3rd grade literature dilemma... loves to read, but hates reading....

[diaperjoys]

Sounds wierd, I know. My 8yo son is a voracious reader...when reading on his own. However, he hates reading as a subject because of the writing & thinking involved. (we've tried CLE Reading & a MP lit. guide) He'll be in 3rd grade this fall, and I'm not sure what direction to go for literature for him. He really needs to get over his pencil phobia, so one way or another he needs to do a lot of writing in 3rd.

 

Two concerns here - #1) I'm concerned about what he'd be missing if he skips the discipline of writing down his lit. answers in complete sentences, thinking more about what he reads, etc. #2) I'm concerned about his dislike of the subject he likes best - if that makes any sense. I'd rather cultivate a passion for good literature, and encourage him to expand the genre of material he reads.

 

Here's two ideas, and I'm really torn between them. Please give your input!

 

Idea #1) Soldier through MP or VP lit guides, and continue to offer good literature for free reading after school.

 

Idea #2) Set aside an assigned reading time each day where I choose the books (I'm thinking Ambleside, Vision Forum, VP historical fiction...), let him read for 45-60 min or so (while I work with the younger grades). He reads very fast and would cover huge amounts of material. Then do some amount of narration and/or copywork and skip lit guides altogether. Maybe the narration/copywork should come from a read-aloud, so the 2nd grader and 3rd grader can take turns & the littles can listen in. I'm unsure of how much narration and how much copywork would be appropriate for a 3rd grader, as I'm more familiar with textbooky materials.

 

What says the Hive????

[boscopup]

I don't use a reading program at this age. Just let him read and enjoy. Use narration on occasion (NOT every book) to check comprehension.

[SunnyDays]

I'm with Boscopup. My DS is a 3rd grader... we occasionally do projects or narration for reading, but mostly we just try to read a lot of good books. I think it's more important to instill a love of reading and a confidence with it, than to analyze it too far at this point. When he gets up toward middle school, we'll go deeper.

[mom2boys030507]

I also don't use a reading program. My boys read for 60 min every day. I sometimes assign the book. The rules are the book has to be approved by me and a book you have never read. This has allowed my boys to follow their interests yet allowed me to vary the types of books. One week we read all poetry books, another will be non-fiction, most of the time it is fiction.

 

I talk with them about what they are reading but rarely have them write about it. I have them read other books for history and science that they write about, but not every time.

[Jen500]

I don't use a reading program at this age. Just let him read and enjoy. Use narration on occasion (NOT every book) to check comprehension.

 

:iagree:

Don't kill his love of reading!

[Mrs Twain]

For reading comprehension activities, I use Evan Moor's Skill Sharpeners Reading workbook. Each lesson has a passage to read and activites to do about the passage including answering comprehension questions in complete sentences. It has a lot of elements of other reading programs.

 

The reason I like this is because the workbook is separate from our good books which my kids read aloud to me for school. They can enjoy reading the great stories without having to write about them. I often ask informal comprehension questions as we go along with their reading aloud time to test their understanding. I also talk with my kids about the basic components of the story orally (characters, plot, etc.) as we are reading our books.

 

Using this approach, we can cover the same material as a reading program without making them hate good books.

[lewelma]

I don't use a reading program at this age. Just let him read and enjoy. Use narration on occasion (NOT every book) to check comprehension.

 

:iagree:

[Mommy22alyns]

I don't use a reading program at this age. Just let him read and enjoy. Use narration on occasion (NOT every book) to check comprehension.

 

 

This is what we do too.

[ErinE]

I don't use a reading program at this age. Just let him read and enjoy. Use narration on occasion (NOT every book) to check comprehension.

 

Agreed. Don't kill his love for literature by forcing writing!

[Ellie]

See, I just wouldn't assign stuff like that for an 8yo. It would suck out all the joy of reading.

[LisaKinVA]

:iagree: Although, I do use leveled readers (mainly because they keep the comprehension part short & sweet, and ensure my children are exposed to a wide variety of literature that they normally wouldn't choose for themselves...and I don't have to "assign" a book). Beyond that, the older kids have a challenge list (with LOTS of books to choose from that are a mixture of biographies, histories, historical fiction, and things that I just think they'd like). My 5yo has a basket of books that we change out.

 

FWIW, I don't make my 12yo write all of the answers to his literature comprehension questions, either. He's doing plenty of other writing (outlining his science text, composition, history narrations, Latin translations...). After 5 years of insisting on writing out answers, I got to the point that I felt it was just busy work, and really wasn't adding anything to their education, except time.