Help Your Child Become a Better Reader
Wednesday May 7, 2008
Learning to read is an adventure that begins in infancy and continues through the elementary years and beyond. Even children who don't like to read (a large number from my observations), must become excellent readers to achieve at the highest level in their K-12 and college educations. The 2000 report of the National Reading Panel describes the building blocks children need to develop excellent reading skills.
- Build spoken language by talking and listening
- Learn about print and books
- Being read to and reading on their own
- Learn to relate the sounds of spoken language to letters and words
- Be able to recognize words when they see them
- Learn to spell and write words
- Learn new words and build their knowledge of what words mean
- Develop the ability to read quickly and naturally
- Build their ability to understand what they read
- Build their knowledge of the world
We know it's important to read to our children, but parents can go beyond just reading to kids to help them become better readers. This is a source for ideas and activities you can do to help your child achieve each of these building blocks and become better readers.
Comments
Much to my surprise, I ended up needing to teach my first grader how to read because his school’s Whole Language curriculum wasn’t working for him. The article I wrote about how I taught him to read has helped a lot of NY-area parents and I thought I would share it with your readers. It’s at http://www.goodcityliving.com/how-to-teach-your-child-to-rea/
I also write a blog called Helicopter Mom that focuses on how much work parents need to do these days in order to support their kids in school. That blog also features a day-by-day accounting of what I did to teach my son how to read. I hope the legwork I did will save your readers many hours of work and worry.
http://www.goodcityliving.com/part-1/
Thanks for doing such a great job.
Irene