Evaluating Our 2010-2011 School Year Progress: Part 2 - Reading

Since we have about four months of our school year completed and a long break ahead of us, I thought this would be a good time to evaluate my children's progress in all of their subjects. To help me evaluate their progress, I am focusing on a few different questions as described in Evaluating Our 2010-2011 School Year Progress:  Part 1 - Math.

• Are we on track to finish the curriculum at the end of the 2010-2011 school year?
• Are my children doing well academically in the subject? Are they learning the material and making progress in accordance with their individual abilities?
• Are my children enjoying the subject? Now, schoolwork is not always fun but negative attitudes and discouragement on a child's part can mean that some changes are needed.
• Am I happy with how things are going in the subject?
• Are there any changes I would like to make?
• Are there any organizational or record-keeping tasks that need done related to the subject?

Going through this evaluation process is hard but will definitely set the stage for a successful and more organized homeschooling experience for the remainder of the 2010-2011 school year. To continue with my evaulation, I now turn my attention to Reading.

Are we on track to finish the curriculum at the end of the 2010-2011 school year?

Regarding my 8th grader, Amber, she has completed 7 lessons out of 34 in Skills for Literary Analysis.  My goal this year is to work through 18 lessons - the second half of the course will be completed during her 9th grade year.  I have been tweaking the reading list a bit to focus as much as possible on classic books, particularly those listed as the 100 Most Recommended Works in Reading Lists for College-Bound Students.  So far Amber has read the following books and short stories this year for her Literary Analysis course:

• The Call of the Wild by Jack London
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
• The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
• The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton
• Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson .

Amber will read the following books during the remainder of her 8th grade year:

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
• Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Antony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare
• Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

Amber is definitely on track to complete my reading goals for her this school year.

Regarding my boys (6th and 4th grade), they have been reading through the books on their independent reading lists.  Mason (6th grade) has read from his 6th grade independent reading list:

• The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
• The Red Pyramid - Rick Riordan
• Killer Pizza - Greg Taylor
• James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

Duncan has read from his 4th grade independent reading list:

• The Magic and the Mummy - Terry Deary
• A Place in the Sun by Jill Rubalcaba
• Mice of the Herring Bone by Tim Davis
• Mummies in the Morning by Mary Pope Osborne
• Usborne Beginners Egyptians
• Haiku On Your Shoe - Eileen M. Berry
• Looking For Home - Eileen M. Berry.

In addition to independent reading, my boys complete one lesson from FOCUS on Reading Comprehension each day.  Duncan has completed the following workbooks:

• FOCUS on Understanding Sequence Level C
• FOCUS on Comparing and Contrasting Level C.

Mason has completed the following workbooks:

• FOCUS on Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences Level D
• FOCUS on Understanding Main Idea and Details Level E
• FOCUS on Comparing and Contrasting Level E.

I am quite pleased with my boys' progress in both their independent reading lists and in their FOCUS on Reading Comprehension workbooks.  My main concern is that they are making steady progress and completing one lesson in their FOCUS on Reading Comprehension workbooks and completing their assigned independent reading each day.  We simply move to the next workbook in the FOCUS series when they complete one so I don't have a set deadline within which they must complete the series.  As well, if they don't read everything on their independent reading lists before the end of the school year, they can complete the reading over their summer break or the titles can be included in next year's independent reading list.

In addition to my boys' independent reading and FOCUS Reading Comprehension workbooks, I added a textbook reading curriculum to their daily schedule.  Since both of them struggle a bit with reading comprehension, I knew they would benefit from one-on-one instruction with me each day in reading.  After fretting and fretting about what to cover, what to include, and how to structure the one-on-one instruction, I decided to start using a reading curriculum that I used in the past and loved - Bob Jones Reading. 

To best meet my boys' needs, I decided to use Bob Jones Reading 5 with Mason and Bob Jones Reading 3 with Duncan.  Since they're used to seeing all sorts of different levels identified by numbers and letters on their curriculum, they never questioned their placement. 

So far, we've completed 19 out of 147 lessons in Bob Jones Reading 3 so we have 128 left to go.  Since we have 104 days of school left, 24 lessons will need to be completed over the summer.  We've completed 15 out of 144 lessons in Bob Jones Reading 5 so we have 129 lessons left to go.  Therefore 25 lessons will need to be completed over the summer.    

Are my children doing well academically in the subject? Are they learning the material and making progress in accordance with their individual abilities?

My boys are doing well in reading as evidenced by their performance on their workbook pages and their oral answers to reading comprehension questions during our one-on-one reading instruction.  Amber is doing well in reading based on our discussions about her reading and her performance on her literary analysis essays.

Are my children enjoying the subject? Now, schoolwork is not always fun but negative attitudes and discouragement on a child's part can mean that some changes are needed.

All of my children are enjoying their reading courses.  While Mason sometimes finds some of his Reading 5 workbook pages challenging, he completes them with a good attitude.  Mason also does much better with his independent reading comprehension when he can listen to the book on tape and read along with the book.  Therefore, whenever possible, I provide the book in audio format along with the written text. 

Am I happy with how things are going in the subject?

Since I added the Bob Jones Reading curriculum to Mason and Duncan's day, I am absoluteley thrilled with how things are going in reading for them.  I look forward to spending our one-on-one reading time together each day and have been enjoying the reading selections in the Bob Jones readers.  We've been having great discussions about the readings and larger issues like their faith in God.  I'm also happy I took the time to construct independent reading lists for the boys before our school year started.

I am particularly pleased, happy, and continually surprised by how much Amber enjoys reading classic books. She perseveres when reading a classic book is difficult and often has interesting and insightful comments about the book she is reading.


Are there any changes I would like to make?

The major changes I wanted to make have already been made when I added the Bob Jones Reading curriculum.  The only other change I would like to make involves encouraging my children to do more independent reading outside of school time.  Amber does tend to choose reading as an independent activity in her spare time but my boys rarely do so.  Given Mason and Amber's evening swim team schedule, they have little time left after swim team to watch TV or play video games.  I am seriously considering limiting media time during their evening free time, though to encourage more reading.
Are there any organizational or record-keeping tasks that need done related to the subject?

I need to finish writing out Amber's week-by-week assignment sheets in Reading/Literary Analysis for the year.  As well, I also want to prepare materials for Amber's reading/literary analysis course related to:

• Notebook pages about authors that she has read (Amber would complete the notebook pages)
• A list of literary terms from her curriculum  - I would like her to make a lapbook or notebook that includes all of the literary terms and definitions
• A matching game of authors and books - Amber is having some trouble remembering the authors that correspond with the classic books that she has read.

After taking a careful and thorough look at reading for all of my children, I now feel much better prepared to face the remainder of our school year in reading after break.  I feel organized, purposeful, and energized to make reading a primary focus in our homeschool.

Do you have any great ideas about how to encourage children to read more in their discretionary/free time?  

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