Help! How to use DITHOR student guide

[Annasauls]

Drawn Into the Heart of Reading
Can someone explain to me how to use the student book while breaking the reading down into 5 and 10 days vs 15 days? It appeared as if we could read a 5 day shorter book (on say, biography) and then a 10 page book on a different person but same genre. But as I'm trying to plan out the school year and how we will use this program, I'm stumped. If we fill out the pages for the five day biography section we then can't fill it out for the 10 biography reading that we do. Is it made with the intention that we would just photocopy those pages in the student book so that we could use them twice or did I totally misunderstand the purpose of the program?
I'm really excited for my daughter to start using it...if I can figure out how to teach it, haha!

[Samuel'sMommy]

I'm not entirely sure that this is what you are asking, but I'll give it a try...At the beginning of each section in the DITHOR workbook there is a page that says assigned reading calendar. It is broken down into 15 days. You schedule your books on it. So you either read 1 book for all 15 days, 1 book for 5 days and then 1 for 10 days, or 1 for 10 days and 1 for 5 days, whatever order you want to do it in. Then you use that schedule to know when to read and what day of the guide you are doing. So if you are reading a 5 day book and then a 10 day book, whatever worksheets are assigned for days 1-5 you complete using info from the first book. Then when you get to days 6-15, you complete those worksheets based on the 10 day book you are reading. Then when they do their project the last 5 days they can do it on either of the books they read. Does that make sense?

[Nealewill]

Just to add a little bit - each genre is scheduled to be covered over 21 days. The first day is the introduction activity. The 2nd day through the 16th day is the kids reading the book (day 1 through 15 in the student workbook). Then, I have my kids complete one of the projects and I give them up to 5 days to complete it.

So....to answer your question, your kids do not have a writing assignment every day with the student workbook. The level 2/3 books have 5-7 days of writing pages. Level 4/5 has approximately 8-11 pages of writing per genre. And the top level has writing most days. The teacher's manual is absolutely needed for this program. In the TM, it tells you which days have reading. If you look in the top outside corner of each worksheet, it tells you the genre and the "day" that this page goes with. You will notice that there isn't writing for each day. On the days that there is not writing, usually there is an activity you are supposed to do orally with your kids as well.

I hope that helps too.

[Annasauls]

I get the page breakdown section. What I don't understand is how you then use the pages. We will be using the 2/3 guide. Day 3 for Biography has the "Character Trait Web". So if our first book (she chose Helen Keller) reading days 1-5 we would use that page. Does that mean for our second book (she chose Elvis Presley, haha!) we wouldn't get to use that page at all? And if that's true then when she starts the second book, that would be day 6. That's the question and answer sheet. wouldnt it be more difficult to come up with some questions to ask about the person if she hasn't read ANYTHING about that person yet? I guess I just thought she was supposed to fully fill out each section per book, but I guess I'm wrong in that thinking? Or what about Adventure? If that one gets broken up also then she would miss getting to do the Prediction Pick or the Godly Character Traits for one of the books. That just doesn't make sense to me. What would be the point of doing it halfway??

[Rice]

Yes, you only do some of the pages for each book if you use shorter books. That said, some activities (like Character trait discussions) come up more than once in each genre. In 2/3 you do the Character Trait Web on Day 3, but then do other webs on Days 11 and 13 as well as the Godly Character Sheet on Day 9. No, you won't do everything for every book but it all evens out in the end. The higher the level, the more often a genre is done with just one book so everything will be done on the same set of characters, plot, etc. For every genre on Day 6 (and I think Day 11?) there are instructions/questions for introducing a new book, if that's where you're at, which you can do or skip as seems appropriate depending on whether you are switching books or not.

As you're doing it, you are right that you may come up against a page that you haven't read enough of the book to complete or that doesn't apply to the kind of book you're reading. (One example that comes to mind is in Mystery: if you read Encyclopedia Brown, each chapter is a different mystery so you wouldn't be able to easily do a page that asks you to predict what will happen next or how the mystery will be solved, since the readings don't flow together and you either wouldn't have read any details from that mystery yet or will have read the solution already for that day.) At that point you can make a decision whether you'll skip it, modify it, or switch it with another page from a different day. Since these guides work with any book, there sometimes isn't a perfect match and you can decide when a change needs to be made.

