Reading a Book a Week

This year fourth graders will be expected to read a book a week. The books the children choose will be based on two things: 1. Is it a fit book? One they can read well. 2. Is it within the genre we are reading? Students will then share their book in a discussion group each Tuesday. As a class we will decide what aspects of the story should be our focus.

We did a test run this week with The Cricket in Time Square. Students were to mark with post it notes when they read descriptive imagery, found an interesting vocabulary word, and when a character of their choice did something to influence or have an effect on the story. This book is typical of the size of book a student in fourth grade should be able to read in a week. Most fourth grade students can complete 180-240 pages in a week.

When the assignment was given, I encouraged the students to read 20 pages per night, and that it was really important not to save the whole thing for the night before the discussion because they wouldn't have time to process the author's work. As parents you can encourage your child to "chunk out" their assignments based on their after school and weekend schedule to help them achieve the goal of finishing the work in a timely manner. I know I feel embarrassed and awkward when I'm not prepared for a deadline, and my work isn't as good as it could be had I made a good plan for completing it.

All of the weekly homework is assigned in a way to make it easy to do a bit each night. This practice of doing something each night is a good one to get into for later grades when students have much more homework. When my own children were small, we had a homework time set aside. All of us would sit down for one hour and read, do our homework, write a story, or draw a picture. It was homework time whether our child was 6 or he was 14.

I encourage you to establish these great work habits for a successful school year.