Literacy Begins at Home

Reading at home is so important that I have included it as a major part of your child's homework.  By helping your children find books or other materials to read, reading aloud to them, or listening to them read, and helping them fill out our weekly Reading Log sheet, you are showing that you think reading is important, too.

So, you want to help your child with reading at home, but aren’t exactly sure what to do?  You can use the following tips to help when reading with your child and discussing a book that your child has read independently. 

Children in third grade still love to be read to.  Reading

aloud with children gives you many opportunities to

improve children's literacy.  You can help your child:

• develop richer vocabulary
• enhance comprehension skills
• understand the structure of both fictional stories and nonfiction pieces
• strengthen the parent-child relationship
• increase word recognition skills
• develop an understanding of the writing process

Parents play just as important a role in their child's literacy development as teachers do.  The time a parent takes to read to a child is never wasted!

What can you do when reading with your child?

Try to do the following when you read with your child:

• point out the title, author, and illustrator

• read the dedication page

• look at the cover and predict what the book will be about

• take a "picture walk" through the book, and predict what will happen before reading it

• read with expression, and add special voices for each different character

• encourage your child to ask questions or make comments as you read

Activities to Extend Your Child’s Reading

• Create a New Story - Talk about the characters in a story.  Describe them using character traits such as foolish, wise, generous, greedy, kind, helpful, proud, or careless.  Think about what the character might do next, and write a new story about the character.

• Change One Part-  The main elements of a story are the characters, setting, problem and solution.  Try changing one of these, and make up another story!

• Reread - Many times, a child will come to love a particular story and ask you to read it over and over again.  Do exactly that, even if it means that both of you know the words by heart.  While it may be tedious for the parent, it helps to develop richer vocabulary, and the willingness to read more independently.

• Make Connections -  One of the first lessons I teach during reading class in September is how to connect to what you are reading.  There are three kinds of connections:  text to self, text to text, and text to world.  The children become experts at connecting while reading, and should be encouraged to do it when they read at home as well.  You can help them connect what they are reading to real people, events, and places by asking such questions as:  Did anything like this ever happen to you or someone you know?  What does this remind you of?  Who does this character seem like?  Remember when we went to a place like that?

• Develop the Self-Questioning Habit - Good readers ask questions or wonder to themselves while they read.  You can model this by "thinking out loud" while reading with your child.

How can reading make your child a better writer?

Books provide lots of terrific ideas for children to write about.  Here are some you might want to try!

• After reading a story, imagine that there are a few more pages in the book.  What might be written on those pages?  What could happen next?

• Draw a favorite character in a new setting, doing something new.  Use the picture as a springboard for writing another adventure about the character.

• Find some wordless picture books.  Write words to go along with each page to create a written story.

• Write a letter to one of the characters in a story after reading the book.  Or write to the author of the book!

• After reading a non-fiction book, your child can make a mini-report by drawing pictures of things from the book.  Each picture can then be used to write a caption.  Assemble the pictures into booklet form, or make a "chain" by attaching them side by side, like a comic strip.

• Many stories follow a pattern or have repetitive language.  Students can follow the pattern to create their own pages in the same manner.

• To encourage even the most reluctant writer, entice them with special writing implements or paper.  Some kids just love gel pens, Post-it notes, markers, decorative stationary, or even chalk and a blackboard.  It doesn't matter what they use.  Just get them writing!

• Make sure you have a high-quality children's dictionary and thesaurus on hand at home.

 Click here for more tips: Writing at Home

Parent Tips for Writing

What can children write?

• Lists:  grocery lists, lists of guests to invite to parties, things to take on vacation

• Cards: birthday, holiday, get well, miss you, thank you

• Letters, postcards, labels, signs

• Stories about:  themselves, family, neighbors, friends, pets, sports, dreams, wishes, imaginary creatures, fantasy places, feelings, worries, food, hobbies, toys, trips, adventures, special places, nature

• Journals, diaries, captions for family photos

• Help your child find an intriguing magazine picture, and write about it!  (I have a whole file like this in school!)