How "independent" a reader should he be?

[alabasterflask]

I'm looking for practical advice on my newly "independent" reader. My ds - 7.5 is really just getting motivated to read longer chapter books and I'm wondering if I should just let him go for it or keep a more watchful eye (or ear) on him.

 

I'm talking about his "fun" reading books - not not school work. My plan was to just let him read and only really ask him questions to show my interest but not really have him narrate at all but I'm worried that he's either skimming over unfamiliar vocabulary or possibly reading some of the more difficult words incorrectly.

 

He's not reading at a super high level - The Trumpet of the Swan is the highest he's done, but I don't want to abandon him to develop bad habits.

 

I guess the question is should I limit the time he reads alone to make sure he has a good balance of reading aloud to me and reading alone or just let him have at it? This is not a "content" issue at all - I'm very selective on that front.

 

What have some of you done?

[Catwoman]

My plan was to just let him read and only really ask him questions to show my interest but not really have him narrate at all

 

That's exactly what I would do. This is supposed to be "fun" reading, and if you start making it into "work," you could put a serious damper on your ds's interest in reading.

 

If he has too much trouble with the vocabulary in a certain book, you'll know soon enough, because he'll probably lose interest in it.

 

Cat

[Mandamom]

A couple of different thoughts.

 

1) Trumpet of the Swan is about the 4th to 5th grade reading level so it is pretty high considering his age.

 

2) What I did was have my ds read 1 literature book with me (we alternated reading so that we could work on comprehension, pronunciation and vocabulary) and at the same time he would be reading another book that he was required to narrate back to me. By working through these books (and the other reading he had in content subjects) we really made a lot of headway in improving his vocabulary and comprehension.

 

3) Ds was allowed to pick other books that he wanted to read (within my guidelines) and these books were ones I pretty much left alone. Ds did come to me frequently to ask how to pronounce words or what they meant and I happily answered them. So, these were not required to be narrated and I didn't really worry about how he read them because we were focusing our efforts on improving comprehension, vocabulary and pronunciation daily and we could only read so much together (given that there are 5 other kids).

 

That's how we did it.

[lotsofpumpkins]

I have my dd (age 7) read her Reading lessons aloud to me. When it comes to fun library books, she's totally on her own. I don't require her to read out loud. Sometimes she'll ask about words, but I suspect she's usually figuring out unknown words through context. I think that requiring her to read her fun books outloud would take all the fun out of it for her.

[dcjlkplus3]

If a book is for fun - it should be for fun.

I let my daughter read what she wants.

When the books are too hard, she loses interest in reading them - there is too much that she doesn't "get".

You are evaluating and working with him plenty I am sure in the content areas.

[alabasterflask]

A couple of different thoughts.

 

1) Trumpet of the Swan is about the 4th to 5th grade reading level so it is pretty high considering his age.

 

 

I blame SWB for that one - LOL - we had it on the shelf for later but when it came up in WWE he was determined.

 

Thank you all - I value your input.