All About Reading Levels 3 & 4 for a 4th Grader

[Ting Tang]

My son completed level 2 AAR this year. It was a bit on the easier end of the spectrum for him, but some of it was challenging.  I plan to have him complete levels 3 and 4 this next school year.  I think he can do that.  He will have penmanship and spelling.  But I really don't have much in the way of grammar and writing for him. He will join his sister for Memoria Press 2nd grade enrichment, which has read alouds and discussion/vocab/etc.

I know he can get a little in various places in his curriculum--his spelling curriculum will have sentence writing, for example.  

Please tell me this is okay if he is still solidifying his reading skills.  He will be 9 in July and is a rising 4th grader.  I did feel like he should start to work on writing, but I feel like maybe we should finish AAR first.

Hold my hand.  LOL  

 

[PeterPan]

13 hours ago, Ting Tang said:

My son completed level 2 AAR this year. It was a bit on the easier end of the spectrum for him, but some of it was challenging.  I plan to have him complete levels 3 and 4 this next school year.  I think he can do that. 

Sounds like a fabulous plan!

 

14 hours ago, Ting Tang said:

Please tell me this is okay if he is still solidifying his reading skills.  He will be 9 in July and is a rising 4th grader.  I did feel like he should start to work on writing, but I feel like maybe we should finish AAR first.

Are you doing any narration? Narration work would be enough for this stage. I agree that spending that time on reading and reading comprehension is more important than doing formal writing projects. Narrations done consistently will be plenty. He can narrate what he's reading, narrate about what you read to him, narrate his science, whatever. These are basically oral compositions. How are narrations going? If you read science to him or he watches a science video, can he talk about the three most important things from the reading? If it's fiction, can he narrate the jist of the story he read or listened to?

What is your dd doing for grammar this coming year? Could he just join in with that? A program like IEW is highly structured and could work well for him, but it assumes some basic grammar exposure to understand what adverbs are, etc. Whatever his sister is doing might be plenty. They could do FLL ½ orally together, do Shurley 3 and split the difference, whatever you want. He just needs to have some basic knowledge of what an adverb is, what a noun is, etc. along with basic editing skills. 

Sounds like you're doing a great job! 🙂

[Ting Tang]

9 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Sounds like a fabulous plan!

 

Are you doing any narration? Narration work would be enough for this stage. I agree that spending that time on reading and reading comprehension is more important than doing formal writing projects. Narrations done consistently will be plenty. He can narrate what he's reading, narrate about what you read to him, narrate his science, whatever. These are basically oral compositions. How are narrations going? If you read science to him or he watches a science video, can he talk about the three most important things from the reading? If it's fiction, can he narrate the jist of the story he read or listened to?

What is your dd doing for grammar this coming year? Could he just join in with that? A program like IEW is highly structured and could work well for him, but it assumes some basic grammar exposure to understand what adverbs are, etc. Whatever his sister is doing might be plenty. They could do FLL ½ orally together, do Shurley 3 and split the difference, whatever you want. He just needs to have some basic knowledge of what an adverb is, what a noun is, etc. along with basic editing skills. 

Sounds like you're doing a great job! 🙂

Thank you so much!  His comprehension is improving.  And I plan to have him do more narration next year, using the MP enrichment for 2nd grade.  As for grammar, my daughter will be using Memoria Press. It is my understanding in 2nd grade, it is incorporated into the recitation, and then there is an English Grammar Practice book that is intended to be done as board work. It has editing built in.  🙂  I feel so much better! Thank you again.