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How many books do your kids read each year “for school”? My kids only read about half of what I had planned this year, so I am trying to determine if I planned for too much or if I let them off the hook by not making them read more. 

4th grader- read 20 books

6th grader 1- read 26 books

6th grader 2- read 29 books

This doesn’t include read aloud books or books they read on their own for fun. They still have their summer reading, so that will add a few books to the total.

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My dd was an avid reader, so I usually had her keep a list of what she read. If they read that number AND did pleasure reading, that seems like a good amount. They may be maxing out their reading speed, and reading speed can be a combo of experience reading and developmental vision. In general, if they're reading 1-2 books a week, you're good. I would focus on making sure they get TIME to read. As long as they aren't overscheduled and are chosing to read a reasonable amount of time per day, then I wouldn't quibble over whether they're reading books you assigned or they chose.

Disclaimer. My ds has ASD and extensive SLDs and doesn't read books at all. For him, it's the same gig, making sure he's not overbooked and gets time to listen to audiobooks, 1-2 hours a day at least. With my dd, who was an amazing reader, I tried to make sure she had time to read every day (1-3 hours), and I nurtured her with variety. It was less important that she read what I chose and more important that she was just flat reading.

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Not sure of the total off the top of my head, but I usually end up assigning about 25 pages of a chapter book per day. For my older one, that usually ends up being one book every two to three weeks. This year I bought discussion guides, which has caused us to go a lot slower through three of the books. My youngest usually gets one or two picture books to read each day in addition to the chapter book, although sometimes it's zero, depending on how many extra books were recommended in the SOTW activity guide for that week's chapter.

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I think it depends so much on the book.  I have a 7th grader who is about 150 pages into a dense 500-page book, he has been reading it about a month.  He is getting a lot out of it.  He is planning to continue with the series until he finishes it.  He isn’t going to have a high number of books, but I am satisfied.

Edit:  he has to slow down for this book, he isn’t reading it as fast as he has read other books before.  I don’t think the number of pages even is comparable to it he were reading a series that would be easier for him.  

My 3rd grade daughter will read through almost everything I bring home from the library.  She reads some chapter books in a day, some in 2-3 days, and then she read a series recently that took her about 3 weeks per book.  I think she is getting a lot out of all of it, too.

I think if they are spending time reading and getting something out of what they are reading, that is the important thing.  

But seeing my older son slow down and take a lot longer for a book makes me want to focus less on a number of books or pages, because I am happy with his choice and progress, but it is just not a lot of quantity.  

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One of my 6th graders read a couple dozen (including audiobooks and read-alouds).  She is a slow reader.  The other read over 100.  She is a nut.  ?  These were the numbers logged and tested on (graded comprehension tests) for school.  Some were discussed in literature class / book club, some not.

I would err on the low side so that they still have some time and desire to read for fun.

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Anywhere from 20-40, depending on length of the book and age of the student. Usually I just give them a list at the beginning of the year and tell them to spend 30 - 45 minutes per day reading from whatever appeals to them on the list (30 minutes for 1st-4th and 45 minutes for 5th-8th)

In the early grades they read closer to 20 because they are usually reading them with me out loud and it takes longer. By 4th grade the books are still relatively short and they are better readers so they go more quickly and get closer to 40. But then in 5th/6th they slow down again because the books get longer and harder.

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Once you can read, I think it's more important to invest time to read consistently than to try and read a certain number of books. My kids read at different rates depending on the text and their energy on that day. I am a slow reader, so if you rate me on the number of books that I was able to complete in a time period it'd be lower--shamefully lower than "average", but if you rate me on the consistency of the reading habit, then I would probably be average.

If you're kids were reading consistently and that's as many books as they read, then that's as many as they read. If you let them wriggle out of daily reading time a lot, then that's what I'd crack down on moving forward, but I wouldn't try and assign any set number of books for them.

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I never assign anywhere near that number. I think I maybe assigned 12 total books to my 8th graders this year? Including literature and nonfiction. We read articles, short stories, poems, and portions of things as well, of course.

My kids read other things for pleasure.

It depends on the kid, absolutely. But if I required 25+ books in a year, everyone here would be miserable.

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These were across multiple subjects. We do morning basket with all the kids that includes read aloud literature, character reading, history, science, and bible. But that is kids ranging from 4 years old to 12 years old. I assigned additional reading that corresponded with their history, science, and literature. 

Per day, I tried to do timed reading before, but that didn’t work out so well for my two oldest who will do as little as they can get away with. When I started assigning chapters or pages per day, they started reading faster while still keeping good comprehension of what they read. If I assign more than 3 chapters per day (usually broken up over two books), they’d get overwhelmed and fall behind because they would just stare at the book instead of reading it. So, I slowed the pace to what they could handle without melting. My 6th grade boy still only spent about 5 hours on school each day. My 6th grade daughter, it was closer to 7 hours because she gets sidetracked easily. 

If I assigned all Harry Potter, my daughter would read all day long. They seem to slow based on interest and not so much with difficulty. I’m kind of glad I did overplan because I felt like there were more options to choose from. But looking at the end of the year at all the books not read and compiling the summer reading list made me wonder if they should have read more. We had a really good school year. I’m usually much more bummed about their progress. Just kind of trying to wrap my brain around how the year went. If a couple dozen books falls in the adequate territory or the just fine category. 

My fourth grader definitely could have read more. He read a lot in the beginning of the year and then slowed considerably. I knew he’d need more time for the more difficult books for his level and I alternated the difficult Reads with easier ones. But he just quit wanting to read this last term. I’m not sure what changed. 

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Some of this may also have to do with age. My kids probably did read more than 25 books for school when they were really young and a book meant a picture book or a Magic Treehouse length book. But at age 13, everything they read is sort of longish and meaty.

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My DS is only going into 1st, so a lot of our literature is still read-aloud. I have scheduled 13 chapter books to read to him (along with numerous picture books, myth anthologies, etc) & I also read books of his choice for at least 30min a night before bed. All I will ask of him at this stage is to spend 30min a day reading from any chapter book. 

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I don't assign a "number." They read the number of books that works.  My 6th grader, for example, didn't read anywhere near that many.  She did, however, read several books with pretty difficult language like Hans Brinker and Wind in the Willows.  The vocabulary in books like those is more difficult and takes longer for her to read than reading more contemporary books. I would rather her spend more time reading those and broadening her vocabulary and getting used to reading difficult books than reading more books. She reads plenty of books for fun.

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Books for school is usually about 10-15 a year, usually studied for 3-6 weeks. I make them read them slowly as they tend to blow through pleasure books quickly and then forget all of the details after reading something else. I read aloud one; they read one story (novel, biography, etc) and one to two pieces of a non-fiction is usually how our school is set up.

On top of that, they are in two monthly book clubs, so 20 books there that are discussed in a group setting. I've never timed or logged their "for fun" reading except during summer reading program time, but all of them go through at least 1-10 books a week. 

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My 8th grader has read 55 books this year, not including read alouds or smaller non-fiction supplements to history.  BUT, only 8 were actually assigned and discussed and written about as "schoolwork."

My 5th grader has read 31, but only 2 were discussed thoroughly. 

I think that what you assign depends on the kid.  My older one loves to read at night, and I use the school books to make sure we discuss the more difficult books as curriculum.  My youngest hates anything related to reading, so I put very little pressure on the output of reading, and he is just assigned reading time each day.  He chooses the books.  He needs to develop a love a reading, so I do "suggest" books that I think he'd like, but he has the final decision.  I do ask him about his reading to make sure he's understanding the book, but that is very casual.

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