# I am soooo bored and annoyed.



## Pearce Pastures (Dec 5, 2012)

Conference was supposed to be about ways to get kids to read more challenging texts and get prepared for the new state test.   Is a sales pitch for a bunch of computer programs that we don't have money for anyhow.     Two morehours.  Got any funny stories  or pics?


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## bonbean01 (Dec 5, 2012)

Ah yes...my son is a teacher and he can't stand those things...big sales pitch for teacher's whose school can't afford it anyway


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## 20kidsonhill (Dec 5, 2012)

if you learn anything about getting a stubborn reader to try and read more challenging text. Let me know. The only way I can get my son to read is the fact that his english teacher requires so many pages read for an A, B, ect..... And he does want to get good grades. We divide up those pages into the days of the semester and he will read exactly that number of pages a day, not a half a page more.  He looks through the books before he picks them to make sure the print isn't small, because of course that would be more words on a page.  Drives me crazy.


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## ThreeBoysChicks (Dec 5, 2012)

20kidsonhill said:
			
		

> if you learn anything about getting a stubborn reader to try and read more challenging text. Let me know. The only way I can get my son to read is the fact that his english teacher requires so many pages read for an A, B, ect..... And he does want to get good grades. We divide up those pages into the days of the semester and he will read exactly that number of pages a day, not a half a page more.  He looks through the books before he picks them to make sure the print isn't small, because of course that would be more words on a page.  Drives me crazy.


Does he have to read specific things or can he pick.  Our youngest was that way, he had to read X minutes a day, he would actually set the timer on the microwave.  Then he found books about famous people in sports.  My son loves football, baseball, etc.  Give him one of those and he loves it.  I feel your frustration though.  This same kid, we thought might have a learning disability because it appeared he could not retain information.  Until he started quoting statistics and facts about football teams, baseball teams, WWF, etc.  We discovered if he is interested, he remembers, if he is not, he doesn't.

He is in the eight grade now, can we get through high school with him.  It remains to be seen.

Good Luck!


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## 20kidsonhill (Dec 5, 2012)

ThreeBoysChicks said:
			
		

> 20kidsonhill said:
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They just have to be chapter books, One has to be an AR book, So he can take a test on it at school the rest of the pages(if the AR book isn't 450 pages) can be any chapter book.  But in total this semester he needs to read 475 pages for an A. If he reads a book that isn't an AR book, he just has to fill out a small book report.  
His thing is survival, nature, hunting and real things. NO science fiction what so eve, r. I have spent a great deal of time researching books for him, on his reading level  or slightly above and keep a large selection here at the house. Right now he is finishing up Will Hobbs,  The Wild Man(177 pages) About a boy who's father is killed on  an island in Alaska or near Alaska and so he goes on this canoe trip to see where his father dies, but instead sneaks off, and of course gets him self into trouble and strandad on a small island, where he meets this man who has been living on the island like a hermit, but living like people did many years ago from tools made from natural products, hunting, fishing. Ect...  He really likes it a lot, but he still wont read one sentence more than he needs to. 
Drives me crazy. mine is in 6th grade, I also worry about highschool, I spend a lot of time helping him with his school work. he did get all A's and B's and is in regular classes other than the fact he didn't test real well in reading/spelling this year so he was placed in a smaller reading class that doesn't give as many assignments. Another words he is in 6th grade, but only reading at a 5th grade level and his writting is terrible. They didn't think he could keep up in regular English, so the baby him a little bit. I wish they wouldn't have done that. But it is nice not having all that extra homework.


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## Pearce Pastures (Dec 5, 2012)

Oh my gosh, AR is the sales pitch we sat through  .  See, this presentation was supposed to be about implementing the new national standards, how to move from what we are doing to what we need to do, and all of that.  Instead, we had someone selling us a program that tell us basically how challenging the library books they are reading are.  First, we have Scholastic Reading Counts (their competitor)which also gives us that info.  Second, there was no connection to the state standards at all in the presentation.  More annoying---we PAID to go to this, $200 per person!  Still can't believe it, kind of a bait and switch from what was presented in the conference literature.

How to get kids to read more challenging text?  Oh boy, that would be a really really long post.  I could send you some of my grad papers on what works best but it is really dry reading   .


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## Straw Hat Kikos (Dec 5, 2012)

Give me stuff on goats and anything that will help me be a better goat owner and I'll read it. Research, health info, etc I'm in!!


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