Please, please, PLEASE make sure the kids are reading each and every night at home for about a half hour. More than this, support them in making meaningful selections rather than randomly reading things from the shelf so they can say they "did" their reading. We're working to establish positive reading behaviors and attitudes every bit as we are to establish and stengthen skills and strategies.
We read in the classroom for about a half hour each day. At the end of this time I ask the kids to drop their books into their book bags so they can continue the book at home. You might keep an eye out for this. Honestly, at this point I suspect book choice is not an issue for the vast majority of the kids. They are doing a wonderful job of self-selecting books from their favorite genres, authors, and series and settling in for an incredibly engaged thirty minutes of joyful reading.
Reading will constitute the vast majority of homework this year in hopes the kids will go home and spend lots of time playing, relaxing, and bonding. I'm sure I've mentioned this before (maybe even last week???) but there is no research that demonstrates any benefits from homework assigned to elementary students. Many people will say it helps them learn to be responsible, provides home-school connections in regards to learning, and gives them extra practice. However, none of these prove to be significant provided a weekly packet or nightly worksheets. Rather, they teach kids to disengage and "get it over with."
From time to time, however, we'll have specific tasks that do need to be completed at home. These may come in the form of interviews, surveys, written conversations, etc. This week there will be one of these. It is listed below.
Tuesday: Read, Interview someone at home about their reading behaviors/practices using the questions you generated in class last week. This is due back on Thursday.
Wednesday: Monday: Read
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