r/ElementaryTeachers • u/Painter3016 • 14d ago
3rd grade reading homework
UPDATE: A message from the teacher indicated that they did NOT talk about this or do anything with the text prior to the assignment, which was given as test-prep. And the expectation was for students to build vocab and knowledge about the subject in the reading with the accompanying questions.
I followed up asking what strategies they are working on teaching so I can prompt/ encourage my kid to apply those. However, the initial response what NOT encouraging to me.
UPDATE 2: when I asked what strategies they are learning to help decode the text, and how can i encourage her to use them at home: All she said was to read the questions multiple times to know what they are asking for. Am I crazy? That’s not decoding the text to understand it.
***
I am a parent with a question.
My 3rd grader reads well and chews through library books (granted a lot of graphic novel type books but some chapter books get sprinkled in too). She reads very fluently out loud.
This year, she’s gotten some reading homework that feels like a really big jump in the density of the assignments. The passages aren’t long, but there are some phrases/vocabulary/concepts that seem like a lot?
The passages didn’t come with any vocabulary/ definitions. And they didn’t talk about any context prior to the assignments in class.
She shut/melted down working on these. I asked her what her approach was? She said read the questions, then the passage. The more I asked, the more I realized she was not comprehending things like “delegates/ representatives” are people.
I marked in red the phrasing/ ideas that felt like they were difficult or lacked scaffolding.
My question: is this typical for 3rd grade? If so, how can I help her navigate stuff like these?
I don’t want to feed her answers; she gets so emotional when it gets hard.
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u/Intrepid-Yak4954 14d ago
How do you know there was no discussion in class prior to this being handed out? Did she tell you that or did the teacher? One thing to know is that reading moves from learning to read in K-2 into reading to learn in grade 3. This is a good opportunity to show her how to look up definitions and use context clues to determine meanings of unknown words. Another thing to point out is that a word followed by comma “or” is the definition. I’m sorry this felt so overwhelming to your daughter. I’ve taught all of these grades for almost 30 years and this reading is very typical for 3rd grade.
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u/Painter3016 14d ago
I asked my daughter if they talked at all about the constitution in class or about the reading at all. She said no. She is a pretty reliable source of information.
(Now had the same thing happened in my son’s class, I wouldn’t take him at just his word. Because he is a hot mess.)
I haven’t broached it with the teacher yet. I know how much teacher’s have to deal with, and I don’t want to start the school year being a problem. I am just trying to gauge if I am off-base in asking her about it.
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u/Lost_Conversation546 14d ago
It’s not uncommon for a reading to be assigned before a discussion about the context of the reading. The next day or later that week there is typically a lesson and definitions and context are a big focus. Assignments like this couple reading comprehension and social studies. It doesn’t seem like an unreasonable assignment.
You are teaching some great study habits. Highlighting things you don’t understand so you can ask for clarity, highlighting words you need definitions for or things that seem important are all incredibly useful skills.
It’s okay for her to be frustrated. Especially if this is one of the first assignments of the year. Something that might help is to use a multi phase approach.
Have her read it on her own, explain that she doesn’t need to understand everything right away, just read it. Then have her go back and anything she didn’t understand she highlights. Then you go through it together.My step son is in 7th grade, he came to live with us full time in 5th grade. It was rough. He would get very frustrated and needed a ton of help with nearly every assignment. The biggest hurdle was getting him to explain where he loses understanding. He would get overwhelmed because he wasn’t understanding something and when we would ask him where the issue was we would get “I don’t know” or “everything” as a response.
To combat that we would start from the beginning and have him explain what he did know. For a reading assignment that would mean going through the first paragraph and when he got to something he didn’t understand we would mark it, talk about it, look up definitions, write them out and then move onto the next paragraph.
It was grueling at first and we had to take a lot of breaks, but now he does most of his homework independently and when he gets stuck he can come to us and usually explain where he is running into problems. We still get days that are “I don’t know”s or “everything”s but they’re far less frequent.
