2nd-3rd grade Reading poll

[lotsofpumpkins]

I'm completely torn on what I should do for reading for my upcoming 2nd and 3rd graders. We have used R&S Reading in 1st grade (along with their Phonics). My current 2nd grader started R&S 2nd grade reading at the beginning of the school year, but we dropped it and switched to HOD's Emerging Reader's schedule instead. It was from one extreme to another--- from lots of work to just a few minutes of reading aloud each day. I've read lots of threads on this subject, but I wanted to do a poll to see how most people feel. Is "reading real books and discussing them" enough for a 2nd/3rd grader? Or do they really need the comprehension questions, etc found in a reading curriculum?

 

Thanks for helping with this!

 

ETA: It's only been a few minutes and the "real books" category is winning by quite a bit. So, am I making this more complicated than it needs to be by thinking I need a real curriculum?

Edited March 28, 2010 by lotsofpumpkins

[JenC3]

My plan is to have dd (rising 2nd) read 18 chapter books and discuss them orally and take notes, a few sentences about each chapter so she can fill out her book report info.

[lotsofpumpkins]

Would the voters of "other" care to elaborate? :)

[FO4UR]

I vote for just reading and having the dc narrate orally. I don't think that requires a curric, but re-reading TWTM and getting a hold of WWE textbook might be a good idea. (You can borrow mine, if you like.)

[Mommyfaithe]

Buddy reading is perfect for that age.

 

~~Faithe

[FordFamily]

I like Sonlight readers. When I purchased my

readers, they had a schedule you could also

use.

[lotsofpumpkins]

I vote for just reading and having the dc narrate orally. I don't think that requires a curric, but re-reading TWTM and getting a hold of WWE textbook might be a good idea. (You can borrow mine, if you like.)

 

I no longer have my copy of TWTM. And I've never even really considered WWE since I've heard that the writing in R&S English "is enough". But WWE actually starts with copywork, right? Well, we are planning on giving HOD another shot (using Bigger with the rising 2nd and 3rd graders), and it includes copywork, narration, etc. Reading is the one subject I've struggled with, because of course they suggest you use Drawn into the Heart of Reading, and to be honest, the samples make it look really hard to implement and too time-consuming for the teacher. So, anyway, I'm trying to figure out what will meet the following criteria:

1. Cover everything they should be learning.

2. Doesn't require TOO much time of me.

3. Doesn't duplicate subjects already covered in other curricula we are using.

[Jen+4dc]

so I'll explain myself;).

 

I just finished reading "Deconstructing Penguins" and was really, really impressed with how simple it can be at this age. Reading real books and narrating back and making it a fun "mystery" (discussed in Deconstructing Penguins) is more than enough. Making it a mystery meaning discovering who is the protagonist/antagonist and if the author "cheated" in making us (the reader) feel a certain way by writing with a slant, etc. etc. I can't really explain it well, it's too far past my bedtime:tongue_smilie:. But, I highly recommend getting Penguins from the library and seeing what you think before purchasing a reading program.

 

Just my 2 cents!

[blessedmom3]

I don't do a formal reading program before 4th grade , unless there is a comprehension problem ( my youngest seems to have this ).

 

I strongly recommend you to read Ruth Beechick "You can teach your child succesfully" .

 

Reading great books , along with a nice book report (if they enjoy it) is plenty for this age .

 

http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/BookReports/BookReport.html

[lotsofpumpkins]

I don't do a formal reading program before 4th grade , unless there is a comprehension problem ( my youngest seems to have this ).

 

I strongly recommend you to read Ruth Beechick "You can teach your child succesfully" .

 

Reading great books , along with a nice book report (if they enjoy it) is plenty for this age .

 

http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/BookReports/BookReport.html

 

You know what, I've actually downloaded all those book report forms before! I guess I should put them to good use. :)

[lotsofpumpkins]

so I'll explain myself;).

