Reply to Question from a teacher about your kids...

Forum Index » Tweens and Teens

Reply to "Question from a teacher about your kids... "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My 7th grader does not read for fun - he is dyslexic, but won’t even read audiobooks for fun unless there is literally nothing else to do - can’t swim, play ball, draw, or use a screen. He has found he falls asleep better if he reads before bed, so he often does, but only for 15 minutes or so.

He reads dystopia for fun - reading Gone now, loves Hunger Games and Divergent. He really liked Unbroken and The Hate U Give. He generally dislikes books suggested by librarians and teachers - not enough action and violence, too much text describing how people feel about each other. Whether teachers aren’t aware of new/popular YA lit and so don’t recommend it, or feel like kids must get their fill of it and so suggest something else I don’t know, but we have a really hard time finding books my son might actually want to read.

I’d suggest keeping your list very wide - The Hate U Give might qualify for your list, no? - and reminding kids that audiobooks are books, and that they might like them better than eye reading. [/quote]

That’s the thing, I have no “list.” It will be whatever the kids want. What I will do is provide suggestions if they are like “I don’t know any books about a social issue”  but I have no list they must choose from. I keep up with/read/purchase a lot of current YA and have those in my classroom library as options they can choose from. Some kids like YA and some don’t- the ones who don’t often see it as too juvenile. [/quote]

OP there are a lot of crossover books- I mentioned earlier that my DS is in MS. He reads everything from MS, to YA, to crossover adult fiction. The books are written at all levels - everything from literature to a th grade reading level with a more mature theme. 
I suggest that you provide a written list of options for students who want a list. My DS has ADHD and has a lot of trouble narrowing his choices, making decisions, etc. He is a student who benefits from some help and gentle direction. The other thing is *please* (unless it's an assigned book) don't make the kids take notes while they are reading-- DS has teachers who do this and destroys the flow and enjoyment of the book. Just completely ruins the experience. [/quote]

I know you’re being helpful but trust me, I know all this. This (literally) what I’m trained to do and have advanced degrees in. [/quote]

pp here- I know you do, but you would be surprised at the number of trained language arts teachers who assign a book and a pack of stickie notes to go with it-- along with the admonishment that they are not allowed to read past chapter six and must write a summary every few chapters. Seriously, it happens. It's especially hard on kids who already have trouble focusing and rely on "flow" to get into a book. [/quote]

Agree!  My kids are both dyslexic (although one is "stealth dyslexic" so she has gone undiagnosed for a long time and reads at a normal reading level).  For them, audio books help them comprehend so much better (especially the more severely dyslexic one, who can either decode or comprehend, but not both).  The annotation thing sucks!!!  They cannot focus on the book.  They are constantly distracted trying to make enough sticky notes to make the teacher happy.  What does this accomplish?  Also, trying to annotate with audit books is tough.  You can do it on Learning Ally, but my DD says you have to print the whole book to get the annotations.  I'm not sure what the annotations contribute to the process.  IT remedies me of when I was in college and people used highlighters and basically highlighted the whole text.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics