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Hello, I am new to HOD and a little confused about DITHOR. There are 9 genres. Do we go through all 9 genres for the year? We seem to do it only 3 times a week in the Preparing guide. Also is it correct to say that the parent will have to have read all 9 books to see if the child is making a correct book analysis?

With DITHOR, you are supposed to complete 5 genres a year. Which ever book pack you purchased will be used over this year and next year.

As for reading your kids books, if your child can read well and can retain what is read, then no, you don't need to read their books. My kids have been able to do most the analysis with no problem without me reading their book. If we ever do come to something where I need to dig deeper, I will then scan the book. But I usually don't read their literature books before them.

This is our first time doing this so that makes me a little nervous but ok. Thanks

I personally would recommend you read the book alongside your child. Depending on which level they are in, 2/3 or 4/5, in 2/3 they should read the book aloud to you. In 4/5 they are supposed to read part aloud to you. This is time-consuming and while you are all getting the hang of DITHOR you will spend a lot more time on it. If your child can complete the assigned workbook pages on their own (and is instructed at the end to show you) that's great. If they are new to this kind of literature study and some of the literature terms (setting, mood, characters, etc) they may need more help but I would just suggest you discuss the assignment with them, hear some of their answers aloud before they sit down to fill it out. Depending on how good they are at writing their thoughts down you can write it for them to copy or something if they need that. I think your involvement would help get it off to the right start, and then you will see when you can pull back and not do as much, just check over the workbook page or something when they show it to you.

As to answering your question, as you figured out, you don't do all the genres in a school year. You do about 5 genres. Each genre for 20 school days, but doing it 3 days a week makes it take about 6 weeks. This is why there are only the 3 levels of DITHOR even though you do them over about 6 years.

Thank you all for your advice and answers:)