Am I being a woosh, or is this too hard for someone who's just turned eight?

[earlgrey]

New teacher, new exercise book (one of many) Mr 'H' says he trusts them. What do you think?

1. Choose a descriptive passage and make a list of examles of vivid imagerg e.g. similies, metaphors, alliteration, personification, noun phrases etc.

1. Write a desription of the main character - their looks, the way they dress, the way they talk and their personality.

1. Write about what a character mght be thnking or feeling at any stage of the story - yu could write in the first person.

1. When you are about half way thorough a book, predict what might happen. Explain why.

1. Write down some words you had difficulty reading and had not met before. Find their meanings ina dictionary and write them down.

1. Write about your favourite part of a book and why you liked it.

1. Write down some questions you'd like to ask the author.

1. Write down 3 facts you have learned from a non- fiction author.

1. Pick a descriptive word from the text, write it down and, using a thesaurus, write down five synonyms and antonyms for that word.

10. Write some advice to a character in trouble.

11. Write a diary entry that a character might write after an an incident in the story.

12. Challenge yourself!! Write a fifty word summary of a whole plot!

13. Write a new blurb for the back cover.

14. Write whether you would recommend the book or not, and why.

15. Write an alternative ending.

Is it me? She was only 8 in the middle of August. All opinions gratefully received XXXX

And even I don't known what an effing antonym is

I think that is way too old for an 8yr old.

Think that's a lot to do in one go. Not so much that it's "hard" - depends on what have recently been taught etc - but just seems to be too much for one book.

WAY WAY WAY too hard for an 8 year old, actually shocked at that

Antonyms and synonyms are year 2 vocab for national literacy strategy.. hate to tell you!

I presume this isn't all for 1 night! If it's year 3 stuff I am afraid I think it is challenging but fine.

Is it a list of things to do over a term or something? Private or state school?
I am guessing it is a high achieving state school.. am i warm?

how long has she got to do it ? As a one week exercise I'd a say too much , for half a term or longer possibly not.

If she turned 8 before Sept, I presume she is in Yr 4, rather than 3 and it sounds pretty standard stuff to me. She would have (or should have) done a lot of the stuff like using a thesaurus last year and descriptive writing and predicting endings. The only thing that would concern me is the possible timescale. Over what length of time is all this work supposed to be produced?

DS2 had a list like that last year when he was in Year 3. He managed fine, though he did find some of the tasks challenging, particularly the 50 word summary. I presume that your daughter is allowed to choose one of these tasks for each book, so around one task a week, and is encouraged to vary the tasks, but does not necessarily have to attempt all of them?

DS2 and DS3 attend an ordinary inner London state primary btw.

RC state school but there seems no 'in between'. No way was dd1 introduced to those things last year. Partly it may have been our fault, but she's no idea what a thesaurus is. And I only got a 'C' in my 'O' level Language .

But still bloomin' still ....

Is it the year end target list of things that they are covering this year?

Maybe she's not expected to attempt the tasks she doesn't understand just yet, but may do them after her class has studied the relevant subject matter (alliteration, antonyms etc). Some of the tasks are more straightforward than others. The unfamiliar word one is quite easy, as is saying whether you would recommend the book.

Scary I think DD1 is in year 3 and only just turned 7 - I cannot imagine she'd be up to doing this in a year. This weeks homework has been all about looking things up in the dictionary and that was a challenge

Isn't an antonym the opposite of something?

And yes,that does look challenging.It would take a wee while(but then I am a SAHM (mostly) with a "wasted brain".}

Are you sure exactly what the list is? And what she is expected to do with it?

To me this sounds like optional/additional/extension activities to do along with fiction reading. So after, or whilst, reading a novel a child might choose one of these activities.

In that case to me it is a fantastic resource, and far better than "chaining them up and refusing them access to the library until they write another tedious review of the book they've just read", which seems to be the approach that some teachers take.

If, however, she is expected to do all 15 activities every time she reads a book, then of course it's way too much.

H takes dds into school each day, and purports not to be able to speak to either of their teachers.

I'll write a note asking if it's a bloomin' weekly or a termly thing. H has no idea.

Thank you xxx

Is this exercise book called her Reading Diary/Journal/Log? It looks to me like this is a list of suggestions for the child to choose from after she has read part of/all of a reading book. A very good set of ideas. Otherwise, when asked to comment, children will always write what has happened in the story and not develop other skills. By the end of Year 4, most children should understand and be able to do the things on the list - with some teacher input of course!!

aha.. knew it would be a state school!
totally agree with Rosin's post earlier, and with Batters.

WTF? At 8?

It sounds like an interesting thing for kids to do once they have read their books tbh, like others I would assume it is a ince a week/or once per book read thing. eg to choose one thing on the list.

ATM DD1 (just started Y3) has had to write a 'newspaper' style article on the goldilocks story. It was hilarious, headlined 'Girl caught redhanded' and then went on 'Goldilocks the famous food theif was arrested this evening when she was found fast asleep in baby bears bed!!' We did have to think of red food (they were allowed to change things) and decided she had eaten Spag Bol, hence the redness!!

Send a note in tomorrow and ask what you are supposed to do.