Reading aloud dilemma
Feb 26, 2018 6:49:11 GMT 9
Post by Carrie on Feb 26, 2018 6:49:11 GMT 9
I have a dilemma with our read-aloud routine, so I thought I’d ask about it to get the collective wisdom of the forum.
My 7 year old is in first grade, and reads voraciously at a second grade level in both languages. I have a hard time keeping up with her ml reading, because I get her a new chapter book and she finishes it in one day. If I read aloud to her at a level that is above her own reading level (which seems to be much of the point of reading aloud), I have multiple challenges.
First, reading above her level is also slightly above my level. This would be fine, I can manage and usually understand everything by context, but it makes it very cumbersome to read aloud. I have a hard time explaining things and answering questions, even if I understand it myself, plus if we stop to look up several words per page, it becomes time-consuming and tedious.
Second, my five year old wants to listen with us, but it’s above him and he has lots of questions. Since I have a hard time answering them easily, it becomes a frustrating experience. It ends up being that none of us (myself included) really want to finish the book we’ve started. My 7 year old would rather read alone to herself, and my 5 year old wants to read books more at his level. I enjoy reading at his level (we just started a Magic Tree House book and it’s going great).
I can’t read to each one of my children individually every single day. What was an achievable 15 minute goal becomes a daily hour long goal, and often more if we’re in the middle of a chapter or book and someone wants to keep going. I can’t sustain that day-in and day-out. I have started a chapter book with my daughter, but each chapter takes 30-40 minutes to read, and by the end everyone is sort of ready to be done. Even when I do less than a chapter, it’s still sort of a burden to read. If I only do lower-level chapter books and picture books, my oldest usually chooses to read her own books rather than sit with us.
So what should I do? Would it be a huge missed opportunity to just work extra hard to provide books for my 7 year old to read to herself, and not worry about reading aloud to her? Of all my children her ml is the strongest. Plus, in many ways I have achieved my goal. Her native-level Spanish has surpassed mine!
Thanks for reading all this!
Carrie
My 7 year old is in first grade, and reads voraciously at a second grade level in both languages. I have a hard time keeping up with her ml reading, because I get her a new chapter book and she finishes it in one day. If I read aloud to her at a level that is above her own reading level (which seems to be much of the point of reading aloud), I have multiple challenges.
First, reading above her level is also slightly above my level. This would be fine, I can manage and usually understand everything by context, but it makes it very cumbersome to read aloud. I have a hard time explaining things and answering questions, even if I understand it myself, plus if we stop to look up several words per page, it becomes time-consuming and tedious.
Second, my five year old wants to listen with us, but it’s above him and he has lots of questions. Since I have a hard time answering them easily, it becomes a frustrating experience. It ends up being that none of us (myself included) really want to finish the book we’ve started. My 7 year old would rather read alone to herself, and my 5 year old wants to read books more at his level. I enjoy reading at his level (we just started a Magic Tree House book and it’s going great).
I can’t read to each one of my children individually every single day. What was an achievable 15 minute goal becomes a daily hour long goal, and often more if we’re in the middle of a chapter or book and someone wants to keep going. I can’t sustain that day-in and day-out. I have started a chapter book with my daughter, but each chapter takes 30-40 minutes to read, and by the end everyone is sort of ready to be done. Even when I do less than a chapter, it’s still sort of a burden to read. If I only do lower-level chapter books and picture books, my oldest usually chooses to read her own books rather than sit with us.
So what should I do? Would it be a huge missed opportunity to just work extra hard to provide books for my 7 year old to read to herself, and not worry about reading aloud to her? Of all my children her ml is the strongest. Plus, in many ways I have achieved my goal. Her native-level Spanish has surpassed mine!
Thanks for reading all this!
Carrie