 

I just finished reading "Deconstructing Penguins" and was really, really impressed with how simple it can be at this age. Reading real books and narrating back and making it a fun "mystery" (discussed in Deconstructing Penguins) is more than enough. Making it a mystery meaning discovering who is the protagonist/antagonist and if the author "cheated" in making us (the reader) feel a certain way by writing with a slant, etc. etc. I can't really explain it well, it's too far past my bedtime:tongue_smilie:. But, I highly recommend getting Penguins from the library and seeing what you think before purchasing a reading program.

 

Just my 2 cents!

 

Unfortunately my tiny library does not have this book, but considering I'm always looking for books to add to my amazon cart to get free shipping, I might just go ahead and buy it! Thanks for the suggestion.

[daybreaking]

Shall I confuse things even more for you and say we do both? This year, we did R&S Reading 1 and recently started HOD's Emerging Readers set. We'll soon be starting R&S Reading 2 and will continue with HOD's Emerging Readers set. Although I thoroughly enjoy the Emerging Readers books and DS loves reading them, I am not convinced the type of questions cover all I want DS to learn. R&S is so thorough and I've seen such immense progress in DS from using the program, that I don't want to give it up. Since the Emerging Readers program takes such little time (for us, about 15 minutes), it hasn't been a problem for us to do both, plus, from looking through the teacher's manual, it looks like R&S grade 2 reading will be less teacher intensive.

[Wendy in ME]

I am planning to follow the Memoria Press and Highland list and maybe order the guides for my 2nd grader next year.

[lotsofpumpkins]

Shall I confuse things even more for you and say we do both? This year, we did R&S Reading 1 and recently started HOD's Emerging Readers set. We'll soon be starting R&S Reading 2 and will continue with HOD's Emerging Readers set. Although I thoroughly enjoy the Emerging Readers books and DS loves reading them, I am not convinced the type of questions cover all I want DS to learn. R&S is so thorough and I've seen such immense progress in DS from using the program, that I don't want to give it up. Since the Emerging Readers program takes such little time (for us, about 15 minutes), it hasn't been a problem for us to do both, plus, from looking through the teacher's manual, it looks like R&S grade 2 reading will be less teacher intensive.

 

This is actually something I have considered, but I didn't want to have TOO much going on. I think my rising 3rd grader would be fine with doing both, but my rising 2nd grader would probably have some trouble with this. He is quite young for his grade and still needs to become more fluent in his reading. My main concern is making sure I do what will most benefit the rising 2nd grader. I don't want to make things too easy for him, but I don't want to completely overwhelm him either. If I were to get him R&S reading, I'd probably need to let him do some of it orally or stretch each lesson out to two days for a while.

[daybreaking]

This is actually something I have considered, but I didn't want to have TOO much going on. I think my rising 3rd grader would be fine with doing both, but my rising 2nd grader would probably have some trouble with this. He is quite young for his grade and still needs to become more fluent in his reading. My main concern is making sure I do what will most benefit the rising 2nd grader. I don't want to make things too easy for him, but I don't want to completely overwhelm him either. If I were to get him R&S reading, I'd probably need to let him do some of it orally or stretch each lesson out to two days for a while.

 

Actually, stretching the lessons over two days might be the perfect answer for you. Our son is 7.5 and the difference in him now and when he was 6.5 is unbelievable! We started the program when he was 6 and ended up alternating days on the phonics and reading until he was able to handle both in one day. It took us a lot longer to get done, but it was well worth it. Whereas in the beginning, the sight of the two workbook pages brought him to tears, he now excitedly grabs the workbook and states, "I love doing this phonics!" and whips right through his work. It was amazing to me to see the difference in maturity from September until now.

[Ellie]

I chose "other," which would be "let child read books and discuss them if he wants to, the way he would with a good friend."

[gevs4him]

We use R&S. We are on book 2 finished book 1. I love that it includes bible and I read his bible story book to go along with the R&S book. Let me start by saying I believe our ds to be a late bloomer when it comes to reading, but what we do has done wonders for his reading ability and now he likes to read and will even pick up a book on his on to read. This week he even picked up an early reader chapter book to read out loud.

