[ High School and Self-Education Board ]
Posted by LaJuana on 21:18 May 2
In Reply to: Spielvogel's Western Civilization posted by Connie(TX)
Connie,
In my class of 9th-12th grade students using Spielvogel's Western Civilization, I have a wide range of reading comprehension abilities. I have one student who has very poor reading comprehension, and I have students capable of college level work and taking the AP Euro History exam all in one class. It has been more difficult for the student who struggles to read, but I think this child's reading ability has made much improvement over the two years we have taken to cover the book.
One thing that I recommend for the student who struggles with comprehending the dense material in Spielvogel is to write précis over the readings at first. I required précis for the first few months in my class, and it really forced the poorer readers to process the material in the text more carefully.
One other thing that is to your son's advantage is the nature of a co-op. When the text is discussed among students in a co-op setting, often it helps the student to process the material and make a little better sense of it. It can be a tremendous benefit to the student who struggles to absorb information by reading alone. Are you going to be reading along with your son? Even if the co-op doesn't involve face-to-face discussions, talking with him after you both read the material is also a good way to help him process what he has read.
I always like to challenge my kids to reach just a little higher than what is easy for them. I am so encouraged when I see kids like this student gain the confidence to tackle more challenging material by doing it successfully. I think it makes a lot of difference in how a child views himself and in how much he is willing to work toward more difficult goals later in life.
That's my $.02 about it, and, of course, since I don't know your son, that's probably about what it's worth. Still I can't imagine that his reading comprehension is poorer than my student's was when he started.
Under His mercy,
LaJuana