Literature/reading for late middle school??

[freemanfamilyof6]

I am in need of suggestions for literature/reading for upper middle school.  We have struggled through Memoria Press literature this year, but it has gotten too difficult.  I know we could back up a few grades in MP, but the format isn’t working either.  Reading level/comprehension is closer to early middle school, though.  Has anyone used a reading/literature program their child thrived with, easy to use but enough content to grow (better for learning challenged students)?  

[Sneezyone]

Can you give some examples of books your DC are struggling with? Are there any topics in history that you want to echo with literature?

[PeterPan]

If your goal is to work on comprehension, sometimes it works better to separate out the reading. This lets them put all their energy into working on comprehension, instead of having it be diverted to slogging through the text. So what you might do is move to puts that you can get as audiobooks or do immersion reading (audio plus ebook, audio plus printed book) where he follows along. Pause after every chapter and discuss. You can do this with guides and you can also follow up with movies to improve comprehension.

If he has specific comprehension needs, there are workbooks like the Spotlight series from Carson Dellosa and the therapy level Spotlight series from Linguisystems. I use a lot of printable ebooks like that with my ds, because they allow me to target levels and skills. Carson Dellosa has workbooks for analyzing primary sources, using paired sources (fiction and non-fiction), learning how to read science/history, debating, etc. 

I think it's ok to ENJOY literature (listen to it on audio, watch the movie version, discuss, call it good) and work on the language/comprehension deficits separately. At least that's how we're rolling here.

If you want a pre-done curriculum and not intervention materials, Timberdoodle is now selling Mosdos. I'm looking at it for my ds. I think he might be far enough along with our intervention now that he could jump in with that and enjoy it. I'm not sure about that, just what I'm looking at. 

[freemanfamilyof6]

13 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

If your goal is to work on comprehension, sometimes it works better to separate out the reading. This lets them put all their energy into working on comprehension, instead of having it be diverted to slogging through the text. So what you might do is move to puts that you can get as audiobooks or do immersion reading (audio plus ebook, audio plus printed book) where he follows along. Pause after every chapter and discuss. You can do this with guides and you can also follow up with movies to improve comprehension.

If he has specific comprehension needs, there are workbooks like the Spotlight series from Carson Dellosa and the therapy level Spotlight series from Linguisystems. I use a lot of printable ebooks like that with my ds, because they allow me to target levels and skills. Carson Dellosa has workbooks for analyzing primary sources, using paired sources (fiction and non-fiction), learning how to read science/history, debating, etc. 

I think it's ok to ENJOY literature (listen to it on audio, watch the movie version, discuss, call it good) and work on the language/comprehension deficits separately. At least that's how we're rolling here.

If you want a pre-done curriculum and not intervention materials, Timberdoodle is now selling Mosdos. I'm looking at it for my ds. I think he might be far enough along with our intervention now that he could jump in with that and enjoy it. I'm not sure about that, just what I'm looking at. 

 

Do you have any guides you use to discuss with after each chapter? I feel ill equipped to discuss without a guide.   I have been using audio books paired with printed books.  Read first then, Listen second. 

How do you go about knowing which skills to target in comprehension?  It’s a struggle for my child.  

[Sneezyone]

I think read first then listen might need to be reversed or, better yet, combined. Remember those audio tapes of old where kids could turn the page at the sound of a chime? They were great.

Slogging through the hard part first could be very discouraging.

We’ve used some lit guides from teachers pay teachers but are really getting away from that now. I read the same book she’s reading and come up with my own questions (as if I were the student myself) and jot them down as I go. That’s how we start our discussions, using our questions/notes written in the margins or on a separate paper.

[PeterPan]

Exactly. You want him to be reading WHILE he listens. If you have any kind of tablet, you can download the Kindle app and do immersion reading, where it will highlight the text as it reads. There are other apps that do this, apps that will read pdfs, all kinds of stuff. 

For comprehension, do you have testing to know what areas you need to target? I've used the Spotlight series from Carson Dellosa and the Linguisystems (speech therapy) Spotlight series, both of which are very good. For my ds, it's better to work on the comprehension issues separately and then bring it back into the context of literature.

There's also something like Story Grammar Marker or the $10 spinoff version on TeachersPayTeachers.

With my dd, I usually just googled for guides to go with the books. The challenge when a dc really isn't comprehending is to figure out why so you can address it. If there are language issues, they will need to be addressed with intervention level materials and speech therapy materials. If he's not understanding the flow of the story, then he needs work with story grammar elements. Just depends on what is going on.

Learning and Identifying Story Grammar Parts in Narratives

Spotlight on Reading & Listening Comprehension Level 2 6-Book Set  There are more books in the Spotlight series, all good stuff.

Spotlight on Vocabulary Level 2 6-Book Set

https://mindwingconcepts.com