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3rd grade reading/literature


Elizabeth86
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I am trying to be thinking ahead for next year.  What do you all suggest for reading/literature for 3rd grade.  I looked at BJU reading 3.  It looks fine, but I really like the thought of him reading real books. I took a peek at progeny press literature guides and moving beyond the page for literature.  What do you all love?

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We just started using the literature guides from Memoria Press. I must say, as a former reading teacher, I'm quite impressed. We've only used grade 2 but I can see that they just get better and deeper from there. They are more than just questions-they are inferential probing type questions AND activities AND assessments AND drawing opportunities. It's more well-rounded than I thought at first glance.

Here's the funny part. I was thinking of switching to BJU too, and showed him the whole distance learning video for 3rd grade (only because I needed to get something off my plate). This was with Mrs. Walker, one of the more popular distance learning teachers. It was super fun and interesting for ME...but when I asked him if he'd like to switch, he very calmly said "no, I like what we're doing". Well there you have it. So we're staying-and I took a look at the 3rd grade books for MP and they look fantastic. There are some great threads (and a sticky) on the MP forum to give you a better understanding of the philosophy of MP and literature. It's deep-not wide. Then they (hopefully) read read read in their spare time, while studying one book in depth. HTH!

 

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I see reading and literature in 3rd as two different things.  Sometimes they overlap, sometimes not.

For everyday exposure to various genres, we like the Elson Readers.  The stories are short, there is a lot of poetry throughout, and each book groups stories/poems together by subject.  The back of the books from 3 up have discussion questions, and there is a separate teacher's guide with extra activities and writing assignments.

Literature I pick as books that: we can read together, I read to him at a higher level, or are books he should read himself at this age.  We rotate through, so while he read Charlotte's Web, I read Treasure Island, and we take turns reading Pinocchio.  I try to pick classics within a lexile range for him to read on his own.  If we need a guide, there are several out there.

I just found that we didn't fit into any package by 3rd grade.  Either he had already read them, or he was in the middle of reading them and enjoying them on his own.  Or I didn't want the writing work to creep over when we have a writing curriculum we like.  So I picked our own and slowly increase his level while finding books he really loves.

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JMO, but most students aren't really ready for formal literature studies/literary analysis until somewhere along about grade 6-8, so no need for lit. guides until middle school. (I can see enjoying an elementary grade guide that is a supplement or extension of the book and that expands the world of the book with activities -- something like the Lit Wit guides, for example.) -- Also, you might find this helpful: SWB's audio on What Is Literary Analysis and When to Teach It?

Similar to HomeAgain, we didn't use a formal Reading program after DSs learned to read. We had several "layers" of reading going on each day:

1. 15-20 min/day = assigned reading done aloud together "buddy reading" style ("you read a page, I read a page"), from "living books" that were at or just slightly above the student's reading level
2. 20 min/day = solo reading books -- student picked from a book basket I had assembled with books at or *below* comfortable reading level, to practice reading for fluency, comprehension, and enjoyment
3. 30+ min/day = read alouds = me reading aloud (or all of us listening to audio books) of works above the students' reading level -- often this was family reading time done at night
4. optional free reading = library books of their choice and other books were always available anytime they wanted to read

#1 helped stretch and grow DSs' reading level and allowed me to see if they were progressing in their reading
#2 helped them get solid in their reading
#3 improved vocabulary, thinking, etc., and helped them "hear" patterns of good *writing*
#4 while they didn't often choose this when young, they did take advantage of the extra time at bedtime with lights on if they were looking at books (:D

To find good books, I combed the 1000 Good Books lists, and the book lists by grade level by "living book" curriculum vendors such as Sonlight, Moving Beyond the Page, Build Your Library, et.al. And asked on these boards for ideas.

If concerned about your student's reading comprehension and growth in reading, perhaps consider mostly enjoying "real" books, but pick maybe 2-3 books each year to use something like a Memoria Press guide, or other "meaty" guide?? Or enjoy something unrelated to the Reading books, like Critical Thinking Press' Reading Detective series as a 10 minute logic activity 1-2x/week? 