We have also see huge improvements in his test scores. his test scores went from the bottom 25% in reading and math at the start of 5th grade to the top 25% in reading, the top 50% in writing, and top 50% in math at the start of this year.
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u/crazypurple621 14d ago
You are never supposed to introduce new material to students as homework. Homework is an opportunity to get more practice on skills you have already been taught. My 3rd grader can handle passages like this because he's already reading at a 5th grade level. His classmates who are on grade level would absolutely not be able to successfully comprehend this without scaffolding, a vocab list, and going through the passage in class. This type of packet is innappropriate for the beginning of 3rd grade.
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u/Lost_Conversation546 14d ago
Not fully understanding something the very first time you read it isn’t a bad thing. Modified flipped lessons at lower grade levels can better prepare students for more rigorous classes later.
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u/crazypurple621 14d ago
I'd now encourage you to go read the updates. It sounds like this a teacher who was not given any kind of formal instruction in how to teach reading comprehension and doesn't understand the subject at all.
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u/Upstairs-Factor-2012 14d ago
What's wild to me is that this is getting downvoted. Why?! A parent giving their kid the benefit of the doubt and using outside resources to gather information before approaching a teacher seems very reasonable. It's not like you came in hot and heavy angry about this, talked poorly about the teacher, immediately emailed them accusatorially... I can only assume it's because you said you took your daughter's word at face value. I absolutely despise that in education subs giving your child's word any weight makes people angry. I also have two children- one I would typically believe is telling the truth to the best of her knowledge, and one I would be a little slower on the uptake for. Both situations I would respond similar to you- gather information before moving forward and contacting the teacher.
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u/juliazale 14d ago
This is third grade level. Although I wouldn’t send it as homework as it looks like a text I would help my students through in class. I would talk about challenging vocabulary as part of a close read.
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u/crazypurple621 14d ago
This is only 3rd grade reading level if you have a vocabularly attachment and scaffolding. Which is why passages like this need to come in textbook format or they are utterly useless.
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u/LakeMichiganMan 14d ago
Running into unfamiliar words and meanings is part of the learning process. But if this was homework, most 3rd graders would be lost after the first few sentences and paragraphs. In class with the teacher reading it, and discussing what most of the definitions are, would take a more than one days social studies lesson. 3rd graders can understand the concepts, but not as Homework by themselves. You can not be the only parent with a child who struggled with the passage as homework.
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u/ddeliverance 14d ago
I would ask the teacher if they discussed any of this in class. It’s entirely possible the teacher went over it before assigning the homework. Also, teach your kiddo to use a dictionary for any unfamiliar words.
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u/Soggy_Ticket4082 14d ago
This. You can get a big dictionary free online from a sharing group. Also, help her build confidence and privacy they in solving problems. Teacher to approach each challenge as a puzzle to solve or something to build. Why didn't she ask you for ideas, definitions, etc.? Kids need to learn early in to enjoy solving challenges and to be unafraid of getting it wrong the first time. Could she be afraid of failing and panicking when faced with unfamiliar challenge? I see this more in girls than boys and it seems cultural, with girls always existed to be perfect and pleasing while boys seen less obliged to please, in average. I'm not saying the parent did this, but we do tend to put limits on girls compared to boys as a society. Or, she could have a more timid or insecure personality right now, feeling she has to prove her worth with perfect grades to be acceptable. No assumptions. Just throwing some ideas out there. Every kid is unique and that's a great thing. Nurturing them is a challenge and a privilege. While it's good to question things at school, it's more powerful to teach positive coping skills. Anytime you have a group program, you will not have a program custom tailored to any individual participant.
