3rd grade reading

[DragonFaerie]

How do you "teach" reading in 3rd grade? We are going to continue with ETC and he will have a book to read from each day. He will also do a variety of reading comprehension workbooks (topics in science, social studies and geography but comprehension is the primary focus). Is this enough? If not, what would you add?

Edited April 10, 2011 by DragonFaerie

[mrs.m]

I like CLE Reading. But if you are doing reading comprehension workbooks, I'm sure that will be enough. And then encourage a lot of reading for entertainment!

[DragonFaerie]

I forgot to mention that I will be reading aloud to the kids each morning, too. That is part of our "literature" study. We'll also reinstate our reading for 30 minutes before bedtime. This is either school reading (if it didn't get done during the day) or just reading for fun.

[2_girls_mommy]

We have done WTM style reading and narrations here. I assign certain books and poems for her. She reads them. We discuss. Once a week or so she writes a narration on one or a chapter of one. She copies and memorizes poetry.

[DragonFaerie]

We do weekly assignments based on the read alouds but that's about it for DS. The other reading he does for school is just to get him to read. We don't do anything else with it. I'm really not sure he's ready for that much writing and response. That's why I'm using the comprehension workbooks. It's a way to make sure that he is understanding what he's reading in small doses without overwhelming him. I don't want to short-change him, certainly, but I don't want to make him hate reading because of all the "work" that goes with it, KWIM?

[Just Robyn]

You could listen to the literary analysis lecture by SWB. It's good.:) If I remember correctly, she says grammar stage children don't need to learn much about literary elements yet. They can do narration and learn a few of the genres of literature and that's it. Also she says if a child really enjoys a book then that one should not be used for literary analysis in order to help preserve the child's love of reading.

 

We've done MBtP literature units and one Novel Thinking (CTC) unit. It was mostly comprehension questions, vocabulary, perhaps a graphic organizer, a writing assignment, and some grammar activities that relate to the novel. That is one reason I decided to start using the literature portion of K12's LA. I wanted literary elements and I didn't seem to be getting it elsewhere. (The other reason is I wanted to make sure our literature studies included formats other than the novel.)

 

In K12's units one literary element is highlighted in each short story or poem. The child first looks at vocabulary that will come up in the story, answers some questions to get him thinking about the topic of the story, reads the story, answers comprehension questions about the story, reads about a literary element and answers questions about how it was used in the story.

 

I haven't spent a ton of time looking at them and we have yet to use one, but The Arrow (currently half off at homeschool buyer's co-op) incorporates dictation and literary elements. I did notice, in my short amount of time spent looking at the ones I bought, some punctuation, maybe some vocabulary and grammar? There is a free sample to look at.

Edited April 10, 2011 by crstarlette

[Penelope]

I think phonics is all they need until they are reading very well. I used webster's Speller to work on multisyllable words.

 

I'm not a fan of reading comprehension workbooks. This year (3rd) I got nervous and bought a 4th grade level reading book. It was very simplistic compared to simply narrating and discussing some of the books the children read. So we're sticking with that. I usually have one or two assigned books for my third grader. One is to go along with our history; the other is a classic to stretch him a little. He has to narrate a chapter of one of those each day. Once every week or two, he writes a couple of paragraphs about one of the books. Then he can read whatever he wants for free reading.

 

I too would recommend the mp3 on literary analysis.

[DragonFaerie]

Thanks for the information, guys!

 

The reading comprehension workbooks serve a dual purpose for me. The first, obviously, is to make sure DC are understanding what they read. But secondly, I chose workbooks with science, SS, and geography topics as an additional "layer" to make sure I'm covering everything thoroughly. Two birds with one workbook, as it were. :D

 

I am also doing Voyages in English with him next year as well as RS Spelling. So, maybe between everything we'll be covering enough. DD (she'll be in 4th) is an advanced reader so she is going to start more analysis-style literature. I think I'm going to use Kolbe Academy's Elementary Literature Curriculum for her, but DS is definitely not ready for that.

 

I do really like some of K12's stuff but it is sooooo expensive!

[Osaubi]

I assign a certain number of pages to be read each day. The book is usually finished by the end of the week. Depending on the book I have him do an activity at the end of the book. This week he drew a picture of his favorite part of the book. I have him add the title, author, and date to the top and a rating of how he liked the book at the bottom. We usually have a discussion on the book, but he is not required to write anything down.

 

This week he is reading a DK biography on Harry Houdini. At the end I am going to have him make a poster of himself as a magician. He will make up a magician's name and figure out what death defying act he will do.

 

The most important thing I have him do is read to me a couple times a week out of the book. That way I know if he is skipping words or not understanding something.

