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Planning Literature
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I’ve been working on setting up my plans for DD(7) and DS(5). I think I have most subjects under control, but I have been wondering how to approach literature. So far I’ve just done read aloud literature books with DD, and then let her choose books to read on her own. She reads quite a bit and very quickly. Last year I read all her ‘school books’ aloud so we could work on learning to narrate. Now I want to transition her to do some of her school books independently, so I want to have her narrate at least some of the time so that I know she isn’t just flying through the books (which she has a tendency to do). I think literature will be a good place to start, because it’s more familiar than subjects like history and science. Narrating every day, though, just seems to turn the reading into a chore, rather than something to enjoy. In history or science the narration seems to flow more logically, as there is new information to learn and process, but with fiction it feels like it just interrupts the story. Does that make sense?
My son(5) also loves books and reads quite fluently, but doesn’t have the attention span when it comes to listening. He likes to be read to, but not for as long as DD. So I think it makes sense to have each child on their own book. I won’t be having him narrate yet, but do want to have a plan of what I’ll be reading to him. We also do family bedtime read alouds, which I let my children choose, but DS often decides to just go to bed and read his own book while I read to DD.
So, how do you determine which books you assign as ‘literature’ and which you assign as ‘free reading’? Do you require narration on the ‘literature’ books? If so, do you have the children narrate every chapter? Do you typically do these as family read alouds or have each child read their own literature? Do you assign specific free reading books in specific time frames or just have the options available and expect some reading each day? Or not assign anything other than ‘literature’.
I left literature to last in my planning, because I thought it would be the easiest, but now I’ve come up with all these questions. There’s always something new to ponder!
Joanne
I’m still working through how to approach this myself, as my dd has only just recently gotten to the point where she reads well enough to assign her books to read on her own (she’s 6.5). But this is what we’re doing:
– Assigned reading for dd: Right now the only ‘assigned’ reading she has is from the Christian Liberty Nature Reader, which she is ‘assigned’ to read from 3x per week. She reads a section from it, and then comes to tell me about it. (So, tell me a couple of interesting things you learned about (whatever creature) today?) It’s fairly simple/straightforward though and doesn’t feel like a chore. Next school year, I’m planning to choose a few books on her level that correspond to our history studies for her to read as assigned reading as well. I’m envisioning that she’ll be assigned one ‘chapter’ each day – either from a history or nature/science book, and I will expect narrations from these. Later on, we may add in assigned ‘literature’ too, but I don’t want to overwhelm her with too much at once, so I don’t see that happening until another year or 2 down the road. We’ll see how we go.
-Free Reading – this is her choice among books on her level that I have approved. We are overseas so don’t have English library access, so I purchased a bunch of books on her reading level at the start of the year and dole them out gradually so she doesn’t read them all at once (cuz once they’re done they’re done until grandma sends us more, or I place my next order for school stuff!) I don’t ask for narrations on these per se, but I do occasionally ask her what she’s reading, if she liked it, why, etc. But very casually.
– Our main “literature” is still our family read alouds in the evening, which the kids (the 6.5 and 4 yos – the 2yo goes to bed right after our Bible reading) take turns picking from a list I compiled at the beginning of the year. We don’t narrate these really, although sometimes discuss interesting points that come up.
Hope that helps!
Jen
I usually keep my literature books to read to both of my chuildren at the same time because mine are close in age like yours are, but older. Then my oldest has leisure reading also. I do ask him to narrate his leisure to make sure he is taking in the story properly. So with Caddie Woodlawn which he is reading right now at night, in the morning or when I schedule that he is done his chapter on the SCM scheduler I will say “So what’s happening in your book right now”? He then will tell me because he knows I am excited to hear what is going on. His detail tells me he is comprehending. We have been narrating longer than your children so it is easier for him. Over time once narrations becomes easier you will not find it a chore but a wonderful way to know they have a habit of attention and the ability to gather the information. So I encourage you to keep going. It will get easier. I still only narrate some things. I plan to keep increasing though as my children get older and that is because they are becoming capable of narrating more.
As for literature I find a good literature read that both of my children both enjoy hearing me read to them. I still read that one out loud. I don’t tend to actually narrate these ones though. I usually just ask them the next time we read “So what happened in the last chapter we read yesterday”? Then I read the new chapter. I narrate like you more of their history, bible, and science. It is things like their composer book or hymn story book I am reading I will just ask what happened the previous time. As they get older I am sure I will have them narrate those too and then to repeat again the next time but it is be built up slowly. It is definitely a process. But I am excited that I have been teaching them narration. I don’t know if this is the proper way but it is working for me for now.
Kim.
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