Improving Student’s Reading at Home By Gail Payton and Bob Barth

Goals Increase parent and child interaction during at home reading time. Improve read fluency and comprehension Develop parent strategies to use at home.

Surveys

Why should we worry about student’s reading at home? Home is the child’s first school. The parent is the child’s first and most important teacher. Pleasure principal – Kids who learn that reading is fun are more likely to continue reading and learning. If children are motivated to read – they will read more and better.

Parents Role of the parents is not to be instructors. Role of the parents is not to teach reading. Parents are to encourage reading and guide children in activities.

Benefits for Parents Establishes a close living bond between parent and child. Books can be a spring board to talk about real-life experiences. Books allow the parent to feed their child’s imagination. Parents can enjoy favorite stories from their childhood.

Benefits for Students Improve as readers Do better in school Gain confidence Become more independent Appreciate a larger, richer world (Read To Me by Cullinan)

Family Literacy Program Train parents how to read/listen to children Parents promote good reading habits Provide parents with methods/strategies Literacy activities

Train parents how to read/listen to child

Parents promote good reading habits Have a set time for at home reading (Consistency is important!) Help children get access to a variety of reading material Use a variety of methods: Have your child read to himself (talk to him/her about what he/she read), read to your child, and read a book together. Make reading time enjoyable!

Provide Parents with methods/strategies Explain reading benefits for parents and students at parent night Establish reading circle program Give all parents the opportunity to come into the classroom and participate in the reading circle discussions. Send home literacy activities and strategies on a monthly parent bookmark.

Family Literacy Activities Find riddle and joke books at the library – let them read jokes and riddles to you while you do dishes. Write your own jokes together. Use a cookbook together Write a letter to a relative or to a character in a book Make illustrations for a chapter book

Incentives Parents and students will read 20 minutes together every night for a total of 100 minutes a week. Parents will sign the nightly Reading Circle Dollar. Students will return the completed Reading Circle Dollar and then a raffle will be held monthly. Students will have the opportunity to win a new book for their home library.

Reading Circle Video Lights Camera Action !!!!!!!

Resources Family Literacy – Connections in Schools and Communities by Lesley Morrow Read to Me by Bernice Cullinan The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease