A History of US (Hakim) -- how many chapters per week for a 6th grader?

[TrixieB]

My 6th grader is reading A History of US (Hakim). I assign her about 6 chapters per week to read and discuss with me. Though she's a good reader, she says that she is not able to keep up with the reading.

 

Her other history requirements are: one or two chapters per day from an assigned historical fiction book (she claims it's hard to keep up with this reading too), some map labeling, and one geography workbook lesson per week. Some weeks I require a written narration or biography, several paragraphs to one page long.

 

Are my expectations "normal" for a sixth grader? Is 6 HoUS chapters per week too many?

[Guest]

I suppose it depends upon the child, but I think that although the reading level is quite easy in Hakim, there's an awful lot of information to digest, and in a format (asides, illustrations, maps, definitions, etc) that is not so easy. Both my daughter and I preferred to read more slowly and have more time to digest and ponder. If you are reading so much every week -- plus the fiction -- it's easy for me to imagine that for your daughter it could all feel like it's becoming a blur.

 

My personal reaction would be to take what your daughter says seriously, and to scale back. There's no need to plough through the whole series in a set amount of time -- particularly if burnout is going to result. Also, most people cycle back through U.S. history at some point, when you can focus on what you didn't cover this time; plus you can cover some of it during world history as well.

 

Even sixth graders still enjoy hands-on projects and historical games and activities; instead of such a heavy emphasis on reading, could you throw a few of these into the mix? There are a lot of good activity books based on various historical eras: Civil War Projects For Kids, World War II Projects for Kids, etc. as well as possibilities for local field trips.

[EKS]

When I'm wondering how long things should take, I will read a page (of solid text, no pictures) aloud at a *very* moderate pace just to see how long it takes. I just did this with a page out of A History of US volume 4 and it took 2 minutes and 15 seconds. So then I looked through some chapters--3-12--to see how long they were. Some are several pages long, but some are only two pages long. But in looking at that, I thought that two chapters per day would be reasonable for a 6th grader. So then I calculated how long it would take to read 10 chapters assuming that every page took 2.5 minutes (15 seconds longer than it took me). This assumes that every page is solid text, which the vast majority are not. I found it would take 110 minutes, which would be 22 minutes of reading per day if she was to read five days per week. And of course, since most of the pages have lots of pictures on them, it should take even less time.

 

So no, your expectations are not out of line. Is she putting off the reading until it is due? Maybe she is trying to do too much at once.

[Sasharowan]

My 8th grader reads 6 chapters a week with ease. He will usually finish in about 1.5 hours. But reading is his strong point and he would be very happy if all his school consisted of reading. My 4th grade dd on the other hand would definitely struggle with something like this. She is more of a workbook type and reading is a weak point with her. She would be happy with school on cd.

[3andme]

K12 uses Hakim's books for 5th & 6th grade history. They have the student reading at least 1 chapter a day and in some cases 2. They cover the first 6 books in one year and the remaining books the following year.

[Ali in OR]

Biblioplan also schedules the Hakim books over two years. A typical week on the schedule is probably 6 chapters--2 per day for 3 days. We do this as a read aloud and I don't usually read the sidebars. I think 6 chapters would be pretty reasonable for a 6th grader--it really doesn't feel like a huge amount of reading to me. And of course we have other reading too--readers, SOTW, etc.

[Pippen]

Even sixth graders still enjoy hands-on projects and historical games and activities; instead of such a heavy emphasis on reading, could you throw a few of these into the mix? There are a lot of good activity books based on various historical eras: Civil War Projects For Kids, World War II Projects for Kids, etc. as well as possibilities for local field trips.

 

I agree that maybe she might respond better with an approach that isn't entirely book-oriented. My boys both had a history teacher for 6th grade in ps that was actually more hands-on than the science teacher and they got more out of that year than any other.

 

I've been using Hakim for most of this year with my 5th grader. I read aloud and we 1-2 chapters per day and we discuss as we go, because I feel that she gets much more out of it. Occasionally I give her chapters to read on her own. She also has 30 minutes each day for reading from a historical novel. I usually let her read at her pace, unless I'm trying to get her finished up for a vacation. We mix it up with Netflix DVD's, activities, and field trips.

[EKS]

I read aloud and we 1-2 chapters per day and we discuss as we go, because I feel that she gets much more out of it. Occasionally I give her chapters to read on her own. She also has 30 minutes each day for reading from a historical novel. I usually let her read at her pace, unless I'm trying to get her finished up for a vacation. We mix it up with Netflix DVD's, activities, and field trips.

 

This is how I prefer to do history as well. Even with my high schooler, I read the text aloud. Then I have him read other books on his own, both other history books as well as period literature and some historical fiction.

[BridgeTea]

We also do A History of US as a read-aloud, 2 (occasionally 3) chapters a day, 3 days a week, with lots of discussion, looking up primary sources, and referring to maps. I'm another sidebar skipper.

 

The busy pages don't bother me, but they would my kid. I can tell at a glance while reading which sidebars I can skip, but I can see where they might be very distracting to some readers. TrixieP, can your daughter identify if this is a problem for her (all those little boxes and drawings)? I wonder if she loses her flow while reading and it frustrates her? If it does, could you suggest to her to read all the side bars first for a chapter, then go back and read the main text? (I would say do the main text first, then go back and read the sidebars, but there may be definitions in the sidebars she will want ahead of time.)

 

That's interesting that it's sometimes suggested the series will take 2 years. I have wondered how long we'll take, not that it matters.

[Melmc]

I have the Jr. High syllabus from Hewitt. They schedule approx. 45 pages of reading a week to get through the entire series in one school year (four nine week quarters.) Not sure how this relates to number of chapters a week since I haven't compared it to the books yet.

[HSDCY]

It really depends on the child. My 5th grader is doing 8-10 chapters a week without complaints, but history is his thing. I do think those books could be a bit too long and not interesting if the child does not care for history.

 

If you think your child is sincere, definitely scale back or turn parts of it into read-aloud.