Grading Freshmen

No, look, everyone knows that in first grade, parents or teachers read the required books during class time (I mostly just used my homeroom period for that) 😉...that's just how it works in first grade. Sure, you should give them stuff to read on their own, but thinking a six-year-old is going to sit down and finish all that by themselves is just insane. 😁

Are we really assuming parents will be reading this? Seriously? Is that actually... expected??

Yeah, people always point out that parents should help with reading assignments in first grade 😉...and I don’t mean you have to read every single word from start to finish. Just step in when the kid hits a wall. Take turns—read one poem, then let them take the next. Talk about the characters, what the poem is actually about, who they're talking about. Ask them what they liked or hated, what made them laugh or feel sad, which poem was their favorite and why...
Of course, that assumes the assignment is meant for home... but even when they do the reading at school (especially in those early first-grade classes where kids aren't even fluent readers yet), the goal remains the same. You have to build the habit. You have to practice reading aloud and thinking critically about what's on the page. It’s all new to them. First grade is just the introduction to literature, so they need that extra support now if they ever want to be independent readers later on!

Why is reading aloud mandatory?

Reading out loud builds rhythm. It trains pronunciation, word emphasis, dynamics, articulation, and punctuation. Once a kid becomes a real, active reader—which should happen for everyone by the end of 2nd grade—they can switch to silent reading. That’s faster, sure, but the quality drops. In these early grades (we grade them through 4th, maybe beyond), schools still judge based on how expressive they read. You can only master that through oral practice. I tell my kids to read aloud and record themselves on their phone or tablet. Then they listen back and redo it until they actually sound good.

I find it honestly kind of strange that parents are expected to sit down and read entire books with their kids. Wouldn't it make more sense if the reading list was actually designed for beginners? Like, maybe start with picture books that are only a few pages long, then move up to short stories, and eventually work our way toward actual books...
I don't really get it—don't kill me, but I just don't see the point.

You can let a first grader tackle their reading list solo. They’ve got a few books they can handle on their own—like Hrabrica. But honestly? It’s totally fine to help them out. Especially when it comes to actually understanding the story. At that age, most kids are so hyper-focused on just the mechanics of decoding the words that they miss the point entirely. They'll plow through five pages and have absolutely no clue what they just read.
Every single class has those few kids who are already reading ahead on their own from day one. Of course they are. But most of them? They need actual guidance and someone to walk them through it. 😉

I’m with you, rowdypanther12. Seriously, they should just give them these bite-sized little stories that can be summarized in like, two quick sentences.
Since we're all hanging out here anyway, does anyone actually know who writes these standardized tests? Like, what is the actual logic behind how these questions are framed? It makes zero sense to me. Take this one science question from the exam: "continue the timeline from the given concept." Then right underneath, it just says "night" followed by an arrow for a fill-in-the-blank.
My kid ended up writing night, day, night, day, night, day 😁. Why? Because in elementary school, they were taught that a day is just made up of days and nights. If the question was actually asking for the specific times of day, he would have known how to answer, because that's how he was taught.
Why go through all this effort to twist the questions into knots?

Adam Evans62 said:You can let a first grader tackle their reading list solo. They’ve got a few books they can handle on their own—like Hrabrica. But honestly? It’s totally fine to help them out. Especially when it comes to actually understanding the story. At that age, most kids are so hyper-focused on just the mechanics of decoding the words that they miss the point entirely. They'll plow through five pages and have absolutely no clue what they just read.
Every single class has those few kids who are already reading ahead on their own from day one. Of course they are. But most of them? They need actual guidance and someone to walk them through it. 😉

I honestly can't tell if you're missing my point or if I'm just being unclear.
What's the purpose of assigning books that kids aren't even capable of reading or understanding on their own? How does it make sense to assign reading material at the very beginning of school under the assumption that a parent is going to do the heavy lifting?
Why aren't they just reading ten-page picture books with ten sentences?