YEAH!!

Our reading/phonics time goes like this.

Ds picks out what he wants me to read out loud and one he would like to read out loud. (this can be anything from our book shelf or from our library book bin)

We head to the couch. :D

Next I read to him and he reads to me from his book picks.

Then I read a short story with questions and narration prompts.

Next we go over the new word list for R&S then he reads R&S out loud and I then read his bible story book to him.

 

Next we move to his desk and begin his R&S work books. (Sometimes he writes everything, sometimes I write some things for him and sometimes we do exercises orally)

We have also started a silent reading 1 page story with questions for him to do - then I read it to him and go over the answers. Found here: http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/index.html

And most of all we are having fun doing it! :)

 

Lisa

Dd 19 Jr. in college

Ds 7 Hockey player

[Chris in VA]

We just read on the child's level, and had her read at least 30 minutes a day, which was no problem b/c she's in the "voracious" catagory.

 

I didn't let her read too much junk, tied her assigned books to history, and continued to read aloud to her (mostly history, but other wonderful books, too).

 

I think public school reading is unnecessary--kids can discuss with parents and get all they need, if the parents ask good questions. I don't ask too many or make her tell me everything, either--just some highlights. We cover plot, characters, and some literary devices, all thru discussion.

 

The year she was in ps, she had to do 7 or 8 small biographies and then fill in a worksheet-type report. Nearly killed her love of story.

[Karen in CO]

Buddy reading is perfect for that age.

 

~~Faithe

:iagree:

Also, my dd would stay at the same reading level for months, then jump by leaps and bounds. I think a reading program would have slowed down her reading progression. Instead, we chose books from the library and from Sonlight and VP lists. I let her choose books that were below, on, and above her level. We just read everyday together until she took off in chapter books on her own. Now we buddy read or she reads alone, and we have discussions.

[lotsofpumpkins]

Actually, stretching the lessons over two days might be the perfect answer for you. Our son is 7.5 and the difference in him now and when he was 6.5 is unbelievable! We started the program when he was 6 and ended up alternating days on the phonics and reading until he was able to handle both in one day. It took us a lot longer to get done, but it was well worth it. Whereas in the beginning, the sight of the two workbook pages brought him to tears, he now excitedly grabs the workbook and states, "I love doing this phonics!" and whips right through his work. It was amazing to me to see the difference in maturity from September until now.

 

My ds is only 6.5 now, and in Unit 5 of the 1st grade phonics/reading. He has an August birthday, but we school year-round and start our year in May, so he actually started 1st grade a few months before he turned 6. I'm sure that's where a lot of the struggles came from. I should have taken the 1st grade books slower, but now that we are almost done, we are going to go ahead and finish them on time. But since he'll be starting 2nd grade a few months before he turns 7, I am planning on letting him do phonics, English, and reading half-speed for a while. He's a full six months younger starting each grade than my oldest, so I know I've been pushing him to have him keeping up the same pace as her.

[flmochamom]

What we did when by dd (now in grade 4) was in Grade 2, was a combination of phonics, real books with narration and discussion, and reading her written summaries. Also she was required to read aloud for 10-15 minutes a day.

 

Phonics Pathways - 1 or 2 pages 2x week, mostly to make sure we covered everything, and we skipped lots of pages if I determined the words on those pages were sufficiently known.

 

Read real stories to her - next day, summarize story together, Mom write on board, dd read and copy.

 

Daily oral narration and discussion of assigned reading.

 

Lots and lots and lots of books and time to read them in also helps.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

I am in the same boat with my daughter who will be in 3rd next year. I think I am going to get books at her level that go along with her history (and science if I can find any without evolutionary content) and just get reading comprehension workbooks to go along with it. I am looking into the story of western civilization for that.