Edited by Lori D.
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Agreeing that for 3rd grade reading and literature accomplish separate goals. Reading is a time to make sure phonics rules are firmly cemented in their minds and to practice fluency so they read out loud to me every day from something right at their reading level. Literature is a time to learn to enjoy wonderful stories so I read aloud to them books that are too challenging for them on their own and they read to themselves from a list of carefully chosen excellent books that are right at or just below their reading level. When they are done, they tell me what they liked and didn't like about the story, and I am easily able to judge their comprehension. We don't do lit guides before the end of 5th grade, and then just 1 or 2 per school year is plenty through middle school. The rest is just reading and talking about good books.

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1 hour ago, Momto5inIN said:

Agreeing that for 3rd grade reading and literature accomplish separate goals. Reading is a time to make sure phonics rules are firmly cemented in their minds and to practice fluency so they read out loud to me every day from something right at their reading level. Literature is a time to learn to enjoy wonderful stories so I read aloud to them books that are too challenging for them on their own and they read to themselves from a list of carefully chosen excellent books that are right at or just below their reading level. When they are done, they tell me what they liked and didn't like about the story, and I am easily able to judge their comprehension. We don't do lit guides before the end of 5th grade, and then just 1 or 2 per school year is plenty through middle school. The rest is just reading and talking about good books.

So what books have you chosen for them to read in third grade? I’m not doing literary analysis here either, but i also never know when a book is read aloud and when it should be saved for them to read when ready, 

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24 minutes ago, madteaparty said:

So what books have you chosen for them to read in third grade? I’m not doing literary analysis here either, but i also never know when a book is read aloud and when it should be saved for them to read when ready, 


Does that really matter?  I mean...I think I mean, if a book is read aloud to them well, and they enjoy it, then they're more likely to pick it up on their own later.  Right?  We've hunted down beautiful copies of books that started out being read to our kids, but then go on their bookshelves and I find them reading later on their own.  We also have books that are on the list every few years: Phantom Tollbooth is read aloud to early elementary, required reading for middle school, and referenced in high school.  Understood Betsy is read twice.  Shakespeare is read as stories, then they see the plays, then they memorize soliloquies and read scripts.

I think as long as a child finds enjoyment in it, they will return to the book again and again.  The Princess And The Goblin is a hard read for a 3rd grader, but I read it aloud last year and found my kid reading it on his own the other day.  He's able to use what he's learning in English to find literary devices like similes and metaphors and fill his vocabulary with rich, descriptive verbs as he reads on his own.  We can always analyze the text later, and I don't worry that he'll be very comfortable with the story by that point.

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Dd is a strong reader, so we didn't do any formal reading instruction in 3rd, aside from Wise Owl Polysyllables by Don Potter. Otherwise, we more or less followed the WTM and she read a bunch of Illustrated Classics, which she loved and read multiple times. And I read aloud to her.

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1 hour ago, madteaparty said:

So what books have you chosen for them to read in third grade? I’m not doing literary analysis here either, but i also never know when a book is read aloud and when it should be saved for them to read when ready, 

I didn't choose books for my children to read. I chose books for me to read aloud to them, but they were free to read whatever they wanted on their own. We went to the library weekly; dc checked out whatever they wanted, or nothing at all. All books were returned the next week whether they had been read or not--my only solution to avoiding overdue fines, lol.

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2 hours ago, madteaparty said:

So what books have you chosen for them to read in third grade? I’m not doing literary analysis here either, but i also never know when a book is read aloud and when it should be saved for them to read when ready, 

I have a list of books I really want to read aloud as a family bonding experience, so that's how I pick those. Things like Harry Potter and The Hobbit and Narnia that she couldn't read by herself but loves to listen to along with the rest if the family. For her on her own reading I require 30 minutes/day from a list of quality fiction and nonfiction that go along with our history and science studies. Some are picture books with a lot of text and some are short chapter books, and she can read them in any order she pleases. When the list is complete I let her read whatever she wants during her 30 minutes, which is usually fluff that I don't like, but by that time she's read a while lot of good stuff so I don't worry about it.

