Can third grade still be gentle or does it need to be kicked up a notch?

[ForeverFamily]

Just following this thread.  I am working on coming up with plans for 3rd next year as well.  What to use for writing is my biggest question mark right now.  Thank you everyone for all of your great posts!

[Amy M]

Does she/you mean the child reads aloud to you for 30 mins? My dd (and I) would NOT enjoy this :( Also, is the child doing this sort of reading/writing as well as the other writing daily? I struggle with my dd (2nd grade now) to get basic writing done. She reads very well, fluently no worries there, and reads aloud well but doesn't much like it.

 

Actually, I think RootAnn is right. It's a little confusing. In 1st and 2nd grade she mentions the child reading to you, and you sometimes using the reading time to read works to them that are over their head. One of her sentences in the shorter 3rd grade section made me think that "read al by himself" meant you don't read to him anymore for reading time, but that now the child is doing all of the reading; but I thought the child was still reading to you. Later on, though, in a section on "oral reading," she mentions that "even after your child has completed a phonics program and is readig independently, continue to have him read aloud to you periodically through about 6th grade," and tells how and why to do that. So I guess by 3rd grade, they are doing much of their reading by themselves, not so much aloud to you.

 

Here's the section on 3rd grade:

"Your third grader will spend 30 minutes per day reading writers from the late Renaissance-early modern period, which includes John Bunyan (the simplified Pilgrim's Progress) and Charles Dickens (abridged versions), along with the simpler poetry of Wordsworth and Blake....By third grade, you should be encouraging the child to read all by himself; read to him only if you want him to read an original text instead of an abridgment (A Christmas Carol is a good book to read aloud in its entirety), or if he is still struggling with the mechanics of reading. Don't be afraid to assign the child abridged and simplified versions of the classics. ...

 

"Continue to make notebook pages at least twice a week, summarizing the books the child is reading. By third grade, your student should be able to narrate the plot back to you and write it down himself without the intermediate step of dictating and then copying. In short, he'll have gradually worked his way up to doing book reports."

 

She goes on to talk about memorization of poetry.

 

On top of that daily reading with some notebooking narrations per week, the child reads for one "free" reading hour, in which you still choose good lit for him, but not necessarily tied to history. It "should not be difficult for him, but we do recommend that you avoid lightweight series such as the Goosebumps..." "However, outside of the free reading hour, let the child read what he pleases....The quality literature read during the free hour will slowly develop his taste for better books."

 

The writing is a bigger section--you really need to just read it yourself. :) I read it every year, it is so practically helpful.

 

But I'll try to type a bit of the third grade stuff:

"By third grade, encourage the child to do all formal work using cursive writing. Continue to practice penmanship. Require all work to be done neatly...Third graders should continue to do dictation exercises three times per week. Most third graders can now progress to complex sentences or 2 or 3 sentences at a time." Later on, she says, "In 3rd and 4th grade, the student should continue to do dictation twice a week. 3rd-grade dictation should involve longer and more complex sentences; by the end of 4th grade, the student should be able to write a short paragraph from dictation, inserting punctuation marks such as quotation marks and semicolons where appropriate. The student will also begin to write his own summaries in history and science (see chapters 7 and 8)."

 

She goes on to talk about writing programs. For example if using Writing sTrands, you would use it twice a week in 3rd grade, and reduce dictation from 3 days per week to 2 *but no more!* Books 3 and 4 deal with paragraph construction, composition organization, and other elements of style...Aim to finish book 4 of Writing Strands by the end of the 4h grade year. She compares and contrasts WWE, IEW, and WS.

 

I know in some of her writing and lectures, she said that they didn't want to break down TWTM into time increments, but their publisher Norton wanted them to. So if you feel that's too much reading or writing, you know your child and whether you can safely decrease the amounts of time or not.

 

All errors mine. :)