11 yods struggling to read some selections in WWS... normal?? Not??

[steppingstonemomma]

This year my 11 yo son has struggled to read some of the excerpts from the WWS book. Lots of harder words and concepts...Is anyone else experiencing this?

 

He was late to really get going with reading so I'm trying to figure out if his difficulty is just WWS or if it's a reading difficulty...

 

Tiffany

[Halcyon]

My son hasnt seemed to have any problems, but he's reading the passages silently, so maybe? Also, we're only in Week 8....

[redsquirrel]

Well, I am wanting to say that it is probably not typical, but I have only used it with one kid.

 

My son is also 11 and sometimes has trouble understanding the directions. He can understand the reading selections, but struggles with incorporating the directions into his assignment. That seems like a more typical 11 year old problem.

[fluffybunny]

My 11 year old ds is doing WWS, and the only way he succeeds is because I sit down with him and he reads aloud the stories and instructions. Then I sit behind him when he is typing on his laptop, prompting and scaffolding where necessary. I could never leave him to do it by himself, not even for 5 minutes, or he starts playing with fonts and pasting in pictures etc. Hard work for me to have to stand over him the entire way, but it's the only way we are getting through it!

 

I know it says the student has the responsibility, but I guess some kids just aren't ready for that step. Mine certainly isn't, but he can work at his grade level with my help. The way I see it is that he will eventually become more independent as time goes by.

[MorningGlory]

My son is also 11 and sometimes has trouble understanding the directions. He can understand the reading selections, but struggles with incorporating the directions into his assignment. That seems like a more typical 11 year old problem.

This is exactly our case, too. 11 yo boy.

 

My son doesn't seem to have any trouble reading and understanding the selections. I think he is doing fine with that part because his first day narrations and second day outlines are spot-on. And actually, he is often interested in the selections. But he has to have help with the fourth day writing project...lots of help. And thanks to advice given on this board, we have spread that 4th day over 2 days.

 

To OP...have you tried reading the selections out loud? This could help you determine if it is a reading issue or more of a comprehension problem.

[creekmom]

The reading level of a lot of the passages she's chosen is way above 5th/6th grade!! I chose a passage from week 15 from Discoverer of the Unseen World, and applied Fry's readability graph. You count out 100 words and then count the sentences/syllables in that passage. I didn't have the time to do it 3 times, but I did it once on the last paragraph. Out of the 100 words I counted, there were 155 syllables and ALMOST 2 sentences! That passage is on a 12th grade reading level!!!! -Don't be discouraged if he finds the reading difficult. A lot of it is difficult. I would sit beside him and take turns reading aloud. I think the reading practice is definitely beneficial for that age.

[Create Your Ritual]

We are STILL on Week 31 .. Marie Antoinette .. and I must say that the resources that she chose for them to read are definitely challenging. However, I think there must be a method to it, because it is forcing my dc to find the points in the reference material that matter to the kind of biographical sketch they want to tell. It is really challenging them though. We have been at Day 3 the entire week so far!

 

There are 4 different sources we are using for our note cards, so the organization has to be spot on for sure to get this done. However, they have done the notetaking now for several papers and do understand the process. It's just I feel like the level of expectation has been bumped way up with this particular week.

 

That said, they have rarely worked through WWS on their own, and when they did it did not go well. ;-)