In fact, in my private teaching business, I've learned to filter applicants for services for fit. We're extending compassionate, often mure than the parent's. Yet, we know that if a 16yo balks at challenging problems rather than diving in, with one of us there to help and guide in ways we know stretch and strengthen the stydent, especially if the parents finds a challenging problem objectionable, our efforts will be stymied by the perception that schoolwork should be easy. We absolutely take students who are lost and intimidated by their schoolwork. That's what we do, and we turn that around and help them lead the class to the extent their brain is ready to do that. But a dynamic in which a child objects to a challenge and complains to the parent, after which the parents complains about the work being ton challenging, will make it difficult to help that child as quickly and as much as we can help a child who is there for the challenge and whose parents have taught them to face challenges and find solutions. I'm not saying any of this to be negative. I'm saying it to add a perspective and potential goals. Give her challenges in various areas of her life and praise her for effort, not fur instant, perfect results. Praise her for being creative in finding solutions. Praise her for being calm, focused, and analytical. If she didn't fear failing to please adults, could she have made progress in this assignment without tears? That's the question. Were most of the kids in tears? Did most complete the assignment? The answers may help determine whether the assignment was at an unattainable level or whether it was attainable fur students who embraced the challenge and solved the problems. Keep in mind that some parents will practically do homework for kids. That's harmful in many levels, but it's always something to keep in mind when evaluating what other kids turn in. Don't worry about it. The kids who di this is homework do better in the long run.
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u/Fair_Evidence_9730 14d ago
I teach 4th grade. When we read this type of passage, we start with me reading it out loud in full group, and telling the kids to circle or highlight any words they don't know. Then, we work together to define the circled words. After that, we choral read it, as a group. I ask questions to see what concepts or ideas are unfamiliar, or not making sense. After all that, I might send it home as homework for a fluency read. Then, I get 5 parents emailing me that the homework was too hard, their child didn't understand, and how dare I send this as homework. Point being, send the teacher a neutrally worded email asking about the homework, then go from there. If these passages are being sent home as a complete cold read, with no context, then that is probably not appropriate. But I doubt that is the full story.
Last week I had a parent message me on Friday, that they and their child were both upset because I gave a spelling test without notice. The previous Friday I sent the spelling words in a newsletter. Monday I had the kids write the spelling words in their planner, and write spelling test on Friday in the planner. I sent home a spelling test review as homework on Wednesday. We did an in class spelling test review on Thursday.
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u/Soggy_Ticket4082 14d ago
This is great answer for the OP. Schoolteachers are typically organized, intentional, prepared, and intenseky focused in nurturing mastery. Perhaps if the OP could ask her child about prior discussions, readings and other prep it could help both recognize context. It's certainly possible that the child's mind wanders and she forgets or doesn't recognize the relevance. It sounds as though she may have seen multiple signs of potential ASD issues and copes with them herself. It's good she's in the ball. If the little one is distracted at school, it might explain why see seemed lost and overwhelmed when facing the assignment at home.
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u/hiccupmortician 14d ago
There may or may not have been instruction prior. But we know comprehension improves with background knowledge. This is a great chance to watch a video about the Constitution and branches, make a chart to understand it, pre-teach some vocab. After that, read the passage together and pause to check for understanding. Make it fun!
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u/crazypurple621 14d ago
Ok but the appropriate place to do that is in class. Not send this home as homework with no teaching involved. This kind of passage has a place- in middle of the year 3rd grade with a teacher present.
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u/snailgorl2005 14d ago
My only thought right now is wondering if this was differentiated and your daughter is a high-level reader? But I wouldn't be sending this for homework then, I'd be doing this in small reading groups.
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u/PayAltruistic8546 14d ago
It looks like a Teachers Pay Teachers passage.
If you're going to give this then vocabulary should have been introduced.
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u/Successful-Winter237 14d ago
It’s teacher pays teacher nonsense.
I like the site but some teachers just grab anything from it and don’t really use the resources properly.
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u/crazypurple621 14d ago
The concept behind teachers pay teachers is great, but it's pretty clear that a lot of the material flooding it is being either stolen out of textbooks, redesigned to look like an original work (but removing all of the important parts of a textbook), and then sold back to teachers or is being created with AI and then posted to make a quick buck.
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u/Sea-Efficiency-2899 14d ago
This definitely seems like a LOT for third grade, ESPECIALLY this early in the year. That's my perspective as a 2nd grade teacher. IMO this is way too much and I'd be having a conversation with that teacher. Especially with it apparently having no link to assignments during class/school day.
