Reading/literature instruction in upper elementary

[thessa516]

What does your reading/literature instruction look like in upper elementary? Do you hand your child the book to go off and read for an hour or does he/she read up to the next chapter? Do he/she read aloud to you so you can listen for fluency? Do you talk about the book every day or only when he/she finishes a chapter/major event in the story or do you wait until he/she finishes the entire book? How do you handle new vocabulary? Do you introduce the words first, last, or wait until your child asks about a word?

 

I think I could improve on my reading instruction, but I'm stuck with the logistics of it all. I have Teaching the Classics, so I think I have a good grip on literature analysis - it's the rest of the day-to-day stuff that needs help. Thanks for any help you can give me.

[Julie Smith]

I'm listening. :)

 

Nice question.

[Heidi]

Listening in too!

 

My dd8 & dd6 have taken off in their reading this past year and are devouring a children's classic every few days. I tried to get my dd8 to stop at a certain chapter so I could go over, orally, what she had read, but she is effectively dodging my efforts. She wants to read and enjoy books, not talk about them. I'm not sure what to do yet. I was thinking about formally studying only a handful of books a year, about 4 to 5, through a literature guide (starting next school year, maybe sooner) and letting her enjoy the rest.

 

So far I will occasionally ask her about a book she is reading or has read, mainly just what is it about. She comes to me if she doesn't know a word. Studying latin has apparently helped her understand new words. We take turns reading from the scriptures every morning, so there our oral reading for the day. But really, this is my oldest child and she is only 8 and I really don't know what to expect or how to best go about "studying literature". I'm working on watching the Teaching the Classics dvd and I ordered Deconstructing Penquins, which hasn't arrived yet.

 

So basically, I'm :bigear:

[Crimson Wife]

We use a it analysis curriculum (first it was Figuratively Speaking and now Walch Poetry and Prose Toolbook) but I don't use lit guides for specific books. I loved to read growing up but I always hated analyzing the assigned books in English class. WWS1 has a brief unit on literary analysis, and when DD is older, I do plan on taking her through IEW's Windows to the World so that she knows how to write a full literary analysis essay. But my goal is to foster a love of reading, not to kill that by analyzing books to death.

[Clear Creek]

We use Memoria Press' Lit program. I really like it because it focuses on just a few books per year, so the majority of what my kids read is just for fun and is not analyzed to death. The way the Lit program is set up (for my 5th grader, who is more independent than my 3rd grader) she reads the reading notes at the beginning of the lesson, she reads the one chapter, she fills in the definitions for the vocab words for the chapter as she understood them from context, and she answers four or five comprehension questions for the chapter (a chance for her to practice writing in complete sentences :D ). The next day we discuss the vocab, go over the comprehension questions, discuss a quote or two from the chapter, and do several discussion questions together - this part is the meat of the program. The questions all involve critical thinking and synthesizing the information. Often there are no right answers; the discussions for Robin Hood have involved a lot of questions on the ethics of Robin Hood's actions and the choices that the student would make in his place - backed up with an explanation of *why* the student would make those choices. There are often compare and contrast questions as well. Literary terms are brought up as they occur in the story. There are occasional enrichment activities that I sometimes assign, such as drawing a scene from the chapter according to the description in the book.

 

This method/program is not for everyone, but my older two both love it so far (we are on the second of three books scheduled for the year for both 5th and 3rd grades). It is not all analysis and hard questions, we also talk about aspects of the chapter or the story line that we just plain enjoy, and often our discussions (especially with the 3rd grader) can wander off into the imaginary. The program for us is more of a slow savoring of a good book than going into grueling detail and analyzing every move to the point that it is no longer enjoyable. As always, YMMV. :001_smile:

[Mrs Twain]

For my 4th grader, I have a book which is at a challenging level for him to read, and he reads it aloud to me for 15 minutes per day. Through this he is improving reading aloud with expression. We also discuss meanings of unfamilar words, sayings, and concepts as he comes across them. Periodically, we talk about the plot, characters, and underlying meaning of the story, but only on a casual basis.

 

I have him do the Evan Moor Skills Sharpeners Reading mostly just to practice reading comprehension skills. I had him do one of the Blackbird and Company literature guides this year which was okay. I am not sure I will do more of those because they seem so dry, though the basic reading comprehension skills they teach are valuable.

 

I am starting a monthly "book club" in the style of Deconstructing Penguins. Since we have recently started this, I can't give feedback as to how it will go. However, all of our family (including dh and I) are going to read the same book and discuss it at our "book club". Through this I hope to teach the kids the literary terms and some analysis including finding the protagonist, antagnoist, conflict, and underlying message of the book. If it goes well, we may invite some of our friends to join our book club. I am choosing books from the lists in Desconstructing Penguins.

 

Dh and I read to the kids before bed, and we play audio books in the car. These books are at a higher level than the kids' reading levels, and the books vary between "good books" type of literature, historical fiction, and biographies. Reading aloud to the kids and stopping to explain the meaning of new words and expressions is one of the best ways to improve vocabulary.

 

I take the kids to the library every couple of weeks and let them check out as many books as they like. This causes a little stress on my part having over 100 books checked out at any one time, but I am quite willing to tolerate that because they love to read independently and need a good pile of books to keep them busy.

[justamouse]

They read for an hour a day. They all read aloud at some point in the week, normally on the read aloud book, which is not their lit book. We do a brief overview on the author, sometimes this leads to rabbit trails. They sometimes do a book report on them when they are done discussing characters, conflict, theme, setting. I've verbally gone over goal, motivation, conflict (inner and exterior) with them for years, so that's not what we do.

 

We do use Mr. Kern's 'should' question, sometimes.

 

If they LOVE the book? I leave it alone. Just let it be.

[Laura Corin]

We used Galore Park's Junior English. In that, Hobbes worked on analysing passages, using new vocabulary, etc. There were recommended reading books at the end of each chapter, and he read many of those. As he had already done formal work on the passages, I didn't do further work on them.

 

When Calvin was a bit older (Hobbes was in school by that point) he did Lightning Literature 7, which introduced analysis of complete texts.

 

Laura

[thessa516]

Thank you so much for all the replies! It sounds like I'm doing okay. My kids would spend all day reading if I'd let them. I do try to pick just a few books a year to go through slowly and analyze.

 

I am starting a monthly "book club" in the style of Deconstructing Penguins. Since we have recently started this, I can't give feedback as to how it will go. However, all of our family (including dh and I) are going to read the same book and discuss it at our "book club". Through this I hope to teach the kids the literary terms and some analysis including finding the protagonist, antagnoist, conflict, and underlying message of the book. If it goes well, we may invite some of our friends to join our book club. I am choosing books from the lists in Desconstructing Penguins.

 

I love this idea. I think we may incorporate this into our family time. Thanks!