DITHOR question

[tbarr12]

In doing the first 3 lessons of DITHOR, I found my kids had a little problem figuring out the "problem" in the books they're reading, because they hadn't gotten far enough in the book yet! I took the # of pages in their books and divided them by 15, which in both cases turned out to be 11 pp. ea. So by the 2nd day, when they're asked to figure out the "problem", at least one of them said they felt like they hadn't gotten to it yet!

Am I doing this right? Has anyone else run into this issue? Any suggestions? Thanks.

Tracey

[kiloyd]

I don't know but I'm just about to start DITHOR and I want to know too. The book is in my lap now and I'm figuring it out.

[Carrie]

Tracey,

Typically after doing the prereading activities for the genre (on Day 1), my kiddos usually have a pretty good idea of the overall plot summary of the book. This includes the problem. Then, as they're reading they can usually make predictions about what the problems might be even if they haven't already fully encountered the problem in the opening days of the story. We've also found that there are usually several problems in the story, varying from small to large. So, sometimes my kiddos will list a smaller problem that they've read about at the time they are doing the first round of lessons and discover a larger one later as they do the next round of lessons.

The important thing to remember as you do Drawn into the Heart of Reading is that through the lessons you are setting the stage of what the kiddos are to look for as they're reading. This is a different type of reading than most reading programs employ, as most programs are asking questions after the reading that are mainly focused on comprehension and can be answered easily (and too often without much thought) simply by looking back in the reading. We actually want the lessons to prime kiddos to be thinking ahead to what is coming next and to be brainstorming about what might be ahead for the characters. The goal is active thinking as the kiddos read, rather than there being a "right answer" they are supposed to find each lesson.

Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Carrie

[my3sons]

Carrie already gave such good insight here, so I'll just add that the answer that "there is not a problem yet" is okay to give too (though I'm sure some dialogue could still be had about it). Most books do have some type of problem 22 pages in, or at least the beginning of a problem, but if a book doesn't, than the dc answering by saying there is no problem is actually a correct answer and shows they are beginning to understand that story element too. It helps me to refer often to that wonderful overview page at the start of each genre where the definitions of the genre, story element, and Godly character trait is given. So, if my dc answered there was no problem, and I knew there was, I'd refer back to that overview page to review the definition of a problem and then say, "Hmmmmm, now can you think of a problem, or can you see a problem forming?" Predicting is an excellent skill to encourage in reading as well, as is prereading.

Maybe it helps to think of it as a book club type experience? If one of the questions was "What problems have you noticed in the reading?", and you were in a book club with a bunch of friends, how would you have answered it? That kind of brainstorming type dialogue is at the heart of good reading comprehension. In fact, it's often the more difficult to convey answers that show the most depth of thought about a book and its intricacies. Much more so than the cut and dry type answers to one answer only type comprehension questions. DITHOR just goes deeper than that, and you'll have many years to study "problems" in various living books, so no worries. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[grandsophy]

I JUST received my DITHOR so this comes from my knowledge of story construction rather than experience with DITHOR, but I'm wondering if a follow-up question might be "what does the main character really want?" It might not be stated as a problem yet, but more of a desire.