Honestly, I have no clue who actually puts together that mandatory reading list... some so-called "experts." I agree, it should be way more age-appropriate. Plus, it’s totally outdated. What I’ve been doing for ten years hasn't changed one bit.
The standardized tests are mostly written by subject teachers working for certain publishing houses. Then those exams go through various "pilot" stages—everything from proofreading and layout to testing their practical application. After that, they get sent out to schools for teachers to pick from for their assessments. Every teacher has the right to write their own tests for their students and grade them themselves; they don't necessarily have to use those printed ones from the publishers.

@Richard Morris43 - what grade level are we even talking about here?
The questions and how they’re phrased change everything. Usually, it goes from easy to hard... if you want an A, you need to show actual logic and deep thinking. I’d say what your kid said—even if it was right—is just the standard answer most kids would give. It's the middle ground for decent, solid students. To get top marks, you need a different, more advanced way of thinking. Only a handful of kids (just like the usual number of honor roll students in a class) would nail this question perfectly.
Obviously, if we're talking about first grade, the teacher should have explained the question better, or the kids should've asked for clarification.

Richard Morris43 said:I’m with you, rowdypanther12. Seriously, they should just give them these bite-sized little stories that can be summarized in like, two quick sentences.
Since we're all hanging out here anyway, does anyone actually know who writes these standardized tests? Like, what is the actual logic behind how these questions are framed? It makes zero sense to me. Take this one science question from the exam: "continue the timeline from the given concept." Then right underneath, it just says "night" followed by an arrow for a fill-in-the-blank.
My kid ended up writing night, day, night, day, night, day 😁. Why? Because in elementary school, they were taught that a day is just made up of days and nights. If the question was actually asking for the specific times of day, he would have known how to answer, because that's how he was taught.
Why go through all this effort to twist the questions into knots?

Just check the textbook on page 60, Day - time of day, it's the exact same thing in the workbook... everything follows the same pattern...
And honestly, it's not twisting the question at all; the question is perfectly aligned with what they were taught and how they learned it...😉, now *that* would be twisting it... if the textbook and workbook said one thing, but the actual exam expected something completely different.

And if it is, just like Lawrence Torres56 says, this kind of question has already been covered in class or homework... then most kids should be able to figure it out and give the right answer.

A hundred-page reading assignment for a first grader?! And parents are just expected to do the heavy lifting for them?!
Then you have people claiming kids today don't have it as hard as we did, arguing that they're "less burdened" because parts of the curriculum get cut every year (if that's the case, what on earth were we dealing with back then?)
Let me be clear: during my first four years of elementary school, I didn't do a single thing at home. Nothing. Zero. All my homework and studying happened strictly within the school walls since I was in an after-school program. Do you teachers actually grasp how little time a parent truly has with their child once school starts? If a kid is expected to spend every waking hour on academics, all other activities just fall by the wayside. It’s not right.
And what you just wrote honestly shocked me. Are you suggesting that only the "super intelligent" types—those with some supposedly advanced way of thinking—deserve straight A's? That they just got lucky at birth or happen to have highly educated parents, while everyone else is predestined to struggle with C's and B's regardless of how much effort or heart they put into their work? That's just awful.

feralgardener33 said:A hundred-page reading assignment for a first grader?! And parents are just expected to do the heavy lifting for them?!
Then you have people claiming kids today don't have it as hard as we did, arguing that they're "less burdened" because parts of the curriculum get cut every year (if that's the case, what on earth were we dealing with back then?)
Let me be clear: during my first four years of elementary school, I didn't do a single thing at home. Nothing. Zero. All my homework and studying happened strictly within the school walls since I was in an after-school program. Do you teachers actually grasp how little time a parent truly has with their child once school starts? If a kid is expected to spend every waking hour on academics, all other activities just fall by the wayside. It’s not right.
And what you just wrote honestly shocked me. Are you suggesting that only the "super intelligent" types—those with some supposedly advanced way of thinking—deserve straight A's? That they just got lucky at birth or happen to have highly educated parents, while everyone else is predestined to struggle with C's and B's regardless of how much effort or heart they put into their work? That's just awful.

