blendergal Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 Straightforward question: Are students expected to read the MP lit guide books independently? My 3rd grader is making slow, steady progress, but I know he’s a below-average (cringe!) reader. Still, the MP lit guide titles seem advanced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 (edited) My dd is in 5th grade with MP. We have always done the literature together. She was a late reader but now loves to read and reads several hours each day. We have done it all. I have read to her, she has read to me, and we have taken turns. We have always done the lit guides orally. There have been times I have also had her write her own answers after we discussed orally and other times she has copied from the teacher’s manual just to practice writing good sentences with complete answers. The current book we are working on I don’t even have a student book so we are doing it all orally. We have really enjoyed the MP lit courses no matter how we have approached them. What we haven’t done is just have dd read independently and fill out the student guide herself. I love the MP curriculum but it is very teacher intensive the way we do it. I think it would have been a bust if I expected dd to do it independently. I know some people do use it that way, though. Edited January 27, 2019 by teachermom2834 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carriede Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 Would using some choices from the 2nd grade list make more sense for your son? You can certainly buddy read together. Or break it down into smaller chunks for a slower pace. Thr "right way" is the way that facilitates learning. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmseB Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 The short answer to your question is no, they are not. The longer answer is that as scheduled in MP's lesson plans in 3rd grade the student reads the chapter aloud. But in a homeschool setting this is going to be a little taxing for a lone student to do all by themselves, so taking turns with mom or dad usually works out better. Keep in mind that the lit guides were initially developed for a classroom setting, so a lot of kids would take turns reading aloud, plus they would all collaborate on writing answers to the questions and the teacher might pick one or two questions to do really thoroughly and write up on the board for the kids to copy, etc. So, as carriede and teachermom said, do what you need to do for your student to learn well. 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendyroo Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 Those books seem to span quite a range of reading levels. Charlotte's Web and A Bear Called Paddington are quite easy - all of my boys read them in first or second grade. Actually, my third son, an advanced K'er, is independently reading Charlotte's Web right now, and his narrations show me that his comprehension is very good. OTOH, my oldest son balked at reading Farmer Boy independently this year in 4th. It was just too long, too unfamiliar, and not interesting enough for him. Mr. Popper's Penguins, is somewhere in between, and seems just right for third grade. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blendergal Posted January 27, 2019 Author Share Posted January 27, 2019 We are coming from public school, so I tend to think in terms of Guided Reading Level, where 3rd graders are expected to read at level P by the end of the year. My son is reading level N books comfortably. Charlotte’s Web is an R. Mr. Popper’s Penguins and Farmer Boy are Q. Paddington is a T. Actually, Little House in the Big Woods (one of the 2nd grade titles) is also a Q. I know these leveling systems are imperfect. I’m just trying to explain why I thought they seemed advanced. I haven’t sat down with the books to see how much of a “stretch” each of them would be. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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