My eldest dd is in 7th grade this year and I have her working in the D level. Last year I was letting her make out her own assignment sheet but she would cram all the reading into 2 days and it seemed she was never comprehending it. This year, for the time being, I've taken over assigning specific reading for each day yet she is still so weak in her comprehension. Just today, we were discussing J.Q.Adams and she couldn't even explain the Tariff of Abominations to me. I'm just so discouraged and don't know how to help her. Her 6th grade sister, who often straddles D and UG can answer waaaay more of the dialectic questions than she can. It's almost painful. Should I bump her back down to UG for a while? Any advice is appreciated.

I also once had a seventh-grade D student who couldn't understand, and a UG student (fourth-grade!) who could sometimes answer more of the questions. We got through it, but it could be stressful.

Tariffs can be hard to understand. I haven't looked over the D readings to see how it's explained there, because I had gone over the concept of tariffs at length with our co-op class earlier in the year, but that's not something that kids normally have had much exposure to. My R kids didn't understand them after the first week we covered them, some weeks ago. So that, by itself, might not be so bad.

Have you sat down with your daughter to figure out what's going on with her reading? I might sit down beside her, let her read a paragraph silently, and then have her tell you what the paragraph says. Can she tell you? If not, why not? Is it reading the words that's the problem? Vocabulary? Complicated sentence structure? Or unfamiliar concepts, like tariffs?

You may find that when she has to explain the paragraphs to you one by one, she can understand just fine - which probably means that she's moving too fast through the material, rather than being sure she understands before she moves on. To solve that, you could sit with her as she reads for a while, or require her to take notes on each paragraph as she goes, or maybe just pointing out the problem to her would help.

Otherwise, I guess it would depend on where the problem lies.

The problem may well recur when she moves up to R - some of those readings are truly difficult!

Several other thoughts to consider at this age. Distractions can affect reading comprehension. Hormones can be distracting. All the physical, mental, and social changes going on at this age can be very distracting. I once had a middle school teacher at a local Christian school tell me that 7th grade was a very challenging year for kids in school also. My 5th child is in dialectic (8th grade) and he is very easily distracted while he's reading. I often suggest that he read the questions first so he knows what he should be looking for as he reads. He usually wants to read it all first and then answer the questions, but you may want to have her answer the questions as she goes. That may help her to more specifically focus and to remember better.

You may want to draw her out and see if there are other issues that she's thinking about right now, especially if the decrease in reading comprehension is something new.

Also, be careful to not compare her to her younger sibling especially in front of her. (It's fine in this context where you're trying to get help.) God made each of our children and they're definitely all very different - at least in our house! They each have different gifts and callings. His grace will help you know his specific plan for each one.

God bless you as you serve your family!

Patty

I don't know if this will help or not, but my 4th grader is also a weak reader. I've been using the lowest level of this series this fall and I like how it works:
http://www.criticalthinking.com/getProductDetails.do?code=p&id=01500

Therre's also an upper level Rx version:
http://www.criticalthinking.com/getProductDetails.do?code=p&id=01511

Could it also be a problem with how to express her answers? My ds is in 6th grade and I still have to sit with him whenever he answers the AQs and TQs. He does have a problem with comprehension because he tends to read too fast and not care about understanding what he reads. I don't give him the answers to the questions but I have him read the questions first and be on the lookout during his reading for the day on possible answers. I also have him tell back to me what each section is about. This tells me whether he understands it or not.

Then we also deal with how to express his answers. Being a boy, he would like to answer everything with ten or less words. But being 11, I do require him to give more details. So I have him tell me what the answer is and I help him "edit" it by asking him more questions to make his answers more coherent. As a fellow hs mom says: This is painful (to both of us!) He is not as quick as his younger sisters but I remind myself that this is one of the many reasons why we homeschool: to be able to help our children with areas where they need the assistance, and to train them up with the right tools they'll need in the future.

God Bless,
Anna

I suppose it depends on what you want to focus on. If you want to focus on making sure she gets the history information, I would read it out loud to her and discuss it as you go. If you are wanting to work on reading comprehension strategies, I would look for some resources that specifically deal with this. There is a good book called I Read It, but I Don't Get It that talks about reading strategies for older kids. LINKI think it would be good to separate the skills you are trying to teach and isolate them.

Thank you for all the helpful replies. WTMindy, I'll check out that book.

I have a 10 year daughter who can read everything but struggle coming up with what she read too. I am making her do either oral or written narrations on what she has read each day in addition to the TOG Literature Sheets. The combination of knowing she will be required to remember and having to narrate before she has a chance to forget has really helped her. Another thing that may help is to let your dd read the worksheet before she reads her Lit. so she will notice those things she'll have to remember. I have also told her that she may be required to re-read. I probably sound horrible but *read it and answer the questions* is a skill that is required throughout life, not only for college but nearly every Bible study!

Does she like history? Is it just a struggle with reading? I have a son who loves the subject, but is primarily an auditory learner. If I read things to him he has an amazing memory. When he reads silently he doesn't retain nearly as much. I am working with him to listen to as many of the books on tape as I can find and have him read out loud to himself. I don't know if that helps but wow what a difference with my guy.