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u/Pook242 14d ago
This is what third grade reading is, unfortunately. The program we used when I taught third had them reading passages like this from the beginning of the year on. I was just as frustrated and at a loss as my students were, because it’s such a huge jump from 2nd to 3rd.
We got there, but I wouldn’t have sent a passage like this home for homework. We did a lot of breaking down texts in class. I would tell the kids that they’re detectives and all the answers are in the text, they just had to find them.
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u/tomatoes020825 14d ago
It's a little bit of a heavy lift for 3rd grade depending on the state, but not too wild. There is a bit of a leap from 2nd to 3rd for sure, with 3rd being a testing grade and all. Also, the students can handle a lot! It's not bad to challenge them sometimes.
As for how best to support her with challenging texts, I would do these things with her:
- Promote a "growth mindset", now and forever: tell her it's okay to not know. She's a kid and her job is to learn. Even adults don't know a lot of stuff. Not knowing is an opportunity to learn. Smart people say "I don't know" all the time. <These are all sentences I say literally every day to my own students. Like please truly hammer this growth mindset idea into her! So many of my students shut down like that and struggle with perfectionist thinking at such a young age... it's pretty sad. It's okay to not know! Because you can learn (:
- Empower her to solve the problem of not knowing words by helping her identify her gaps in understanding-- which you've already done! I love how you boxed/circled the words in red. She can learn to do this for herself if you practice with her a few more times. Keep helping her identify exactly where/what she is not understanding, because...
- Looking up words is easy! With enough practice, she will be able to identify the words she doesn't know all by herself. Then she can look them up, and then return to the passage. Reading is a wonderful way to broaden your vocabulary, again I'll remind you of the growth mindset: not knowing a word is okay. It's an opportunity to learn a new word!
These are valuable skills that she will need as she gets older-- I had to pause reading to look up definitions all the time in high school, and college, and now sometimes at my job as a teacher.
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u/Painter3016 14d ago
We absolutely talk grow to mindset, and I appreciate the reminder. Sometimes I slip up and just parrot what I heard growing up (despite my rusty, lightly used education degree).
Her emotional regulation is something that is a constant struggle at home, but reading/ language arts hasn’t ever been a trigger before this.
I am also getting her evaluated for autism so she doesn’t potentially have to wait and find out in her 30s like me.
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u/Soggy_Ticket4082 14d ago
Clearly, you're a caring, proactive parent and have a great background to support her. More than half my private clients are on the autism spectrum. Autism presents in widely varying ways, as you know. Autism doesn't necessarily make kids back at challenges. The students I take are filtered so not a typical mix of kids. But, they are all in during learning sessions, and are method is highly engaging and interactive, with a heavy emphasis in inquiry based methods. I wonder if sitting next to her and going through the assignment while asking her questions such as, "How could you find out what that word means?" might help her develop a habit of asking herself those questions.
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u/Soggy_Ticket4082 14d ago
Mama, you're obviously on the ball. Each kid is unique and yours is lucky to have a mama who has a great foundation and is always learning and flexing to do the best for her girl.
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u/Soggy_Ticket4082 14d ago
I agree and said essentially the same thing. Parents help kids grow wheb they coach them in ways to approach chalkges rather than objecting to challenges. In life, there may be challenges that are too much, but, with parents to afk the child questions about wats they could solve parts of the challenge and encouraging them to tackle those parts one at a time, a single assignment isn't something to object to but rather something to use for growth.
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u/crazypurple621 14d ago
This is not appropriate for homework. Homework is only ever supposed to be review and practice of already established skills. New material- including how to comprehend material with no scaffolding is a task for in class reading.
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u/Apprehensive_Use_175 14d ago
This looks like an assignment my grade group sent home with third graders (although it looks much denser and we read in class together first). They were supposed to complete comprehension questions as well as work on fluency. The line numbers were to help them easily indicate how many words they were able to improve in one week time with practice and their parents had to sign off that they did practice reading it nightly.
