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How many literature books?
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I am just curious to know how many literature books you generally have your high school student read in a year? I’m not looking for how many pages (I know that books can vary widely), just how many books in a school year. Thanks.
My 10 th grade dd probably reads an average of 3 books per month over 10 months (including those books she reads for literature, history, and independent/free reading).
Thanks for your reply, but I am just looking for an idea of how many books for just literature (not including poetry or Shakespeare) the parents here are requiring their high schoolers to read in an average school year.
So, I guess for gcbsmommy’s dd, that would be one-half to one literature book per month, or 5-10 literature books per year, if I’m reading your post correctly.
Makayla isn’t high school until next year but I can share this year’s plan. she’s doing 2 lit books per month. That does not include history, free reading, our book club title, etc. Occasionally she may only read 1 per month if it’s especially long. Other times she chooses to add books in. For example she and I read The Giver to discuss last month and she went on to read the 3 subsequent books over a period of a week. So extra books and we DID discuss them. Right now she’s reading Watership Down for literature and we’ll discuss it when finished, but she has other books going just for fun that are not literature for school.
So I guess our plan is around 18 books (2 per month in 9 months).
I had my son read a literature book every 2 weeks when he was in high school. Sometimes if the book was longer, I gave him 3 weeks, so 15 to 20 books per year. (Especially the last 2 years). My 10th grader reads at least as much as her brother did, maybe more.
One per week for literature. She also reads one history or historical fiction book per week – but she is a fast reader. I will probably slow that down for my boys. I would love to see a High School Literature List if anyone has one?
My girls don’t finish nearly as many books as you all seem to do. Maybe they are really slow readers….I do know my dd13 reads a bit slower.
How long do you have your kids read their literature books per day? And do they read them every day?
One of my girls started Watership Down today. She only read for about 25 minutes, but she only finished the first three chapters during that time. At that rate, it will take her almost 3.5 weeks to finish it. It will probably take her longer because, in a couple of weeks, our Wednesdays will be taken up with fine arts school and Spanish lessons. I hadn’t planned to schedule literature on Wednesdays, just geography and math since we are gone for most of the day.
I set 30 minutes a day as the minimum. Often Makayla enjoys a book enough that she reads more than that. We have a daily quiet time in beds that is 1 1/2 hours long so that encourages reading more too. 🙂
While not officially a high schooler yet, I consider this a Highschool load. We have many fewer lit reads than those listed. Dd13 lit for the year:
– To Kill a Mockingbird
– The Crucible
– The Scarlet Letter
– The Iliad
– Pride and Prejudice
– A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
– Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
We only scheduled literature for 2 times per week for 30. The Iliad is one of those and the remainder of the list is the other. She would read assigned books much longer and more frequently if permitted, but for scheduled literature, I follow Charlotte’s recommendation of slow, savored reading. Dd13 has a long list of free read choices, but these are the only ones scheduled. Free reading and additional reading can be read at whatever pace she chooses, but scheduled lit is at the pace I dictate.
She has reading in us history, world history, and British history, govt, Econ, science (2 online courses), natural history, Bible and personal development.
Thanks, everyone (especially Christie for sharing her dd’s schedule). I think 30 minutes per reading session as a starting point is good. I have been having them read at least 4 days per week, so I don’t think they would get through more than 1 book per month, but of course, they have history reading and some other books to get through in the year as well.
I didn’t schedule how many books my son had to read in highschool. We had a literature list and he just moved through them during his reading time. I required an hour of reading every day.
I think reading for CM should be slower too. Of course they can read faster, but should they? I fall in Christie’s camp here now. You’ll see in my old posts I struggled with the amount too. Here is what my daughter has scheduled to read this year. She does read daily from Literature but we don’t time it.
- Beowulf
- Animal Farm
- Life of Fredrick Douglass
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- The Giver
- The Three Musketeers
- Bleak House
- Evageline
This list is ecclectic but we were shooting for a “classics” Literature focus this year since last year we did a course with short stories. I’m sure it will keep changing a little too. The Giver, for example, is silly to me because it’s not really her level but she wants to see the movie and doesn’t want to have not read the book first! lol. Truthfully, it’s an amazing book too so if she hadn’t read it she should have anyway.
I want HS Literature to be challenging and to include the act of analysis since that’s the skill that they will use in college Lit classes. Getting used to reading, enjoying and thinking on a deeper level about aspects of the piece but then being able to write that out in a well written essay. Those skills take time and my thought is the earlier you start the more gently you can go about it.
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