An article I met in My Reading Place. com reminded me of an idea that my mentor and I have been purporting for years about encouraging children to read by example. This article was also supported by a famous children's author, Eve Bunting, featured in a podcast entitled “Meet the Author” on Reading Rockets. Ms. Bunting reminisced on her parents active involvement in the act of reading and how it impacted on her as an author.
The tips in the article encouraged parents to become actively involved to encourage children to become ardent readers. It reported five basic strategies to assist parents. The first was for the parent to be a model reader for children to follow. Secondly, parents were encouraged to read to children regularly. Children should also have access to a wide selection of well written books of interest at their disposal. However, praising children for their efforts and talking and singing with children help to build and cement the much needed vocabulary and self esteem necessary for reading.
The International Reading Association celebrates reading annually in September with the Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) project. Circulars are sent to the nation’s schools to be participants of this project. Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) is also another initiative that teachers can use to promote reading. Five to Ten minutes can be utilized for SSR daily in the classroom. However, the teacher must also remember to model the same.
Students can bring appropriate text of interest. The SSR period should be announced and everyone in the room should be actively engaged in the act. At the end of the period allot two minutes for reflective sharing. This will help students to stay on task. Model how a summary is done. Eventually, students can be directed to critically review reading material.
Meet The Author
Tips to Build Strong Readers
Hi Eve
ReplyDeleteI believe that the same strategies that were given to parents all of them could be done by teachers to motivate students to read. As a teacher I believe in SSR. I used it with my students. The struggling readers usually take a while to start reading but in the end they will start reading. Last term I started allowing my students to write in their journals about what they had read. I like the idea also of allowing them to share what they have read with a peer. I used to call on some of my students to tell me what they have read if I believe they were not reading. I however need to be a model teacher by reading when it is SSR time. I usually find myself correcting books.That's bad.
Hi Eve
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment on the role of parents in developing the love of reading in their children.Let us not forget that reading is the single most important skill a child should master so as you rightly said parents have an important role to play to ensure that their child learns to read. Unfortunately it has been my experience that some parents believe that memorizing the text is reading. Yes, repetition and memorizing have a role to play in reading but that role is quite small. There are many different components involved. Learning to read is about gaining an appreciation of those components that constitute language.
It is important that we, as teachers who know , educate parents about the importance of modelling reading behaviour to their kids from a young age. This is so important for the boys who do not see their dads reading. A boy who curls up with a book for hours is sometimes labelled a sissy by family members who don't know any better.This unfounded fear discourages our male readers but we teachers can do a lot to correct these issues in our classrooms.Looking forward to September to start using journals with my kids.