How many pages a day?

[Tawlas]

My two eldest are currently both reading aloud Magic Tree House books to me. Since mid-September I've only been asking that they read two full pages to me each day. Now I'm wondering if that's a little light.

 

How many pages of a similar book would your second grader be asked to read aloud each day? They're both reading at about a early to mid second grade level, if that helps.

[Twolittleboys]

Hm, I think reading two (or three) pages aloud is probably enough but I would let/ask them to read more silently. In my opinion splitting a book in so many small pieces really takes the fun out of it. So unless they are really struggling I would want them to move faster through the book so they enjoy it more. For what it is worth last year my son (end of second grade/8 years) would read a Magic Treehouse book pretty easily in a day or two (not aloud though).

[T'smom]

I have my 2 nd grade ds read one chapter, then I read one chapter. I think my reading helps it move fast enough to keep his interest and makes it seem less daunting. I would have a mutiny on my hands if he thought he would have to read the whole thing, even if it was broken up.

[Soror]

My 7.5 y.o. reads 15-20ish minutes or so aloud to me, not always at one time. With my son at that age it was around 15 minutes IIRC. My daughter is just reading little books, although she could decode Magic Treehouse she's not go near the confidence to do it. I just keep her reading a little more and a little more at a little higher and higher level.

[Melissa B]

Usually, one chapter per day.

[MotherGoose]

I think having a child read aloud to you for more than say, 5 mins? is too much. I don't like to read aloud more than 10 mins at a stretch. My dd can easily read and comprehend a MTH book in an hour or so, the entire thing read silently to herself, but if I asked her to read a chapter or two aloud she'd balk. So I have her read a page or two of whatever we are doing, 5 mins max, to make sure she can read fluently and correctly. If I want her to do more than that for comprehension, I have her do it silently, and we talk about it/she narrates it.

[tiffaninichole]

We switch pages - I read a page, she reads a page. And I set a timer for 20 minutes. When the timer goes off, we finish the current chapter before stopping for the day.

[trafal]

My 7 yr old reads silently for 35 minutes a day.  I am gradually working up to a goal of 60 minutes per day.  We are also buddy reading the Sonlight read-a-louds from core B.  We read a chapter a day and answer the questions. 

[Ellie]

My two eldest are currently both reading aloud Magic Tree House books to me. Since mid-September I've only been asking that they read two full pages to me each day. Now I'm wondering if that's a little light.

 

How many pages of a similar book would your second grader be asked to read aloud each day? They're both reading at about a early to mid second grade level, if that helps.

 

I did not require my dc to read aloud to me.

 

It would seem to me, though, that it would be better to consider how long they read aloud than how many pages. And I would want to really think about *why* I wanted them to read aloud.

[EKS]

For kids with reading fluency problems, I recommend starting with something they can read easily for 10-15 minutes and then gradually increasing the level of the material to at least grade level (and preferably above) as well as the amount of time they read (your goal should be 25-30 minutes).

 

If there are no fluency problems (meaning that they're able to read aloud at a rate of about 80 words per minute now), I'd try to have them work up to reading aloud for 15-20 minutes each day (with a fluency goal of 100 words per minute by 3rd grade).  But the idea is that it should be easy, so if they're struggling to read the material, you're going to want to back off on the level until there is no struggle.

 

 

[Caribbean Queen]

My first grade teacher assigned reading aloud as homework.  For 15 minutes I laboriously sounded out words.  I couldn't recall the beginning of the sentence by the time I reached the end.  I don't know how my mom pretended to enjoy it because it sounded wretched. It's no wonder by second grade I hated reading.  So, I wouldn't have second graders reading second grade-level books aloud for 20 minutes.  I'd rather poke my eyes out with a fork!

 

Instead, I'd read easy books to them very slowly, while they looked at the words.  I did this with my kids and after a while they would chime in with me, and even read aloud ahead of me.  Then they started taking the book from me and saying, "I don't need you to read this to me.  I can read it myself."  And they could. 

[Tawlas]

My goal for reading aloud is really just practice, practice, practice. And some gaining confidence in their skills and some fluency. My DSD8 especially gets flustered and overwhelmed if something doesn't make sense the first time through. They're both at the point where they *know* most of the phonics rules if you prompt ("what does 'ou' say in this word do you think? There's a 'gh' in this word, how will that work here?"), they just need more time for them to be automatic. I'm using Magic Tree House because to them, they're 'big kid" books, not picture books, and my son especially likes them. I'm considering Ivy and Bean for my DSD8. I also have a few Ginn readers, a full set of McGuffey Readers and a full set of CL Nature Readers. Maybe I should try those?

 

I'm not confident they could get through a MTH book on their own, not so much because they can't read at that level, but because they'd totally panic at the idea. And I think they'd skip chunks and come back two minutes later and say they've read the chapter lol.

 

I agree, reading two pages at a time is breaking the story up a lot. I think my kids would both like it if we did a my page/your page approach.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone, it's giving me something to think about!

[Goldilocks]

If you are doing this to teach them how to read (which it sounds like you are) then I think you are not reading enough. They should probably be reading close to 15 minutes a piece, but it could be spaced out. I am doing a your page/my 3 pages with my 7 year old and completing 1-2 MTH sized books a week. It is my favorite stage in learning to read!

[MotherGoose]

My goal for reading aloud is really just practice, practice, practice. And some gaining confidence in their skills and some fluency. My DSD8 especially gets flustered and overwhelmed if something doesn't make sense the first time through. They're both at the point where they *know* most of the phonics rules if you prompt ("what does 'ou' say in this word do you think? There's a 'gh' in this word, how will that work here?"), they just need more time for them to be automatic. I'm using Magic Tree House because to them, they're 'big kid" books, not picture books, and my son especially likes them. I'm considering Ivy and Bean for my DSD8. I also have a few Ginn readers, a full set of McGuffey Readers and a full set of CL Nature Readers. Maybe I should try those?

 

I'm not confident they could get through a MTH book on their own, not so much because they can't read at that level, but because they'd totally panic at the idea. And I think they'd skip chunks and come back two minutes later and say they've read the chapter lol.

 

I agree, reading two pages at a time is breaking the story up a lot. I think my kids would both like it if we did a my page/your page approach.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone, it's giving me something to think about!

I personally would use something designed as "reading instruction" for reading instruction. Like McGuffey or the Nature Readers, whatever goes along with your phonics program. I'd use the MTH books separately. The way I got my dd going on reading chapter books independently was to start reading it aloud to her, requiring nothing of her but her attention, then, at an exciting place, say it was time for me to go do something else and casually leave the book in her room. I did not require her to do any independent reading until I was certain she was reading fluently and easily, and then the books that I wanted her to do independently were slightly below her level.