What does assigned reading look like at your house?

[peacefully]

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[tammyw]

No assigned reading - I just provide tons and tons of great books and my dd (just turned 8) reads all the time. If there's anything specific I'd like to be read, I do it as a read aloud.

[mamatohaleybug]

No assigned reading - I just provide tons and tons of great books and my dd (just turned 8) reads all the time. If there's anything specific I'd like to be read, I do it as a read aloud.

 

 

Exactly what I do with my 8 year old DD (except she doesn't read all the time since she's still a pretty reluctant reader).

[rootsnwings]

You might really enjoy the Classics for Young Readers books that K12 uses.

 

You can get them independently through http://www.christianbook.com, here: Volumes 1 & 2

 

These have great literature selections for each grade, 1-8. I'm about to buy the box set of readers for my crew because we've enjoyed the ones my ds is using for 4th grade so much that we wanted to continue using them until we complete the series. I'm even going to have ds(10) go back and read the 2nd & 3rd grade stories to his brother & sister, just for fluency practice & exposure for all. It's just a great, leveled, collection of children's lit I want to have available to my kids! :)

Edited April 29, 2011 by rootsnwings

[Dinsfamily]

My 1st grader also reads around a 5th grade level. Assigned reading here is where he reads aloud to me. I use SL's reader packages which schedule a certain amount of pages per day. We are currently using the 3rd grade readers. Sure, it's very easy for him but the topics interest him more than most higher level fiction and he is building confidence reading out loud. He does choose slightly harder material for his free reading. He reads so much in his free time that I'm not concerned with improvement.

[The Governess]

My 6yo is at the same reading level as your son. She has two books assigned at all times. :D The first is a book for her to read independently but without narrations. She reads two chapters a day, Monday through Thursday. I don't require any assignments related to this one, just ask her general questions about what the story is about, if she likes the book, etc. The second is a book that is assigned one chapter (or a few pages, depending on the book) at a time, and when she is finished she narrates either a summary or tells me three things she learned. I write down her narration and then she copies it into her reading journal.

 

She reads about 8 chapters from the first category each week and does two narrations each week from the second category. When she is done, all books we have read get entered into a different journal, along with date read, a one or two sentence description, and one sentence about what she liked/didn't like about the book.

 

The books I assign include literature and history and sometimes I will throw in an easier book that I know she will like just to break things up a bit. Most of them are at 3rd/4th grade level so her comprehension is higher. I have her read out loud to me at higher levels so I know she is understanding what she is reading.

[lewelma]

UG! I know all about sensitive. Try the Read Aloud selection in Sonlight for 2nd grade - 4th grade. Most of those books are much more difficult than the readers (hence the "read aloud" status) but are appropriate for younger ones, which is why they are categorized in that year. (Do your research, however, because some of the historical fiction is scary for sensitive kids.) Also, the older, much older books, have difficult language without all the scary stuff. Try Burnett and Nesbit and MacDonald for the oldies. Also, Amblesideonline's selection is pretty tame and the "literature" selection is very difficult for the grade; the free reads are more grade level so you can go up a few grades for a skilled reader.

 

I do NOT ever ask comprehension questions. I ask vaguely about the book, listen, ask a few more questions, see if he wants to talk, and if not drop it. If a child is willing to finish a book, he must understand it, or there would be NO interest. I wait until age 10ish to start lit analysis and serious discussion. Get them to READ READ READ, and slowly, ever so slowly, increase the reading level each and every month and year. You will be amazed at how far they get with very little formal structure. Sometimes my boys (7 and 10) want to have a book discussion (yes, I have to read the books). But his is more of a sharing experience than quizzing. And they definitely know the difference.

 

My older son (10) was snooping around for an "easy" book last night and I gave him A Wrinkle in Time (which he had read 3 years ago). He came in to my room 1.5 hours later (at 9:30pm!) and told me, "Well, it was easy, but it had the words "tangible," "manifest," "prodigious" in it. I don't think I need to quiz him!?!?! (We love MCT Caesar's English!) Obviously, something is clicking without needing an "official" literature program.

 

Ruth in NZ

[twoforjoy]

This is the first year I've done assigned reading with my DS (who is about to turn 7). I've been taking out a few books from the library each week, some that connect to the history we're doing, some to the science, and then during our school time he has a choice of what he wants to read, and I set a timer for 20 minutes. At this point I'll usually ask him about what he read when he's done (just questions like "Did you like that?" and "Tell me one thing you learned"), but that's it. We don't do anything more formal with his reading than that.

 

Then we'll usually do 30-60 minutes of reading after lunch, when he can read anything he wants, and he also gets reading time before bed, where he reads anything he wants.

[Dmmetler]

I keep the shelf by her bed and her book basket in the living room stocked. She reads a little bit to me orally as part of school, usually from something from one of the Sonlight read-aloud selections, has an hour quiet time to read in the afternoon, and is allowed to read for a pretty good chunk of time before bed. Plus any other reading she does on her own.

 

One thing I will suggest that has been helpful for my "can read almost anything, but is not ready to handle everything" 6 yr old is old textbooks. Her school last year let me take home a set of the 3rd-6th grade reading books that they were no longer using, and DD LOVES them. I've since added several other ones from used book sales. I don't think I've paid even $1 for one yet. Since these were designed for use in schools, they're pretty innocuous, and most of the stories are sections from longer books, many of which are books that I'd like DD to read, but tend to be on the "funny, sweet,inspiring, innocent" side-so you have Wilbur and Charlotte triumphing, but don't have Charlotte dying. There are also a lot of biographies.

 

What has happened, frequently, is that DD will read one of these stories, and then be inspired to read a book that had previously, been dismissed as "too hard for me"-and often, any others by that author she can get her hands on. Or she'll read a short biography, then go and read more about that person.

[peacefully]

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[NanceXToo]

Well, my daughter is 10 and in 5th grade, and all along with her there has been an "assigned" book roughly every three weeks. But we always read those books together. Sometimes I read them aloud to her, sometimes she to me, sometimes we take turns. At the end, there is some sort of writing assignment/book report (we usually try to make it a creative one)- but with a 6 y/o there would definitely not be any sort of writing assignment, nor would I do any other assignments other than enjoy the book, and discuss things that may come up, talk about how we liked the story, answer any questions she had etc.

 

Other than that, like others have said, I just provide lots and lots of books, and some of them we read together, and some she reads on her own.

[peacefully]

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[lovelaughs_times_three]

Every year I would buy a stack of books from a reading list, and every year, at the end, I would be frustrated with how few of those books actually were read. (I don't have the avid readers in my house that others are blessed to have! :tongue_smilie:). I would send them off to read with either a time assignment - read for 30 min. - or a chapter assignment. They would not get very far. I thought it was simply a matter of their pace/ability. And THEN!!!! My dd12 checked out a book from the library that the Miley Cirus movie Last Song was based on. It was a super thick book in the adult section of our library. All the sudden, my "I can't read more than a chapter a day" daughter read/devoured the entire book in about a week! And my ds9 got a hold of a graphic art Bible and read the ENTIRE Bible in a few weeks!!!!!! Wow! The gig is SO up!!! :001_smile: They obviously had me fooled!

This year I am buying a Sonlight readers guide and I will be letting SONLIGHT tell them how much they are capable of reading in a day!!! ;)

My youngest is going into 2nd grade this year. I'm using the Sonlight 3rd grade list for her. Sonlight has some simple questions to ask. I think it is just as effective to let your child narrate back to you what they have read. My kids love to tell me all about it!