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Favorite short stories/essays for 5th/6th grade?


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Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages has a great range. Some are a little easier and some get quite challenging, so it's a resource that should get you many years of use.

 

Ooh - I have this from using Lightning Lit last year with my 7th grader. I could probably use Lightning Lit with this particular child, too. Thanks for the reminder!

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I've bought a couple of ps TE texts (Amazon-used is super cheap) for this very purpose. An added bonus is that all the literary elements your kids should know are pointed out in the margins of the teacher's edition! Prentice Hall and McDougal Littel have excellent essays/short stories/poetry/ etc. and all are grade level appropriate. My 6th grader loves reading out of these books between novels.

 

http://www.amazon.com/McDougal-Littell-Language-Literature-Teacher/dp/0618136649/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1301098629&sr=8-14

 

 

The above book is my favorite for 6th grade. A sample of what you'll find:

(Fiction)

Ray Bradbury - All Summer in a Day

Isaac Asimov - The Fun They Had

Joan Aiken - Lob's Girl

Avi - Scout's Honor

Lois Lowry - Crow Call

 

(Nonfiction)

Rudyard Kipling - How to Bring up a Lion

Lois Lowry - Newberry Acceptance Speech

Don C. Reed - My First Dive with the Dolphins

Gary Paulsen - A Life in the Day of Gary Paulsen

Gary Soto - Who is Your Reader

 

-also... lots of poetry, myths, etc.

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Ooh - I have this from using Lightning Lit last year with my 7th grader. I could probably use Lightning Lit with this particular child, too. Thanks for the reminder!

 

It's worth pulling out. LL only uses a handful of selections between the 7 and 8 programs, and there are so many others worth reading.

 

Ambleside Online Year 11 also has a number of great recommendations for short stories, many of which are available for free online.

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I would second Abbey's suggestion. We used LL 7 in 5th and 6th grade. I had two children home at the time that were three years apart in age, so this worked well. Both ds have read the book on their own as they enjoyed it so much.

 

If you are looking for an anthology-type work, it will depend on what type of stories and essays you both appreciate. For whatever reason, know only to himself, Swimmer Dude is not a huge fan of Newberry works. I used some of the Jamestown books, but not in the way they recommended. We jumped around between genres. But I think part of the problem for us was that I tried to implement the their full literary analysis which was over-the-top for ds. There are pre-reading, during reading, post-reading activities along with comprehension questions and writing assignments. For us, that format sucked the joy right out of the work. They are a good resource, but in hindsight, I should have adapted them. If you get just one, get the nonfiction one because that is the more difficult genre to find for this age.

 

You could look at the K12 books, Classics for Young Readers. I have volumes 6-8 if you need a list of works, but obviously you can pick them up for cheap. They have a variety of genres including autobiography, poetry, biography, short stories, folk tales, bible stories and excerpts from classic novels. They are grouped by theme so it is easy to develop your own literary analysis lesson.

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I've bought a couple of ps TE texts (Amazon-used is super cheap) for this very purpose. An added bonus is that all the literary elements your kids should know are pointed out in the margins of the teacher's edition! Prentice Hall and McDougal Littel have excellent essays/short stories/poetry/ etc. and all are grade level appropriate. My 6th grader loves reading out of these books between novels.

 

http://www.amazon.com/McDougal-Littell-Language-Literature-Teacher/dp/0618136649/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1301098629&sr=8-14

 

 

The above book is my favorite for 6th grade. A sample of what you'll find:

(Fiction)

Ray Bradbury - All Summer in a Day

Isaac Asimov - The Fun They Had

Joan Aiken - Lob's Girl

Avi - Scout's Honor

Lois Lowry - Crow Call

 

(Nonfiction)

Rudyard Kipling - How to Bring up a Lion

Lois Lowry - Newberry Acceptance Speech

Don C. Reed - My First Dive with the Dolphins

Gary Paulsen - A Life in the Day of Gary Paulsen

Gary Soto - Who is Your Reader

 

-also... lots of poetry, myths, etc.

