Help me: Appropriate expectations for 3rd grade reading and writing?

[Amy M]

I'm moving into 3rd grade with my firstborn (were supposed to start in January but had upheaval in our lives and are starting late this year), and am trying to wrap my head around appropriate expectations for reading and writing the WTM way. I have read TWTM, but I want to hear from some of you. So here are some of my questions, and I'd really appreciate feedback from those of you who have BDTD:

 

Reading:

• How often should he read aloud to me?
• How much reading (total, alone and with me) per day? 30 minutes?
• Should we keep a reading journal as described in TWTM?
• Should we be done with phonics? How long do we do phonics? Should I just review for 6 weeks, then be done?

 

Writing:

• Handwriting and copywork: Do we do "handwriting" every day? (We already learned cursive in 1st grade.) Or 3 days a week? Or just when we do "copywork"? Is copywork daily?
• Narration: Do we narrate daily on something (history, reading, science)? How many times written narration--twice per week?
• Dictation: Just twice per week? How hard? (I find WWE a bit too difficult for my son at this point in dictation. We were on WWE2, and he would probably need more work at that level. I'm thinking of trying something else.)

Thanks so much for your advice!

 

[Jess4879]

Everyone does it differently, and it will largely depend on how well your child is reading & writing at this point. 

 

Reading:

• How often should he read aloud to me?  we read daily. 
• How much reading (total, alone and with me) per day? 30 minutes? The time varies, if I add in lesson time (we are still working on phonics) it would average about 30 mins, I guess.  My 3rd grader also reads for approx. 30 minutes on her own. 
• Should we keep a reading journal as described in TWTM? We don't have a journal.  I did make bookmarks for the kids though with a hole punched in the top and they keep them on a metal ring.  They love filling up a ring and needing a new one!  It was a good motivator for my oldest to read more. 
• Should we be done with phonics? How long do we do phonics? Should I just review for 6 weeks, then be done?  This depends on how well your child is reading. 

 

Writing:

• Handwriting and copywork: Do we do "handwriting" every day? (We already learned cursive in 1st grade.) Or 3 days a week? Or just when we do "copywork"? Is copywork daily?  My 3rd grader does about 5 mins of handwriting practice daily (HWT) to correct a few bad habits.  When we start cursive (for us, next year) she will do the same.  We also do copywork.  Overkill for some, but it's what works here.  Copywork is done daily.  My 3rd grader copies 2-3 sentences.  Sometimes entire pages if it's a passage she really likes.  She loves copywork.  :)
• Narration: Do we narrate daily on something (history, reading, science)? How many times written narration--twice per week?  We narrate more CM style, but we do so after most readings.  We do not do written-narrations for the most part, so I am no help here. :)
• Dictation: Just twice per week? How hard? (I find WWE a bit too difficult for my son at this point in dictation. We were on WWE2, and he would probably need more work at that level. I'm thinking of trying something else.) We do dictation twice a week as part of AAS.  There are phrases (which we do on Thursday) and sentences (on Friday).  WWE didn't fit well here.

[MrsWeasley]

My third grader is a very strong reader, so I will have her read aloud to me a couple times a week, but that's it. She has an hour a day of independent reading during "quiet time" when the youngest in our family naps. We don't currently keep a reading journal, but I wish we did! We continue phonics instruction via spelling. We don't do handwriting separate: if I see bad habits creeping, I will ask her to practice it correctly, but that's not routine for us anymore. We do narration every day, and written narration three times a week (two history, one science). I would like to add written narration for literature, but it isn't happening yet. We do copywork or dictation three times a week. Sometimes, I let my kid choose. Sometimes I choose based on something I want to teach. If I do dictation, it often is from movies or audiobooks to make it more fun. I find a lot of the process of written narrations cover a lot of what I want to cover with narration, since right now I really walk her through written narrations. I wish we did more. My daughter still finds lots of writing tiring and it can drain our homeschool day. Hope that helps!

[hollyhock]

Here are my answers but every kid is different:

 

- I stop having my kids read aloud to me once they can read very well and read lots on their own, around the time they get into easy chapter books. By 3rd grade, some of my kids are at that point so I drop it, but if I don't drop it, then I would have them read to me 2-3x per week.

 

- I don't regulate my kids' free reading time because so far they have all liked to read on their own and done lots of it. If I had to, I would probably say 20-30 min. per day.

 

- I'm actually not familiar with the WTM reading journal instructions, perhaps I should look that up! :)

 

- I stop phonics when my kids are reading very well, generally at the end of 1st or 2nd grade, depending on the kid. Then I move them on to spelling and grammar/English.

 

- I follow WWE so my kids don't do copywork in 3rd grade. By then, WWE has them doing dictation instead. At that point, I do handwriting separately if they need practice.

 

- Narration is twice per week, yes. Dictation also twice per week. Were you using the WWE 2 workbook? Because sometimes the dictation in the workbooks is actually longer (and sometimes quite a bit longer) than what the instructor guide recommends. If you have the instructor guide, I would look up how long dictations are supposed to be and perhaps find my own sentences to dictate. 

 

 

[Amy M]

Bump :)