Reading Homework in Third Grade
Studies have shown that a child's success in school has a strong correlation to the amount of time the child spends reading each week. Reading at home has the greatest impact on a child's learning when the child is reading text that is easily within his/her ability and is self-selected. Therefore, to better monitor and provide guidance as needed, third graders take AR quizzes to demonstrate that they accurately read and understand the books they complete at home. ARBookfinder is a site where you can quickly identify if a book is an "AR book" (has a comprehension quiz).
Third grade students are expected to complete a reading verification form each week and return it at the end of the week. Parents can support building this routine by working with their child to complete this form on a nightly basis. At school, students complete AR quizzes on each of these books. On Friday, students post the test results on the verification form before turning it in to be scored. Longer chapter books that are not completed within the week should still be logged (please note pages or chapters read) but are noted as such with “DNF” (Did Not Finish).
At the beginning of the year, the grade-level expectation for homework reading in third grade is an average of 20 minutes of AR books each night. Children are asked to read each night Monday through Thursday. If a student forgets his homework or wishes to work over the weekend to make up for a particularly busy week, he should speak to Mrs. Kelley to develop a plan for when the form will be brought in.