Reading

I’m glad so many of you were able to download my Temperaments eBook! I hope you’ll keep coming back to read my posts!

This morning I started reading the book that I’m going to read with my class as a reader.

Ronia the Robber’s Daughter is written by Astrid Lindgren, the author who wrote Pippi Longstocking. I’m hoping my students like it. I think carefully before choosing a reader for them. I want them to like the books I choose so that they’ll take my advice on reading material in the future. This book came highly recommended by the teachers at Rudolf Steiner College over the summer and I’ve enjoyed the first few chapters. Hopefully my students will too.

In the fall we read The Iron Ring by Lloyd Alexander, a book I was just sure they were going to love. It proved to be a bit challenging for them and some of my more advanced readers weren’t thrilled with it. It was also, though, their first ever assigned book. They read it as homework outside of school (which may have contributed to their dissatisfaction.) I still think this is a great book to read with fifth graders, though, particularly during the India block. I just love Lloyd Alexander.

I really love reading books together with my students. It’s fun to be immersed together in another world. The homework that I give the students every week includes a section with questions about what we’re reading. I’m actually quite satisfied with the homework template that I’ve come up with. Here’s a sample, if you’re interested.

Homework October 25

This sample is from when we were in our North American Geography block. The third page has study questions from our reading of The Iron Ring. I create the questions myself after reading the section for that week.

Also, the four boxes on the front contain math problems that I write in by hand. Fractions problems just don’t write up very well on the computer.

Now that I’ve created this template it is not very time-consuming each week to fill in with new questions. It’s such a solid part of our rhythm, and establishing a healthy, rhythmical homework habit was my main reason for assigning homework this year. Next year homework will take on greater purpose. I’ve received lots of positive feedback from both parents and students. They actually like their homework!