[Strawberry Queen]

I have generally done my own reading program. Program would be a generous description. ;) I had a series of books when they were learning to read. I think they were the SL readers-which mostly included normal books like Frog and Toad, Amelia Bedelia etc. Once they were done that I would order books from SL, VP and have them read them throughout the year. I don't schedule them either. Each girl has a shelf that they have to read during that school year. If they seem to be taking a while to get to it then I prod them with a time limit. My oldest needs a goal because she always has 3 or 4 books going at a time.

 

My younger daughter is reading above grade level so I don't need to challenge her. She challenges herself in trying to read the same books as her sister.:D

 

As far as comprehension goes I work on that during WWE for my younger dd. I read her a passage, she answers the questions and then narrates back to me. I try not to make the books she is reading more work for her as she's only 7.

 

For my older dd I have her write book narrations as WTM suggests. They're a tricky beast. It's hard to summarize the basic plot of a book in 6-8 sentences.

 

My girls are good readers and I find that following the WTM suggestions provide them with enough challenge without making reading a chore.

 

HTH

[2_girls_mommy]

We did R&S 1st grade reading, and then for 2nd went to WTM's suggestions. My 2nd grader reads and does written narrations for her reading notebook.

[mom31257]

I voted other because we will be doing BJU. It is a pricey program to get the TE, though. The TE have a lot of information in them, including discussion questions for every page of every story. We did 1st grade this year and ds really enjoyed the program. I own 2nd and 3rd, so unless I see it not working, I won't look elsewhere. BJU incorporates their own chapter books called Booklinks into the program, but he will be reading quite a bit of that type book along with history, so we won't do those.

[SilverMoon]

Real books and discuss/narrate. Hands down. No reading program required.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

 

ETA: It's only been a few minutes and the "real books" category is winning by quite a bit. So, am I making this more complicated than it needs to be by thinking I need a real curriculum?

 

Yeah, I think you're making this harder than it needs to be. I'm not familiar enough with R&S to visualized what their readers might look like. But I would say that you want to work on building stamina, fluency and speed. Have your kid keep reading alout, at least part of the time, because there are a lot of words that have subtle quirks in pronounciation.

 

Have them read and then tell you about what they read (narration) or read and answer questions you ask them. Often non-fiction is better than fiction for giving them things to respond to. We used DK level 4 readers a lot around this stage. They were almost like chapter books with training wheels. (Antarctic Adventures was a particular favorite. It is full of disaster and failed expeditions.)

 

I think that a lot of the reading comprehension questions stuff out there is designed to help a classroom teacher quickly evaluate a room full of students that can't be listed to individually.

 

PS. I voted for real books, but I'm not sure that you need any "program" so much as a good booklist and a willing ear.

Edited March 28, 2010 by Sebastian (a lady)

[LilMama]

I like R&S reading. I am doing level 2 with my almost 7 yr old. We do the workbooks orally and trade off reading paragraphs out loud. I like the questions in the workbook. I think it will train DS to really focus on elements of passages he's reading. Plus, DS's knowledge of the Bible is fantastic as a result of these lessons.

 

I think that reading comprehension, etc can be accomplished through narrations. However, my DS will not retell back a story. But, he will answer questions in a workbook. I think the open-endedness causes him to freeze.

 

We also do free reading of other books. I ordered a lot of sonlight readers off of ebay. Plus, DH picks up library. So, that is our reading for enjoyment and read alouds.

 

HTH!

[Cynful]

I vote for just reading and having the dc narrate orally. I don't think that requires a curric, but re-reading TWTM and getting a hold of WWE textbook might be a good idea. (You can borrow mine, if you like.)

 

:iagree: I'd definitely keep it simple, enjoyable and do narration the CM way.

[hmschooling]

I haven't read the other replies, but I just wanted to chime in. Forgive me if it's a repeat!

 

I would stick with the HOD Emerging readers and follow the schedule with the questions in the back of Beyond or Bigger. The questions go along very naturally and allow for a good discussion. I am looking foward to using it with my rising 1st grader after we finish up RME. After that you could start DITHOR, or just continue reading and discussing till dd is a bit older then start DITHOR.