Hold on, sorry, but you're totally jumping the gun here without any reason... when we talk about the reading assignment for first grade, "wait and see" by Stanislav Femenić isn't even that collection of poems everyone is arguing about, it’s actually just a picture book
http://www.amazon.com/wait-and-see/
that's only 36 pages total including all the illustrations...

and honestly, the kids who actually have this book (even though most teachers don't even assign it as required reading) know exactly what they need to check out and read....

Just to give you an idea, here's one of the little poems,

ladybug one

One night
ladybug one
was feeling so blue
someone had hidden
her spots from view.
She cried her eyes out
all alone
on a fragrant flower
No one else
could be found
as sad as she was in the world.
But then in the morning
the sun came along
She was so happy
because it put back
once again
those spots where they belong.

So, seriously, is it really such a massive ordeal to read fifteen little poems like that in a month?

feralgardener33 said:A hundred-page reading assignment for a first grader?! And parents are just expected to do the heavy lifting for them?!
Then you have people claiming kids today don't have it as hard as we did, arguing that they're "less burdened" because parts of the curriculum get cut every year (if that's the case, what on earth were we dealing with back then?)
Let me be clear: during my first four years of elementary school, I didn't do a single thing at home. Nothing. Zero. All my homework and studying happened strictly within the school walls since I was in an after-school program. Do you teachers actually grasp how little time a parent truly has with their child once school starts? If a kid is expected to spend every waking hour on academics, all other activities just fall by the wayside. It’s not right.
And what you just wrote honestly shocked me. Are you suggesting that only the "super intelligent" types—those with some supposedly advanced way of thinking—deserve straight A's? That they just got lucky at birth or happen to have highly educated parents, while everyone else is predestined to struggle with C's and B's regardless of how much effort or heart they put into their work? That's just awful.

To be totally honest, looking at the elementary kids I know right now, they aren't struggling like this; it feels like the only place where people are constantly complaining about how impossible the curriculum has become is on internet forums.

I’m telling you, this book was actually assigned to kids for reading assignments 🙂
the whole 🙂

Karen Richardson3 said:To be totally honest, looking at the elementary kids I know right now, they aren't struggling like this; it feels like the only place where people are constantly complaining about how impossible the curriculum has become is on internet forums.

I really hope you're right. I don't have any kids in school yet, so I wouldn't know. My sincere hope is that when she eventually starts, I won't be stuck doing her homework for her.
But listening to the moms in my circle, it's a different story. Almost every parent I talk to complains about the endless hours spent helping with homework, leaving them with zero free time.
And that thing about the required reading wasn't just me making stuff up; one mom mentioned her kid was assigned a hundred-page book that had to be finished in a single week.

God, you parents love to twist words, don't you? 😵
Nobody hands a first grader a 100-page novel to read 🙄. Sure, you might give them a book of poems that’s 100 pages long, but even then, they either pick a few to read on their own or go through it with a parent or teacher during class if they actually need to finish the whole thing (which I haven't heard of anyone assigning, by the way)...
And yeah, a lot of material has been cut from the curriculum. Instead of whining about how "overwhelmed" kids are, maybe try teaching them some actual independence, logic, and how to connect ideas. Or better yet, teach them some basic manners and culture—because clearly, a lot of you are lacking that! It's all just noise about how much is being demanded of them, while the fact that most of these kids can't even say "Good morning" or "Goodbye" when walking into or out of school is totally ignored. ☕

Whatever. I knew I shouldn't have jumped into this argument, I just got pissed off. 😠

It’s only been a week, and this is happening because the library is short on books and the professors 😁
My kid hasn't even started school yet, and I honestly, truly have zero intention of stepping in to help.
That doesn't mean I won't be there if she gets stuck—it's like if I helped her pull up her tights so they were easier to put on, even if I'm not actually wearing them myself.
Things like this just really frustrate me, because once I heard about this collection being over 100 pages long, I asked my neighbor whose little girl is in second grade, and she confirmed they actually read all 100 pages of poems.
They’re fun and sweet and perfect for kids, but asking children to read 100 pages is almost impossible.

edit, MG, yeah, exactly that—but with a parent's help. Is that actually normal?
edit 2, I'd really love to hear from other moms if this book is standard practice or if it's just an outlier.