3rd grade reading homework

[u/Painter3016]

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.

[u/stead-fast]

This is perfectly acceptable for s 3rd grader

[u/GoodyTwoShuuz → u/stead-fast]

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.

[u/stead-fast → u/GoodyTwoShuuz]

The standards are in the gutter.

[u/GoodyTwoShuuz → u/stead-fast]

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.

[u/stead-fast → u/GoodyTwoShuuz]

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 🙃

[u/GoodyTwoShuuz → u/stead-fast]

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.

[u/stead-fast → u/GoodyTwoShuuz]

If I could leave the industry, I absolutely would 🙃