Encouraging diverse reading

[LibrarianMom]

Hello! I don't post very often on this board as I usually hang out on the Afterschooling board. My dd (2nd grade PS) is a very good reader capable of reading 4-5th grade level books according to her school assessment. However, right now all she wants to read are Box Car Children books and sometimes over and over and over. Her PS teacher feels that yes she could reader higher level books, but dd will never get the opportunity to read (and take AR tests) on these books again. We have lots of other books she could read, so how can I best encourage her to branch out in her reading choices?

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

What else is she interested in? DD has a reading shelf and I put books there that I think she would like and are at or a little below her reading level. Right now she's very into dinosaurs so we have another shelf for those books. Another thing that gets dd into a book is if I start to read it but only read a chapter or so. She's picked up some more difficult material this way.

[Crimson Wife]

Another thing that gets dd into a book is if I start to read it but only read a chapter or so. She's picked up some more difficult material this way.

 

:iagree:

Most of what I begin as a RA winds up getting finished by my DD as IR.

[LibrarianMom]

Thank you for the great ideas. For some of our RAs, I'm using the suggestions from AO. I just might have to encourage her to read some of them out loud for us particularly as the stories are short. Previously when using the Box Car Children for our read-alouds, we would take turns reading pages. I'll have to return to that for some other books.

[Maryalice]

One of my sons, if left on his own, would have read Calvin and Hobbes for the rest of his life. :001_smile: I started a Great Authors group and he was joined by some of his friends in discussion of the books that I selected. He joined the group to be with his friends, read to be part of the discussions and actually discovered that he liked to read the more challenging books. I didn't have to force anything. I love peer pressure, when I get to pick the peers and the pressure. ;)

[Arch at Home]

At our house we encourage branching out with read alouds and audio books. They develop an awareness and sometimes even pick these books up on their own. I think that it is important for kids to read books over and over. At this age they are reading a lot of material which is advanced for them, on cereal boxes, magazines, newspapers, flyers from church, and such. Coming back to what they know builds speed, confidence, fluency, and vocabulary.

[KarenNC]

One of my sons, if left on his own, would have read Calvin and Hobbes for the rest of his life. :001_smile:

 

Glad to hear I'm not alone! Drives me nuts knowing that my daughter is fully capable of much higher level reading but *only* wants to read graphic novels, comics and books for much younger children (not to mention lower reading levels). I don't mind that she reads *some* of that for fun, but not *only* that. We have always done lots of audiobooks and read-alouds of very high level material (at her comprehension level which has typically been higher than her reading level) and she loves it, but for her, I'm afraid it's been satisfying her need for extended narrative a bit too much.

 

I'm trying a multi-pronged approach:

 

• limiting the number of way below level books she can get out from the library (so that we aren't hauling home 50 lbs of books each time that will be done in two days)

• using http://www.bookadventure.com (somewhat similar to Accelerated Reader, from what I can tell, but free and available to homeschoolers) to earn going out for ice cream after reading and passing the quiz on a certain number of books at or above a certain level

• more assigned reading of higher level books I think she will enjoy for schoolwork

• mandatory "semi-free" reading time as part of schoolwork, with limits on the kind of book she can choose (no graphic novels, for instance, and must be at least a certain length)

• participation in a reading club at the library. I'm currently considering switching her to another branch where she will be at the bottom of the age range rather than in the middle, so the books will be more involved. For example, last month the first club read a Time Warp Trio book while the second read The Secret Garden. It will be a bit more of a drive, but I think a better investment of our time and energy.

 

 

I've also just started using the Writing With Ease 3 workbook to deal with writing issues, and I'm finding that the passages are good "hooks" into more varied books for her. Since we will be working through the 3rd level workbook quickly and hopefully going on to the 4th at mid year, I have hopes for a lot of good exposure.

[katilac]

I think this is a stage (or rather a cycle) that most readers go through. Reading books below level, and reading books more than once, are both great ways to build speed and fluency. I wouldn't worry about it too much, especially for a 2nd-grader in the second month of the school year.

 

Ideally, a student will be reading a mix of books, both in genre and difficulty. In reality, kids are like the rest of us, and they enjoy reading some things more than others. After a long day at work or school, sometimes you just want to read something fun and easy.

 

One thought I have is that reading an easy series might be helping the student to get a handle on the framework of story. The reader is seeing certain techniques and plot devices over and over again; the very obviousness (of character types, plot, etc) is what makes it so useful.

 

Both of my girls have gone through long periods of only wanting to read a certain series, or wanting to read piles of 'easy' books. What does work sometimes is for me to hunt down books that I think they will enjoy (but that they wouldn't pick out for themselves). When their library stash gets low, they often move on to what I've selected.

 

Other than that, I don't interfere too much with their free reading. If my choices get returned unread, so be it. That might change if they went, say, six months without reading anything challenging or different, but so far I've never felt the need to require it.