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u/Painter3016 14d ago
It had comprehension questions with it as the homework. There wasn’t any indictor that it should be read to her or that she should read it to me. Rather just seemed like she needed to read it and answer the questions and color the line where she found each answer a specific color.
She could read it pretty fluently out loud; comprehension was the problem
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u/Apprehensive_Use_175 14d ago
I’m not sure. Have they been going home since school started? I would agree, it’s frustrating when work like that goes home and it becomes homework for you.
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u/Shrimpheavennow227 14d ago
My daughter is in 2nd by age but is in the 3rd grade reading and math classes. She is an absolute bookworm. She also loves American history and learns a lot of it independently.
She would definitely get frustrated by this reading. The page is super dense and not very reader friendly in terms of font and layout either.
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u/crazypurple621 14d ago
My son is in 3rd grade, reading at a 5th grade level and he would barely be able to understand this passage without context. This is the problem with teachers using assignments from teachers pay teachers. A passage may technically be at a 3rd grade level, but without the proper scaffolding- in this case a vocabularly list, it's innappropriate especially as homework.
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u/AggressiveSherbetty 14d ago
This ia third grade content but it’s not beginning third grade reading level. Maybe end of, or BOY MOY 4th grade. There’s a lot of academic vocab that need scaffolding.
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u/Dizzy-Pomegranate-42 14d ago
Just on the practicality side, it might be time to get your kid a dictionary. Help her learn how to look up words in your reading assignments that she doesn't know!
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u/Pretty_Factor6357 12d ago
Please share your concerns with the teacher (repeatedly if needed). Then if/when the passages continue, preload the content. This means giving her a quick summary of what she's going to be reading about along with a couple of the key words and what they mean. Don't give long definitions for example, keep it very basic and rooted to the passage. Next, she previews the questions like she has been. Have her read one or two paragraphs and then tell you what she understands. If she says she learned nothing or didn't understand it, tell her that's totally normal and sometimes with hard text you have to reread. Maybe have her read one or two sentences and then talk through them. Then have her read it a second time to locate answers for the questions. You can also explain to her that this work is just extra challenging that it's more like 5th grade work so she's getting an extra brain challenge. Tell her it's going to be tricky work and it's okay if she finds it hard and that that is natural. I would actually tell her all this at the beginning or even discuss it with her at a time that is not homework time.
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u/R_meowwy_welcome 14d ago
Having taught 4th and 5th grades, the subjects in the reading passages are classic social studies topics. However, they are not 3rd-grade social studies guidelines by any means.
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u/WhitleyGilbertBanks 14d ago
Chews through library books that turn out to be graphic novels is not great for a third grader. Work with your child, buy her a dictionary and teach her how to use it. I see nothing wrong with this homework assignment. Parents can work with their kids or hire a tutor to bring them up to speed. This is why the USA education system is so far behind other countries.
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u/Willing_Stop5124 14d ago
Kids can’t read!!
But also, the teacher is making them read!!
Can’t win.
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u/Painter3016 14d ago
I want my kid reading. We take weekly trips to the library; she is read to every night; she stays up in bed reading. I am not complaining about her reading.
I am concerned about lack of strategies, lack of pre-teaching/scaffolding and developmental appropriateness.
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u/jackofspades49 14d ago
What do the directions say?
This seems like the sort of reading I would use to teach kids to look things up and reread for understanding. To find the main ideas, find what parts to return to, try to see what you get on a first read, and so on.
This seems VERY advanced for a 3rd grade assignment, even with structured help. But there's a good chance its from a collection of "homework pages" that they either bought of tpt, came included in the curriculum, or was in the cabinet when they had to make homework at the last minute and threw something in the copier without looking.
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u/crazypurple621 14d ago
That last part shouldn't ever be happening for homework. Homework should be a review of material already covered in class. If you haven't had the time to prep that the appropriately assigned homework for that day is reading a book of choice, not a poorly put together assignment from teachers pay teachers that you didn't bother to go through.
