Intensive Reading

Parent Request

We discussed another book in our third club session. When the session ended, parents got together and talked about how it went. One spoke about how she wished her son to focus on a short article, and we can test how much he grasped the content. In college years ago, we called it intensive reading. In the States, it seems to be a standard way of teaching language arts. 

Magazine Articles --- Great resource for short readings

I decided to give it a try. Coincidentally I borrowed some kids magazines from library. I picked an article about sleeping and it's called "Secrets of the Night". It has all sorts of fun facts about night. 

"Nocturnal animals aren't the only ones who are active at night. " 

"Human spend a third of their lives asleep." 

"Flowers in the hot, dry desert open up at night, when sun can't dry them out." 

"Brain works hard at night sorting through thoughts, emotions, and memories. Blood flows to fuel the parts of your brain that do this processing, helping you make sense of what happened during the day, store memories, and even solve problems. If anyone ever told you to think about a decision by 'sleeping on it,' they were right!"

Competition is On!

I was learning along with them. The amazing circadian cycle makes our body function the way it's designed to. I easily came up with dozen quiz questions for kids to answer. Competition was on! Boys dig this kind of activity. They feel good when they are ahead of the game. The only downside is it's making me feel gettin' old. By the quiz time started, I could remember half of the answers, and couldn't think as quick as they did. Boo hoo!

We read a couple of more articles of different kinds, fiction and nonfiction. My 11-year-old girl and I would read some articles together and talk about them. A great way not just reading but sharing thoughts and spirits together. 

 

For boys, I used these:

 

They really enjoyed it. It takes pressure off from having to read the whole book before we discuss anything. It's like a nice stop on the bridge where you still get to enjoy a beautiful view, and sometimes fun one too. It also gave me opportunity to pick the winner of quizzes as a reward category. Everyone is good at something, but not everything. It's nice to have a variety of rewards so no one feels incompetent, yet no one is convinced they know it all.