When your 6th grader is behind in his assigned reading

[mamaraby]

Yes, yes, I should have checked that what he meant by "did my reading today" and my definition matched before this point. I'll take onus on that. We'll chalk it up to a learning experience on both ends.

 

On the one hand, I'd like to say, "Sucks to be you, guess you'd better get reading kiddo!" because that's what happens in school when you get behind.

 

On the other hand, I probably should have put in stronger scaffolding so we didn't end up at this point. I can see now that I should have said something like "When you're assigned something like this, it might be wise to look ahead at the timeframe for the reading so you know whether x amt is going to get you to where you need to be. In this case, I would read x. Does that sound reasonable to you, kiddo?"

 

So, we're not ready for the next step and growing up is not a linear progression, but a great big ball of wibbly-wobbly. It's not necessarily JAWM, but rescheduling to account for the mutual oops doesn't mean he's going to not learn responsibility and live in my basement for the rest of his life, right?

[MotherGoose]

How far behind is he? And what curricula? I'd just pick up where you are and move forward. It sounds to me that he's much more than a week or two behind?

[MerryAtHope]

I'd reschedule and move on. I might schedule a few extra reading sessions (like 30 minutes before bed, instead of "fun" reading for a week or so to "catch up," but mostly I'd just move on). Sometimes things like this happen, and I always took it as a time for both me and the student to learn and grow from the experience!

 

I personally didn't find that my 6th graders were ready for that kind of independence where they decided how much to read, so don't feel badly! I specifically told mine, "Read for 30 minutes or a minimum of 1 chapter, whichever takes longer." If the chapters were super short, I'd say minimum 2 or whatever. I made the expectation clear each day, and then during our one-on-one time, I'd have them tell me what was happening in their book. I made this a fun time to talk about the story, but it was one way I could make sure they were actually reading and also understanding what they read. 

[regentrude]

He is in 6th grade. At that age, I would discuss reading daily - or not 'assign" specific reading at all and simply require that a certain amount of time is spent on reading. Since he is home with you, you have the ability to check that this happens. A kid who repeatedly does not do this would have to work under parental supervision for a while so it is easy for the parent to redirect.

 

He has six years until he needs to be independent. It will be fine.

 

"Being behind" is self made. If you don't make a schedule and simply put in time on task instead, it is impossible to "be behind".

[Soror]

Sounds like a learning experience for both of you.

 

For my son who is 6/7th grade I schedule his reading out by the page or chapter daily. We've got a long time to get to the point of expecting them to schedule out their own work, IMO. Even in college, I remember specific assignments re; read this chapter for our class next week. 

 

At this point, I'd probably schedule some extra reading to make it up, or if that isn't realistic I'd look at making up whatever has to be done to move forward and schedule the rest of year more specifically. I'd also look at scheduling some time to go over the reading to check to make sure if it is done, even if it is  5 min to ask him what the story was about today.

[Farrar]

At this point, we just go by time, which I build into the schedule. So, unless the reading is really short and specific, I just say read for 30 minutes or read for an hour and put it on their to do for school. My first question is whether he's behind because he didn't have enough time to complete the reading.

[Julie of KY]

I'd reschedule and then make specific goals such as read this much TODAY. As he gets better at meeting daily goals, increase to 2-3 day goals, then weekly goals. Scaffold your child as much as needed for as long as needed, while gently pushing to be more independent.

 

 

[mamaraby]

He did read quite a bit - two chapters a school day and it usually meant he was done with it fairly quickly, but I meant for him to read 3 chapters which since it was all he needed to do for history many of the days was plenty of time to read that and end up with an easier day. But one chapter less a day adds up. I wanted it to be an enjoyable way to ease into the new semester with the idea being we'd talk some about the reading after he was finished. So I treated it more like free-ish reading and yeah...miscommunication on all fronts.

 

I will reschedule without guilt then. I do appreciate the reassurance.