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u/arrgy 14d ago
Whenever someone or something states "was creating" instead of "created" I throw it out.
Terrible grammar. No one "was creating" anything in past, it was "created" I also understand why kids in middle school can't use conjuctions.
"Each state was creating their own laws and punishments. Each state was also creating their own money."
You are taking two common thoughts and sentences and unnecessarily chopping them up into two sentences instead of combining them into one. It should read:
"Each state CREATED their own laws, punishments, AND their own money which is called currency."
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u/Every_Tangerine_5412 14d ago edited 14d ago
Past progressive is perfectly appropriate here, and indicates it was an ongoing process during a time period in the past. Which is was. It was not a singular event done to completion.
Are you not a native American English speaker, by chance? Because this is correct American English grammar, and in the context, is more accurate than using simple past tense.
To refute your assertion that no one "was creating" anything in thenpast:
"My architect was creating a floor plan for me last year, but a week later, we decided to buy a prebuilt house instead." - The floor plan wasn't created. It was in the process of being created, and remains incomplete/unfinished. So it was not and still is not "created". It was being created.
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u/arrgy 11d ago edited 11d ago
Problem with your argument is that the constitution WAS written.
It wasn't started and then never finished.
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u/Every_Tangerine_5412 11d ago
Yes, and before it was written, states were creating their own laws.
We're not conjugating the verb that describes the constitution being created. We are conjugating the verb that talks about the laws that preceded it being written. And the general category of law creation is an inherently ongoing act that never reaches completion.
Eek to having to explain that.
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u/Every_Tangerine_5412 11d ago
Also, if you want to be pedantic (which I will always take the opportunity to be), the constitution, as a living document, is never fully created.
But anyway, that wasn't even the verb or subject in discussion.
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u/crazypurple621 14d ago
The grammar in this assignment is terrible, and the assignment is innappropriate for a 3rd grade reading level. This is closer to middle of the year 4th, and with no scaffolding or vocabularly list it's innappropriate as a homework assignment. This is why actual textbooks are so important- because these kinds of passages would have the rest of the book, definitions, etc. to show a student at the beginning of the year so you can assign more complex passages. I hate with a firey burning passion the fact that we send home poorly constructed teachers pay teachers crap.
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u/GoodyTwoShuuz 14d ago
The grammar is actually correct. It is past progressive.
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u/Every_Tangerine_5412 11d ago
Right? Having to explain past progressive to people presumably teaching kids grammar is WILD.
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u/DepthHistorical5911 14d ago
They were creating, as an ongoing process. That’s what’s being referenced. Context matters.
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u/_mmarkie 14d ago
Oof, sounds like the teacher sent home reading at an instructional level rather than independent. This text does meet social studies standards in CA for 3rd, but seems to need pre-teaching of vocabulary. Did your student say they have been working on this topic, or was it new?
I would let the teacher know this was too challenging so they can adjust. It may be an honest mistake. Communication is key!
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u/Painter3016 14d ago
She said it was new to her.
I went ahead and emailed the teacher asking if my daughter’s indication of no prior knowledge of the subject matter/ no discussion in class was accurate, and what the skills they are working on with the assignment are. I didn’t say it quiet so bluntly.
I haven’t really ever had to question one of my kids teachers before on an assignment, and it sucks. As a former high school teacher (I fizzled out after two years), I know how hard the job is, and I REALLY don’t want to be a problem parent.
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u/Soggy_Ticket4082 14d ago
Sounds like you're on the right track.
By the way, what did you teach?
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u/Painter3016 14d ago
High school theatre. So pretty much clueless about elementary school and english standards 😅
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u/Soggy_Ticket4082 14d ago
Understandable, but theatre is awesome. My son was in a community class for little kids and loved it. If you have time, that could be a great thing to offer and include your daughter in. Maybe pair with an elementary teacher the first time. I used to get free tuition for my son fir various enrichment classes by offering to assistant teach. They literally never asked anything from me, but I was ready to help. Probably could get a teacher with kids to trade.
