Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Yr 8 English - should they be reading the whole text?

33 replies

courderoy · 28/11/2019 21:54

i just want to test if this is normal practice, it’s an example rather than a specific question about this text.

Yr 8 mixed ability set have been studying To Kill a Mockingbird this term. They have read 7 chapters along with the audio book in class and have watched the film.

They wont read much more in class so won’t have read the whole book. English homework policy is a computer based vocab builder and nothing else, and in any case there are not enough texts for them to take home.

I could see how getting through the text would be challenging in the limited time available. I just wanted to test whether this is a normal approach?

Thanks

OP posts:
missmapp · 28/11/2019 22:14

My two boys at secondary always read the whole text , but never bring a book home. Where they are interested we buy the book, but sometimes they are happy just to read at school. They do bring poetry anthologies but they look like school text book type things.
Ds2 , in year 7, had just started doing a computer vocab building thing for homework, but also has questions linked to the book. Other son is in 6410 and has GCSE style questions for homework

FloreanFortescue · 28/11/2019 22:12

@YourOpinionIsNoted that's so depressing. We always had a book each at my school.

wheresmyliveship · 28/11/2019 22:10

Off topic but what’s the homework website? I’d be intrigued to see how that works and whether it allows them to implement the vocab!

YourOpinionIsNoted · 28/11/2019 22:08

It's really, really normal not to have a book each. It's only the two private schools I've taught in where a book each is the norm. State schools, no way.

FloreanFortescue · 28/11/2019 22:03

It's £4 on the internet. I'd just buy it and encourage DC to do some wider reading. Not having a book each is just ludicrous.

YourOpinionIsNoted · 28/11/2019 22:01

And it’s very depressing that they don’t have enough books to take home

Now this is normal. One between two is generally the accepted standard, especially at ks3.

If they take books home you spend every bloody lesson chasing the 10-20% who haven't brought it back in, working out who can share with who, and the books get trashed at the bottom of school bags.

YourOpinionIsNoted · 28/11/2019 21:58

No, not normal anywhere I have taught. Awful way of teaching literature.

Also, TKAM is far too complex for yr8.

This smacks of a school recycling their old GCSE stock down to ks3, then bodging it to fit.

Wildorchidz · 28/11/2019 21:57

I’m a bit shocked that they don’t read the whole book..
But I’ve no idea if that is normal
And it’s very depressing that they don’t have enough books to take home