did you cee this -- American High Schoolers not reading at high level

[PeacefulChaos]

Yes. I do. I have a fairly extensive home library and I've read every book on my shelves and then some. It happens that I tend to be a voracious readers by nature, but even if I didn't, I would absolutely read every book I assign in home schooling. For the same reason that I don't have much respect for a public/private school teacher who hasn't read the book(s) she assigns to her class. It's just part of the job.

 

Their leisure reading? My olders are teens that will shortly be able to join the military, get married, and so forth. I know what they are reading, but I might or might not read it also. But otherwise I only read their school assigned materials. They are of a stage where they are more likely to say a younger sibling shouldn't read something than I am. My younger crowd is less of a concern because I've been doing this for some time now and have read extensively enough to know whether any book on my shelf appropriate for them. And usually I can tell within seconds of looking at a book from outside the house.

 

ETA: I want to note that just because something is called a children's book, I would not assume it is safe reading. Tbh, I am far more critical of the children books than supposedly adult reading. I often find far more questionable content in children's books than classics or supposedly adult reading. If I went by most of what is written supposedly to relate to kids, I'd think all kids must be living in very questionable situations with very little ability to use reason or trust adults on basic levels.

I think it's the library books and stuff that I worry about the most. Worry is probably too strong a word - but I make Link bring me books and I glance through them, etc, before determining whether or not he can check them out. There are a lot of books in the children's section of the library that have me like :001_huh: ...

I've read the majority of the books I have on our shelves at home, I guess. It just may not have been since I was a kid myself. :tongue_smilie:

I do not read every single book my children read - but yes, I read every single book I assign. I carefully select which books to assign, because each assignment has to fulfill a purpose, not just add some random book to a list. The only way to decide whether a given book serves the instructional purpose is to actually read it. (I don't read it to determine "reading level")

 

I do not read the books my children pick for self-selected reading which constitutes the larger part of their reading. They are free to choose whatever they want for that.

I see. Right now I just assign books (my kids are young, though) that have something basic to do with what we are studying. So Link read a book about vikings when they first entered our history work. It was a fiction book, but it was enjoyable and he liked it.

As they get older it may be different for us. Idk yet. :)

The question referred to "moving them into great books early".

 

With young kids, we did a lot of read alouds and listened to quality literature as dramatized audio recordings. I believe that much of the reluctance to approach great literature stems from limited exposure to complex sentence structure and limited vocabulary. Both can be remedied by having children listen to books that may still be a bit too complicated for them to read on their own. We started listening to Hobbit, Narnia, LOTR when the kids were kindergarten age.

We have seen a dramatic effect on vocabulary; they picked up so much from listening. I also believe that audiobooks and read alouds and any exposure to quality spoken language is a valuable tool to develop correct grammar. Before a child writes, she speaks, and an instinctive mastery of grammar in speaking before even exposed to any grammar rules will translate into correct grammar in writing.

 

Like CynthiaOK, I found fill-in-the-blank worksheets and study guides not useful. My kids hate them, it is busy work, and they find the questions usually fairly dumb. We prefer to talk about the books and discuss literature without study guides and scripted materials.

 

Before appreciating great books, students must read fluently and with good comprehension. So, during grammar stage, we really work on this skill by getting unlimited supplies of interesting books at the kids' level. My kids have read their share of fluff - if Goosebump motivates a reluctant reader, it has its place. The important thing is to move on to more complex literature once they have mastered the mechanics. Even later, it is not all classics and deep hard books; they still read books that are just entertaining and fun - I am cautious not to make reading a chore by insisting on world literature quality for everything they read for recreation.

 

Lastly, I think modeling works very well. We have a house full of books, many of them classics. We read.

 

I was not raised on the classics - though I was raised to be a voracious reader (and have only recently, with my discovery of the WTM boards, not been reading as much, and I do miss it but I don't find the time as much as I should) - and I'm working on getting them in the house. I can find them and pick them up cheap a lot of times at used book sales and such. :) I have the Well Educated Mind so I have some basis of what it is I'm looking for, and our library does (even though their selection is, in general, awful) atleast have most of the classics and stuff on the list in WEM.

DH doesn't really like to read.

I definitely can see where the fill in the blank 'literature guides' wouldn't be much help. :ack2: I vaguely remember that sort of thing when I was in school and they were boring. :D

[ereks mom]

I don't know about some of their reading level scores - Of Mice and Men is 'easier' than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? And Lord of the Flies is a fifth grade book? I TOTALLY agree that Twilight, The Hunger Games, and such should not be considered high school level academic reading, but their rating system really seems skewed - Elie Wiesel's Night is a 4.8, while The Lightning Thief is a 4.7? Are they looking at JUST the reading level, the words used and sentence structure employed? Because content-wise, there is no way on EARTH I would give Night or Lord of the Flies to a fifth grader unless I wanted them to have nightmares! I wouldn't consider giving either of those to my 7th grader - we're just starting to touch on difficult content later this year when we read To Kill a Mockingbird and Red Scarf Girl, but Night and Lord of the Flies are way beyond those in content.

 

:iagree: