what is the benefit of reading 5 times a week with a good reader?

[feelathome]

DD is in year 5. Not really read with her since year 1.
Had a new diary home with the instructions to read for 20 mins, five times a week.

I am struggling to find any benefit in this. She can choose anything she wants to read, no scheme etc.

She reads for hours a day on her own, and doesn't really want to read to us. We would prefer our quality time to be spent on more enjoyable activities.
However, if there is a real benefit, I will follow the instructions, but I am struggling to see what it is.
Yesterday she read 5 pages of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We have to record the page numbers. She then read loads more pages to herself when she was in bed.
Does she have to re-read them with us, or can she just read from where she is? Will the school think she is missing out large chunks of the book?

There is a reward for children who read all term, so feel a bit blackmailed into this pointless activity.

we have this from school too, ds reads for hours every day, consumes books. he hates reading aloud because it is so slow. We are allowed to record that he has read, rather than that he has read out loud. In fact he is allowed to write it all down, we have to sign once a week.

Having said that, I read recently about children of this age and their vocab. The comment was that because they read well, they understand new words in context but don't pronounce them correctly, and don't always really understand the meaning. My friend said her daughter have compomised. She chooses a funny column from the newpaper or a magazine (needs to be decent, not The Sun Dd reads that out loud, they discuss any new words or concepts. Apart from that she reads to herself. (about once a week)

Last year when I finally gave up totally on reading out loud, I wrote in the comments 'ds read chapters 2, 3 and 4 to himself' and signed it. I never had a complaint, because his reading was so good, and he was obviously doing so much of it.

Oh - the comment re not pronouncing words correctly reminds me, I was a very advanced reader as a child, and read alone for days hours on end. I always wondered why I never saw the word "epitomy" (as I heard it, rhyming with "bee") written down, and never heard other people saying "epitome" (rhyming with phone). I was at uni when I realised that I had been pronouncing epitome wrong in my head for YEARS and YEARS, and even now I have to mentally "translate" the word if I read it!

It is exactly as LittleMissGreen has explained.

In class you hear very easily which kids read aloud at home and which don't.

Ideally I would stick to the 20 minutes a day but if that is not possible then anything is better than nothing. I strongly believe the more you put in the more you get out.

If you spend a bit of time discussing storylines/structure of a story your child shouldn't get bored with reading to you.

sorry, the once a week thing was the read from newspaper, not read to herself!

feelathome:

Our school moves to more reading on your own by Year 4, except for those still mastering skills.

However, our school then asks them to use the reading diary to explore various issues about the stories they're reading:

-How does the character feel about the situation they're in?

-5 new words you learned and their meaning?

-Can you identify 10 similes and metaphors in the story?

-If you could warn a character not to do something what would you say?

-Draw a diagram of the events of the story showing how the story ellapsed over time.

Basically DD1 would read (for 10 - 20 minutes) and twice a week tackle one of these exercises - she had a grid of about 30 options - and I'd read it through, discuss spelling errors (not everything but that weeks latest issue - perhaps sorting out their and there or were and where) - but in that process we'd talk about the book and I'd get a good idea if she understood what was happening.

I'd have her read to me whilst DH was bathing DD2 about once a week - and we'd work on expression (she tends to read in a monotone). We also read to them once a week (just to make it fair and square) but we chose our childhood favourites - sometimes they work (Charlotte's Web was a great success) and sometimes they don't (DDs both thought The Hobbit was boring - poor DH).

I'd talk to the teacher at your first opportunity - maybe parent/ teacher meeting - and explain that you feel she's past reading to you and neither of you enjoy it - and ask what could she do instead? If the teacher feels strongly her reading out loud skills are weak - she'll say something.

HTH

The same as reading 5 times a week for a poor reader ... it's how you become a better reader.