Little Bits of Life: Readers in Residence Volume 1 by Apologia Educational Ministries Review

Apologia Educational Ministries Readers in Residence

We are excited to be reviewing once again for Apologia Educational Ministries. We will be reviewing Readers in Residence Volume 1 (Sleuth). This is a reading comprehension program that includes literature, and vocabulary. It will help students recognize the different elements of literature. Build vocabulary as they gather up clues from their reading, Identify figures of speech etc. This is designed to be used by 4th to 6th grade or those that are a little behind in reading and can sometimes be used special needs students. We received both the student book and the answer key. The student book is in color and very fancy for a student book.

To use this curriculum you will need to purchase three books. Sarah, Plain and Tall, Charlotte's Web, and Because of Winn-Dixie. These are all great books so I was excited to see them used. All of them can be found on Amazon or at a local library. If your local library does not have them they are all very affordable and I found them for around 2 and 3$ each. It does recommend you use certain editions as the curriculum does refer to specific page numbers at times and it makes it easier for the student to find the passage if they are using the same edition so the passages are on the same pages.

My oldest who is finishing up her 4th grade year was the one to use this curriculum. She has not finished it yet but we are well into the curriculum. The beginning of the book gives a suggested weekly schedule of 4 days per week for 32 weeks. Some of the lessons are a little longer than others but over all its not a bad pace. You might need to slow it down a touch if you have a struggling reader. A little box is provided so that the student can check off the days lesson. The lessons are very well laid out. The schedule tells her where to go to find what she is to do for the day. She simple reads the lesson information and then completes the reading assignment if their is one and or the writing assignment. The writing assignments are usually questions or some sort of chart that go along with what they have been reading. Some assignments for the day have more questions for them to answer than others. Some days she is finished in an hour others it takes her a bit longer. Their is a small dictionary in the back of the book with vocabulary words that they will learn while completing this curriculum. She like the dictionary and has found it useful for more than one assignment. At the end of each module the student will use a rubric grade or assess how well they have done on that module. Instructions are included so they know how to use the rubric. They are also given a checklist that is a great help for keeping my kiddo on task and on track. If you take a look to the left you can see some samples of different pages that are in Readers in Residence.

My oldest is my avid reader, she will read anything I put in front of her, she will do it with a smile and usually lots of excitement. She was a little intimated when she saw this book, its huge and she is not a fan of writing. I had to give her some encouragement that it was mostly reading with some writing mixed in. I sat with her for the first few lessons to be sure she was understanding what she was expected to do. After that she comes to me with questions and I check in on her to see if she has questions. I then review all her work after she has completed it for the day. I see her vocabulary improving and her ability to figure out the meaning of a word by using the information in the text around it. She doesn't mind the writing as much as I anticipated. She says" the lessons are easy to understand they just make since." The charts have been a great help for her to identify the different parts of the story and to see how a story flows. She found the charts fun, many of them are colored and that just adds a little fun to it. She has enjoyed the book selection and was eager to read them. As soon as she saw the books her eyes lit up. She recognized two of the books as ones she had been wanting to read. She said "but I have already read Charlotte's Web." I explained that it was ok to read it again and that she would probably learn some new things the second time around.

The curriculum does talk about your child participating in a book club. We were not able to do this as we live in a rural area and it just was not possible. So we varied a little and I just had her discuss the books with me or her NaNa as we have all read these books and are familiar enough with them to be able to have a discussion on them.

I was once again impressed with Apologia's curriculum and how well it covers everything that my daughter needed to learn for reading. I plan on ordering another copy when my youngest is in 4th grade. Click the link below for some more Apologia Readers in Residence reviews written by other crew members.

Readers in Residence teaches your child how to Read to Learn.