Audio book versus reading for set texts

[Bobochic]

I would be grateful for opinions. Do you ever get your DC to listen to an audio version of their school set texts? Does your DC's school ask them to listen to audio versions of classic literature?

[sendsummer]

Yes Bobochic but even so I can imagine an outcry of 'too hard and not modern enough' if Moby Dick and similar period fiction were one of two books (even if per term rather than half term) at age 12 for the middle sets of a comprehensive in the UK. Of course perhaps your DD's school are all 'top set' and much easier fiction would be given to less able DCs

[BertrandRussell]

Yes, I've seem my god daughter slogging through it. Completely joyless and mechanical.

She knows a lot. But I suspect she will never read anything but Mills and Boon ever again......

[Bobochic]

Sets aren't allowed in French middle school (except for languages) but I think that DD's school sets reasonably high standards for literature. The range of set texts is quite narrow/prescribed in France.. What is slightly odd is that DC at French primary school are not encouraged to read nearly as much as English DC are, yet when they get to secondary school they are expected to tackle reasonably long books pretty soon, and often.

[sendsummer]

Bertrand apparently your goddaughter's godmother failed her godparently duty by not getting her a MobyDick audiobook.

[knittingwithnettles]

I am both full of admiration and gobsmacked [not very literary English expression } Do some children fall completely by the wayside then? If there are no sets, how do the children with learning difficulties or SEN ever ever keep up? I speak as mother of child who is reading one set text (Christmas Carol) aged 14 all term and they go through it in class too. I was a voracious reader at that age, and I don't think I would ever ever have managed Moby Dick, although I loved anything by Jack London.

My Dad used to tell me about a Jack London short story where a man battling to survive alone, takes off his gloves to light the last remaining match in the freezing wilderness (as he is too clumsy to light it with them on) Alas, the match blows out or doesn't catch the tinder and he is left, sobbing, doomed!!! Beats the Walking Dead any day...

Good luck to your Dd and hope she enjoys the books.

[knittingwithnettles]

well, my version of that was completely wrong..just googled it. Called "To Build A Fire" and he gets wet, which is why he needs to build a fire. I suppose I should actually read it, after all these years of remembering my Dad's version

[Bobochic]

knittingwithnettles - unfortunately lots of DC do fall by the wayside in France. The system is basically inherited from the old, pre-1975 selective secondary system (all DC suddenly had to go to an academic, grammar school style middle school).