[Terabith]

It depends on his reading skills, but if he's reading fluently and understands phonics, I would transition from ETC to a rule based spelling program. (Unless you are using ETC for spelling.) I would have him read aloud to you most days. If he's not super fluent, I would do repeated readings of a short text. Timed ones can work really well for a lot of kids, but they can be stressful to other kids.

 

In addition to spelling (phonics) and listening to read alouds, I like to include three strands: comprehension (which can be done via science comprehension, etc, as long as it involves reading), oral reading/ fluency, and independent reading of a balance of assigned and self-chosen books. But none of it is any real big deal. A short workbook activity, read aloud a couple pages to me (often of science or history), and then read some books. Talk about, answer questions, and do narrations sometimes. I do include it as a subject, because while a lot of it is incorporated into other subjects, I like to keep it as its own subject to make sure we are reading actual literature.

[joyfulhomeschooler]

I assign a certain number of pages to be read each day. The book is usually finished by the end of the week. Depending on the book I have him do an activity at the end of the book. This week he drew a picture of his favorite part of the book. I have him add the title, author, and date to the top and a rating of how he liked the book at the bottom. We usually have a discussion on the book, but he is not required to write anything down.

 

This week he is reading a DK biography on Harry Houdini. At the end I am going to have him make a poster of himself as a magician. He will make up a magician's name and figure out what death defying act he will do.

 

The most important thing I have him do is read to me a couple times a week out of the book. That way I know if he is skipping words or not understanding something.

 

I like this! Sounds fun AND educational! How do you pick your books?

[Terabith]

Thanks for the information, guys!

 

The reading comprehension workbooks serve a dual purpose for me. The first, obviously, is to make sure DC are understanding what they read. But secondly, I chose workbooks with science, SS, and geography topics as an additional "layer" to make sure I'm covering everything thoroughly. Two birds with one workbook, as it were. :D

 

I am also doing Voyages in English with him next year as well as RS Spelling. So, maybe between everything we'll be covering enough. DD (she'll be in 4th) is an advanced reader so she is going to start more analysis-style literature. I think I'm going to use Kolbe Academy's Elementary Literature Curriculum for her, but DS is definitely not ready for that.

 

I do really like some of K12's stuff but it is sooooo expensive!

 

:iagree: We use Rod and Staff because it gets Bible covered. I also use titles like "Reading Comprehension through Science" to sort of cover our bases. It helps reinforce science topics that we aren't studying this year. Review.

[DragonFaerie]

I thought about dropping ETC in favor of AAS but he really likes ETC. I looked at the next books that he'd be doing next fall (5 and 6) and they do include the rules, which I really like. I think I can use those with an AAS-style lesson at the beginning to make sure he understands the concept and then let him work on his own to do the exercises in the book. I'll use RS separately for spelling.

 

I like the idea of having him do some type of activity for his independent reading books. Maybe I can change up writing with drawing or an art project, depending on the book.

 

I am currently having him read aloud to me but I'd like to start scaling back on that as he really doesn't like it. I could just have him read me random pages a couple of times per week, though, just to stay on top of his fluency and pronunciations.

 

You guys are giving me some great ideas! Thank you!

[Osaubi]

I like this! Sounds fun AND educational! How do you pick your books?

 

I randomly choose books that I have stashed in the book basket. We do WWE so if there is part of a story that sparks his interest I will pick that up. If he asks me about something or someone I usually get a book on that subject. He heard about Harry Houdini somewhere and asked if I had a book on it. Sometimes I pick up a book I know he will like, but will not read on his own.

 

What ever book I choose for him to read I google the name of the book and actives or lesson plans. I can usually come up with some activity that would be fun for him on his own.

[alpidarkomama]

For language arts, we just do spelling, read aloud from McGuffey 3 (started with the 2nd half of 2 after OPGTR), First Language Lessons, and Writing With Ease. Then free choice reading (amount and books completely up to her). I'll be adding more assigned reading, mostly related to our history studies as we begin 3rd grade. We did occasional book reports on our readalouds this year (an illustration and something about our favorite part/character). She also does at least one weekly science narration and one weekly history narration. FUN! :)

[DragonFaerie]

Thanks for all the replies! Here's what I think I've decided on:

 

Voyages in English (grammar and writing)

R&S Spelling with Sound and Structure (spelling)

ETC (phonics)

Content Reading workbooks (reading comprehension)

Daily read alouds with weekly assignments (literature)

Daily independent reading (reading)

 

I know this is heavy on the language arts portion of the show but that's his weak area so I really feel the need to hit it hard.