddy-reading. Our current read is Eldest, from the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini.

[Runningmom80]

11 years old, he reads one chapter of a non fiction book on his own daily and i read one chapter of a classic to him daily.  He reads Nat Geo a couple of times a week during morning basket and he reads a lot for The Big History Project.

Edited January 11, 2018 by Runningmom80