 

It is VERY easy to follow, very easy to teach, very easy to implement! It's wonderful! Once you have it all in your hands, you'll see...it might take a short learning curse for the first several days, but then it's a delight. :001_smile: My dd8/3rd grade would love to DITHOR but with 4 littles and chasing a toddler while trying to nurse and teach a K'er and 3rd grader, we never get to it. When we did, we enjoyed it so very much and it only took about 20-30 min. tops. Sometimes less!

[MrsMe]

Personally, I find just reading real books along with narration lacks unless you can teach them on your own everything that encompasses what reading programs teach. I think there's more to reading than comprehension. Now that's not to say that narration alone can only teach comprehension. It depends on how well you are in questioning.

 

If you look at CLE Reading's Scope & Sequence and you feel comfortable being able to touch on these reading abilities by reading living books and doing narration, I say go ahead and do it. It's not my strong suit so I personally need a reading program.

 

I use real books to add to history or science or fun. Also my dd loves CLE reading and loves the stories. She loved R&S and BJU readers as well. I'd also do what works best for your child. But on a separate note, CLE has excellent character training stories, unlike when I grew up and read a basal reader, they had no redeeming qualities. CLE & R&S are really good and BJU's aren't bad either.

[Terabith]

I like R&S reading, but I don't feel like it is enough on its own. I'm using R&S 2with my 6 yr old.

 

I think it is a very useful program, because it requires the child to read a fairly short passage independently and answer specific comprehension questions. It introduces a lot of "question asking" and workbook forms, which are useful to be familiar with. It builds vocabulary and teaches how to learn vocab in context. It introduces the concepts of main ideas in paragraphs. It requires them to skim to answer questions. It's pretty fast, but it has my daughter do exercises that I think are valuable but different than just reading books.

 

I have my daughter do the "After You Read" portions. I have her skip the "Before You Read" part, and the sections that require short answer (more than a word) we do orally. She is six, and would be in kindergarten in public school, so I feel okay with that approach.

 

However, while I think it is useful and beneficial as a reading comprehension program, I don't think that it is sufficient. I have her read books of her own choosing in order to build fluency and stamina, and we read books together. Right now we are reading Little House on the Prairie. She reads a page and then I read a page. It's not really a hard book for her, but it is longer and more involved than she would choose to read on her own.

 

I also have her do a timed fluency reading once or twice a week, where she reads aloud a passage for a minute, then she listens to me read it aloud, we read it together, and then she reads it aloud again once or twice more. We graph how many words she read in the minute.

 

Listening to books read aloud and "word work" like spelling and copywork are important parts of a reading program, but not strictly speaking reading curriculum.

[lotsofpumpkins]

It is VERY easy to follow, very easy to teach, very easy to implement! It's wonderful! Once you have it all in your hands, you'll see...it might take a short learning curse for the first several days, but then it's a delight. :001_smile: My dd8/3rd grade would love to DITHOR but with 4 littles and chasing a toddler while trying to nurse and teach a K'er and 3rd grader, we never get to it. When we did, we enjoyed it so very much and it only took about 20-30 min. tops. Sometimes less!

 

I have thought about DITHOR, but that's what I'm afraid of- that we would never get to it. I'll have 3rd, 2nd, and K children, plus a 3 year old, 1.5 year old, and a new baby due in November. That's why I'm trying to make sure whatever we do is not too teacher-intensive.

[hmschooling]

I have thought about DITHOR, but that's what I'm afraid of- that we would never get to it. I'll have 3rd, 2nd, and K children, plus a 3 year old, 1.5 year old, and a new baby due in November. That's why I'm trying to make sure whatever we do is not too teacher-intensive.

 

 

Well, I'm not getting to much of anything in this area...but if I would buckle down and just do it, DITHOR would be the best option for it's ease of use, enjoyable lessons, short time commitment, and on target for my DD's level. If you want something, I think this is the way to go!