Hope that helps clarify a bit more. . .
Blessings,

[Nealewill]

And just add a little bit to what Rice said and full agreement with the fact that you don't ever repeat a worksheet.

But do you have the TM? Level 2/3 has a lot of activities that are to be completed but they aren't all listed in the Student Work Book. Day 1, 5, and 11 have a pre-reading activities. Day 2, 7, and 12 utilize guided questions to describe the text and make associations. It also includes an optional vocab activity (at our house, we do the vocab activities). Day 3, 8, and 13 identify and analyze a different story element for each genre. Day 4, 9, and 14 cover Godly character lessons. And day 5 and 10 go over a comprehension questions. Sometimes there are written activities (which are the pages in the student book) but many more days there are oral activities. The teachers manual tells you topics to cover, either written or oral,

I know you only asked about whether or not to repeat the worksheets for each book but I guess I was just wanted to show the lay out and topics covered each day. And even though I listed that topics are covered multiple times, they covered in a different way each time. So - for example - day 1, 5 and 11 are all pre-reading activities. They area all covered differently or focus on something different. For day 1, you look at the title, the cover, the synopsis, etc. Day 6 you may analyze a picture in the book. Some are written and some are not. I know that with the Godly Character traits, day 9 is written. But those same traits are reviewed on 4 and 14. Only 9 is in the student workbook but day 4 and 14 are covered in the TM orally. So I guess all I am saying is that there is no need to repeat worksheets for each book. These topics are covered very well and repeated through out each genre. If you read one book for 5 days - then you go through each topic with that book 1 time. For the second book, you are seeing those topics covered 2 times in that genre.

Also, for DITHOR, it isn't really a reading and comprehension program. It is more about teaching the kids a way to think about what is read. So in that sense, they are thinking each day about something that was read. That is another reason you don't really need to repeat any sheets. The skill of "thinking" is what is being taught with DITHOR regardless of how many books are covered in the genre.

Just to follow up with your question about day 6 - does she know anything at all about Elvis? Day 6 is a pre-reading activity so she can think of any questions she wants. The answers may or may not be in the book. That is okay I think come day 10 she is supposed to answer those questions but I can't quite remember. If she knows nothing about him, I might have her read the synopsis of the book to get her thinking of some good questions. But in general, she doesn't need to know if the answer to her question is in the book or not to ask it. That would be a fine activity to start the book off with IMHO.

I hope that helps.

[Annasauls]

Y'all have been VERY helpful. Thank you so much!! I DO have the teachers guide and understand what you're saying about flow. I think with how I originally purchased the program I got an idea in my mind of how it was going to work and then could not change my way of thinking later on. I bought just the student book first and was loving the idea of my daughter having to take the time to think through the books she was reading. And then I looked in the catalog and saw all the suggested readers and assumed they would all match up. Since there were often two choices (a 5 day and a 10 day) I assumed there would be a way to do the pages for each book. Once I bought the TG at a conference I just skimmed through it and thought it looked great for oral parts. Now that I'm taking time to plan out our year I began to freak out a bit because I couldn't figure out how what was in my head wasn't matching up with what the TG said. So now comes the hardest part, changing my way of thinking!! Haha! Thanks again so much. I appreciate y'all taking the time to help me see the real way the program is meant to be used.
One last question. I also assumed we'd use the whole book this year, but I've seen people say you only use half this year and half next year. Is that true? Or can you do the whole book this year and just buy a new student book with new readers for next year?

[Rice]

The younger guides (starting as an option in Bigger - the other options being phonics or the Emerging Readers, for before they're ready for DITHOR) do it every day so they do all 9 genres in a year. The upper guides (I believe starting with Preparing) have the students doing some of the other subjects (science, history, etc.) independently, so already doing enough reading through the other subjects that they only do DITHOR 2-3 times per Unit, so they only do 4-5 genres of DITHOR per year, ideally going through all of them every 2 years.

Of course, you can always do it every day, if you wish, but Carrie has the guides very balanced each day for the amount of work required and the total amount of work expected of the student.

Blessings,

[queenireneof3]

I wanted to add about your question about the Biography - Day 6 Question and Answer Sheet. I pulled out my workbook and looked and it says that the students will write their questions on day 6 and fill in the answers on day 10. So even if you start a new book on day 6, they won't have to answer their questions until they've read a bit farther.