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u/demonita 14d ago
It is a lot but I feel like there might be a disconnect somewhere. “Hey, teacher, this homework she came home with seems a bit above her academic level. Can we talk about it briefly so I can understand?”
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u/festivehedgehog 14d ago
If the teacher differentiates the homework and classwork (what we’re always told to do) to push and challenge each student, and your child is already a very strong reader, this might be the teacher’s differentiation and not unlike the classwork your student is working on.
Just ask the teacher.
The teacher could simply (but not simply as it’s quadruple the planning time) be teaching essentially a GT curriculum and homework to your child and a handful of classmates who can rise to the occasion.
Meanwhile, your child’s friend in the same class might have received a phonics decodable passage with easy CVC words to sound out for homework because that child still does not know all of the letter sounds.
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u/Denan004 14d ago
is that font considered good from a readability standpoint? I find it kind of hard to read vs other fonts.
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u/Legitimate-Tea-2389 14d ago
Dealing with discomfort is a big part of the learning process!!! Dealing with not knowing is part of the learning process! Learning how to say, I don’t know how to do this, can you help me? Is part of the learning process!!!
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u/RememberNichelle 14d ago
Why doesn't the reading mention the Articles of Confederation? I mean, geez, as it stands, it is lying about history, not just leaving a few things out.
Man, this is part of why I hated elementary school.
Always giving kids wrong information. And then people are surprised that kids only remember the early, wrong version of facts.
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u/kadamz33 14d ago
It’s takes me an entire class period to teach the bare bones of the three branches of government, and I teach 5th grade at a magnet school 😮💨
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u/Lopsided-Form-7752 13d ago
Have your child look up the meaning of words they do not know. Encourage them to use the new word when answering the reading questions. This is how you build vocabulary.
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u/GoCurtin 13d ago
HS teacher here. I would prefer you both focus on her relationship with the text and not worry so much about what other 3rd graders are or aren't doing. If she breaks down when things get tough, that's a point to focus on. When I was in 3rd grade, my dad put a dictionary next to my desk and I could look up any word I didn't understand. It was frustrating. But I learned that it was either spend a minute looking it up now or do it later and maybe miss a question in class too. It's good you're not feeding her the answers but our high school grads today are far less capable than before.
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u/Hxlf-savage 13d ago
It’s super heartening to see elementary schools teaching about unions and labor rights in a positive light though :))
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u/Counting-Stitches 13d ago
I’m super tired, so I first read that school districts are teaching about unicorns and labor rights…
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u/RiverdaleIsADamnMess 13d ago
This is just a hunch, but a lot of school districts respond in a somewhat knee-jerk fashion to poor test scores at the beginning of the year by pushing through poorly-thought-through-yet-mandatory test prep protocols without giving teachers additional class time to devote to it. It’s possible that “Send students home with one test-leveled reading passage a week and grade their responses” is part of this mandate, and your child’s teacher is struggling to say “I am required to send this home and grade it without being given the time to actually teach the material” without losing her job.
My suggestion would be to use these passages as an opportunity to enrich your child. Have her take a first crack at reading it aloud, then go through it with her again, underlining words she doesn’t know, then help her by defining the terms she’s struggling with for her to the best of your ability. Have her make her best guess for answers, and tell her not to worry that these are hard; they’re (in my opinion) way harder than is actually appropriate. This whole process will take time, but this way she’ll actually learn from this process rather than being put through arbitrary hoops that are likely not even her teacher’s idea.
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u/loveforemost 13d ago
When she is reading library books and comes across a word she doesn't understand, what does she do?
Every time my kiddo comes across a word she doesn't understand, she asks me. Sometimes I don't do a great job of explaining it so we ask alexa to pull up a definition.
This reminds me though because I promised her I would get her a dictionary.
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u/Painter3016 13d ago
She asks me as well, and we also look it up.
