Literature Quantity by Grade

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

As we wrap up our year, I’m beginning to look back & assess how things have gone. I’m pretty content overall, but one area in which I feel we struggle is literature. I feel as if we just don’t get through all that much.

This school year (3rd grade) I’ve read aloud 5 novels, DH has read aloud 5 novels, & we’ve listened to 4 as a family on audiobook. DS really only enjoys literature at bedtime & because we trade off (DH works 4 on / 4 off & reads on whichever nights he’s home) each novel takes quite a while to complete.

For history we’ve read half of HQ Middle Times, excerpts from Usborne Encyclopedias, DK The Elements, & a smattering of topical picture books. 

I feel like curriculum book lists are always a mile long. Is this a decent amount, or should I be pushing to include more?

At what point do you typically begin additional literature-related work beyond discussion such as writing assignments?

(FWIW, I feel like DS reads plenty - he’s read >50 novelettes, novellas, & novels this year.)

[keirin]

This year my 5th grade age twins read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and Tuck Everlasting. They also took a Poetry course at Lantern English, so I'll count that. I read aloud How To Eat Fried Worms, The Sign of the Beaver and The Mysterious Benedict Society. We also have a constant and revolving set of picture books and chapter books for science and history that they choose and read, but it would be harder for me to quantify those (our library checkout list up to this point in the year is about 100 books, but they pick and choose between the and don't read every one. I also BUY a lot of books.)

So... I'd say you're doing really well, and reading more than my family at least! 🙂 We do use audible a lot, too so they definitely are still hearing a lot of books. But this encourages me to get back into the habit of reading aloud more!

I'd also say that this next year going into 6th I'm leaning toward ramping up their assigned independent reading more by enrolling them in an online literature class that will have them reading a novel each month.

[PeterPan]

5 hours ago, Shoes+Ships+SealingWax said:

Is this a decent amount, or should I be pushing to include more?

Your amounts seem fine.

5 hours ago, Shoes+Ships+SealingWax said:

At what point do you typically begin additional literature-related work beyond discussion such as writing assignments?

Well if you look at lit guides for this age, they're usually focused on comprehension. Around 4th they bump up with some more interesting questions. Maybe pick 1-2 of your books to do with some guides, just orally. I find a really fun Hobbit guide around that age and we did things with the scripts, etc. Then around 5th-ish we did some Shakespeare guides while watching the plays, again all orally. Later we moved into response journals. I also had her doing book summaries, using forms from How to Report on Books, etc. through maybe 6th. 

So it's appropriate to begin to do some discussion/analysis this coming year, but it can be oral and doesn't need to be belabored or formal. You could make charts, compare/contrast, do paired fiction/non-fiction discussions, whatever floats your boat. It's also a nice age to use another resource (on literary techniques, propaganda, etc.) that then overflows into your discussions. 

I say all that as I'm skipping the assignments in our National Geographic Reach reading curriculum, hahaha. They're there but it's just not helpful to belabor things and kill the joy. Discussions at this point should *enhance* the reading because bright kids typically already have the basic comprehension. If you want bulk writing, it could be done for any subject and might ideally be done in what they enjoy more, which in my dd's case was history.

[Ellie]

Kudos for not saying "chapter books." 🙂