I'm looking for ideas to suggest to DD's teacher on what DD6 can do for Reading/Language Arts homework. DD just turned 6, is in first grade, and current reading level is approx. 5th/6th grade. Our district does not have a gifted program, but she has a wonderful, supportive teacher who is doing whatever she can to let DD work ahead.
In class, DD participates in 1st grade reading groups with everyone else, but has reading homework geared to her level. (Everyone in the class does this differentiated reading homework--a program called the Workshop Way.) Every day she gets one page which has a list of single words or phrases (never complete sentences, nothing contextual). DD brings the page home, practices reading it to us, then the next day reads it to her teacher or a parent volunteer at school. If she reads it fluently, she is given a new page with the next lesson in the series.
In my opinion the Workshop Way pages are just okay, not great. They have forced her to learn how to sound out unfamiliar words, and she has learned some new big vocabulary words. But I think there could be something more beneficial than just learning these random words.
She hasn't had any new homework pages lately--she said the teacher ran out of pages at her level (she was doing Grade 5 lessons) and needs to get more. I'm hoping the teacher might be open to doing something different altogether. I was thinking maybe something where DD can read a story, page or even a long paragraph of a higher grade level book, then make a list of the hard or unfamiliar words, write their definitions and/or use them in a sentence. Then she could take her list of definitions or sentences to school and read those to the teacher/volunteer.
Any other suggestions? If anyone has a child of similar age and reading level who is in a gifted program, what types of work are their teachers giving them for Reading/Language Arts?
Thanks for any input.
GG