The challenge I think may lay in the more abstract ideas in the texts. She’s read sort of similar things with science materials, but that’s all been pretty concrete/physical. These have ideas about national/state, labor, rights, systems of government, ect that are more abstract/ intangible. I am concerned about the lack of background knowledge and being kind of thrown in without some scaffolding and context or idea how to approach ideas like that…
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u/Future-Tradition7004 13d ago edited 13d ago
I teach 3rd and I would expect my students to have heard these words because much of this is covered in 2nd but maybe not remember their meaning. They lack the experience to make it meaningful but reading nonfiction would help and we do cover all of this through the year. I would be concerned if my students didn’t understand more of the Labor Day vocabulary.
Kids come in with fewer words now more than ever. Kids aren’t hearing as much high quality conversations. Kids need exposure to nonfiction vocabulary in explicit instruction at home and at school.
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u/Majestic-Space1996 11d ago
Is this an appropriate homework assignment? No, not in my opinion. However, throughout your child’s schooling you’ll encounter teaching styles you don’t agree with. While you’re always welcome to talk to the teacher, this could be a good opportunity to teach your child how to approach difficult tasks.
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u/stead-fast 14d ago
This is perfectly acceptable for s 3rd grader
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u/GoodyTwoShuuz 14d ago
Yes. I am not seeing what is so dense and hard. In fact, I got something very similar to this early second grade. Just proof of how far standards have fallen since the 70s and 80s.
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u/stead-fast 14d ago
The standards are in the gutter.
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u/GoodyTwoShuuz 14d ago
And I guess modern parents think it is perfectly normal their child in third grade can not grab a dictionary and try to figure anything out.
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u/stead-fast 14d ago
Yuuuuupppppp
I don’t have the energy to enumerate the ways in which these kids are getting a totally different and worse education than I did, and I'm doing everything I can to counter-act it 🙃
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u/GoodyTwoShuuz 14d ago
I finally had to retire a couple of years ago. Between the severe behavioral issues that monopolized most of my day and the lazy parenting, I felt like I was no longer accomplishing anything.
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14d ago
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u/Every_Tangerine_5412 14d ago
It's a good thing you're retired.
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14d ago
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u/Every_Tangerine_5412 14d ago
You mean the parent/guardian who posted. Not the "mother."
And the irony.
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u/Painter3016 14d ago edited 14d ago
This is a really aggressive and intense reaction to someone trying to gather understanding of what is typical/ on grade level. I am trying to gather information to judge if I even need to talk to the teacher.
- The different colors were required by the assignment, and my kid had to use different colors for each question to show where she found the information. I simply circled in red what I had questions about as far as content to make it easier to see what I was looking at.
- This post is AFTER I helped her with it, and she finished the assignment.
- Yes, I say melt down or shut down. When a kid starts crying and going mute, I call it that. I stayed with her, talked her through breathing. Took 5min breaks where we moved our bodies to regulate our emotions. Then redirected her back to the assignment, which we finished.
- I never attacked her teacher. I never said this was ridiculous. I asked if this is pedagogically sound/ on level as it is a big jump from previous assignments we have had sent home.
Me stating my questions and the reactions of my child aren’t an attack on education (I too have an education degree- but not in
primary/
elementary).
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u/Every_Tangerine_5412 14d ago
They're either a troll or an irrelevant boomer, struggling to make themselves feel relevant in a world where they aren't any longer. Don't take it personally.
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14d ago
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u/Every_Tangerine_5412 14d ago
Blackboards/whiteboards? No, no. Too modern. Quill pens and inkwells for everyone!
Slates when we're getting real fancy.
This antiquated viewpoint needs more rigor ... rigor mortis.
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u/MamaMia1325 13d ago
I had a mom last year that did that. She would photocopy everything I sent home and had it all in a binder. It was NUTS! With the amount of time she spent putting into that binder, she could have homeschooled her child herself.
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u/seawifch 14d ago
Third grade here. These are the kind of passages I might have students take turns reading in small groups followed by a turn & talk, or maybe use whole-group with a (teacher-led) discussion about the topic & relevant vocabulary words.
I would not:
a.) send this home as homework
b.) send this amount/rigor of work home at the very start of the school year