 

This is now on my list - thank you!

 

 

It's worth pulling out. LL only uses a handful of selections between the 7 and 8 programs, and there are so many others worth reading.

 

Ambleside Online Year 11 also has a number of great recommendations for short stories, many of which are available for free online.

 

Oh wow - love the Ambleside List. Now to make sure which are age appropriate.

 

 

I would second Abbey's suggestion. We used LL 7 in 5th and 6th grade. I had two children home at the time that were three years apart in age, so this worked well. Both ds have read the book on their own as they enjoyed it so much.

 

If you are looking for an anthology-type work, it will depend on what type of stories and essays you both appreciate. For whatever reason, know only to himself, Swimmer Dude is not a huge fan of Newberry works. I used some of the Jamestown books, but not in the way they recommended. We jumped around between genres. But I think part of the problem for us was that I tried to implement the their full literary analysis which was over-the-top for ds. There are pre-reading, during reading, post-reading activities along with comprehension questions and writing assignments. For us, that format sucked the joy right out of the work. They are a good resource, but in hindsight, I should have adapted them. If you get just one, get the nonfiction one because that is the more difficult genre to find for this age.

 

You could look at the K12 books, Classics for Young Readers. I have volumes 6-8 if you need a list of works, but obviously you can pick them up for cheap. They have a variety of genres including autobiography, poetry, biography, short stories, folk tales, bible stories and excerpts from classic novels. They are grouped by theme so it is easy to develop your own literary analysis lesson.

 

Thank you for the suggestions, Lisa. We have been using Lightning Lit for the last few days (Rikki Tikki Tavi so far) and it is a nice fit for ds. We have also been having fun reading additional pieces in Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages.

 

I really like the looks of Classics for Young Readers. Are they grouped by ages? Would they be fine for my 8 year old dd, who is currently obsessed with anthologies of any type? She can't get enough!

 

Thanks everyone. :)

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Lisa, they are grouped by grade, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding one or more that would work for her. You might also consider:

The Young Folks' Shelf of Books, Complete 10 Volume Set (The Junior Classics)

 

Lori D. recommended this set in a wonderful older thread that talked about books that would get your kids ready to read the Great Books. The series includes stories from history, fables, myths, fairy tales, sports and adventure stories and poetry. The Heroes volume has Odysseus, Beowulf, King Arthur, Robin Hood and Cuchulain. Authors include: Carl Sandburg, Howard Pyle, Padriac Colum, Charles Lindberg and Richard Byrd to name a few.

 

This would keep your youngest two busy for quite some time.

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Lisa, they are grouped by grade, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding one or more that would work for her. You might also consider:

The Young Folks' Shelf of Books, Complete 10 Volume Set (The Junior Classics)

 

Lori D. recommended this set in a wonderful older thread that talked about books that would get your kids ready to read the Great Books. The series includes stories from history, fables, myths, fairy tales, sports and adventure stories and poetry. The Heroes volume has Odysseus, Beowulf, King Arthur, Robin Hood and Cuchulain. Authors include: Carl Sandburg, Howard Pyle, Padriac Colum, Charles Lindberg and Richard Byrd to name a few.

 

This would keep your youngest two busy for quite some time.

 

I happened to be by a used bookstore today and guess what I found?? The Collier Junior Classics. I got three of them. Of course, I found 8 more had-to-have books.

 

One was Emil and the Clever Pig by Lindgren. Wouldn't you know I just received this from The Book Depository yesterday?? But the one at the used book store was a fabulous 1974 copy. :D

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I happened to be by a used bookstore today and guess what I found?? The Collier Junior Classics. I got three of them. Of course, I found 8 more had-to-have books.

 

One was Emil and the Clever Pig by Lindgren. Wouldn't you know I just received this from The Book Depository yesterday?? But the one at the used book store was a fabulous 1974 copy. :D

 

What a score! It really does help to start early reading books where the language is of an older style, then the kids aren't so reluctant to tackle the same type of writing on a more sophisticated level when they are older.

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