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For my 3rd grader, i have read or she listened to the following so far:

1. The land of stories (on last book)

2. Cricket in times square and a couple of sequences

3. Dc superhero girls

4.  around the world in 80 days

5. We just started thw wizards at once

6. Flashback 4 titanic and the abraham lincoln project

Hth

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1 hour ago, desertflower said:

For my 3rd grader, i have read or she listened to the following so far:

1. The land of stories (on last book)

2. Cricket in times square and a couple of sequences

3. Dc superhero girls

4.  around the world in 80 days

5. We just started thw wizards at once

6. Flashback 4 titanic and the abraham lincoln project

Hth

You are a better person than I am. 😁 My kid would have to read super hero novels on her own. I am not reading that stuff out loud.

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6 minutes ago, knitgrl said:

You are a better person than I am. 😁 My kid would have to read super hero novels on her own. I am not reading that stuff out loud.

I know what you mean.  i dreaded it at first, but the story books are not bad.  The one by Lisa Yee.  We started with wonder woman, then supergirl, then batgirl, then katana.  next up harley quinn. 😉  

Wonder woman was about how to be strong.  supergirl was an outcast and how she overcame that and her clumsiness.  batgirl wanted well, i forgot.  katana and batgirl were my favorites though.  the katana story pulled at my heart. 

she reads the comic books on her own.

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This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but my 3rd grader loves Mosdos Opal. The way we use it is he reads one of the stories in the text and then works on some of the activities and graphic organizers in the workbook. A lot of people seem to skip the workbook, but my son likes it.

I don't take it too seriously, but I know that he's getting exposed to a variety of wholesome stories from around the world.

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With my older kids, I used a reading program because I thought I needed it. Now, I don't use a literature/reading program with my third grader. She reads books, and I read books to her. These are books that she likes. She does have a book club that she attends at the library. But if they are covering a book in which she has no interest, we skip it.  

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Another thought - in 3rd, many of our books overlap into history.  So far this is our list for reading/literature:

He read:
-Charlotte's Web
-Ben & Me
-A Bear Called Paddington
-Felicity Learns a Lesson
-Pinocchio (a side by side read with me)
-The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

I read to him:
-Treasure Island
-Blood on The River, Jamestown 1607
-Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
-A Christmas Carol

Next semester we'll do:
-The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe (read aloud)
-The Borrowers (reader)
And I'm not sure what else, but probably another historical book, though he has two biographies he'll work through.
 

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1 hour ago, librarymama said:

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but my 3rd grader loves Mosdos Opal. The way we use it is he reads one of the stories in the text and then works on some of the activities and graphic organizers in the workbook. A lot of people seem to skip the workbook, but my son likes it.

I don't take it too seriously, but I know that he's getting exposed to a variety of wholesome stories from around the world.

My 3rd grader loves it too. So very much. She reads constantly on her own from different genres for her own enjoyment and we so read alouds as well. I like Mosdos to provide instruction in literary elements as it definitely has not only helped her to read more carefully and look for layers but her writing has improved with knowledge of these elements. For her it has been an ideal fit.

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My last 2- 3rd graders weren't the best readers at that age so their lit was a wide variety of read-alouds. 

My current 3rd grader is a pretty decent reader so she has readers and read-alouds. So, far this year I've just let her pick her readers from a shelf stocked by me. Right now she's reading Socks by Cleary, before that she read Half-Magic, Ella Enchanted, Double Fudge, and Ramona's World and I can't remember before that. 

For read-alouds we-ve done - Igraine the Brave, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and Fortunately the Milk. We will finish- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and The Moorchild by Christmas. 

I''ve not made my list for read-alouds or readers for next semester yet, I'll be directing her readers a bit more then.

 

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