Learning to Read Reading to Learn Presented by: Gail Hannas Parents and Reading

10 Ways to Help Your Children Become Better Readers  1. Help your children acquire a wide-range of knowledge.  Involving your children in conversation about anything and everything daily will give them background knowledge.

10 Ways to Help Your Children Become Better Readers  2. Talk with your children about their experiences.  This will help your children learn new words and understand the process of putting thoughts together. This will also allow you to share your past experiences with your child.

10 Ways to Help Your Children Become Better Readers  3. Encourage your children to think about events.  Ask them to describe these events. Share local and national news, school news, movies, etc.  Your values and views are important to your children.

10 Ways to Help Your Children Become Better Readers  4. Read aloud to your children.  Younger children love to hear stories. Older children and adults also value this experience. Share tidbits that you want them to know by reading small excerpts to them.

10 Ways to Help Your Children Become Better Readers  5. Provide your children with writing materials.  Younger children like to write their own stories. Be sure to have paper, pencils, markers, crayons, and magnetic letters. Special themed stationary is great for older children. Journals can be completed by families daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Start a “My Life and Times” diary.

10 Ways to Help Your Children Become Better Readers  6. Encourage your children to watch TV programs that have educational value.  Watch shows with your children. Discuss the shows. Watch movies -read the books- and share similarities and differences.

10 Ways to Help Your Children Become Better Readers  7. Monitor how much TV your children watch.  Research shows that watching up to 10 hours a week could be positive; however, the more children watch TV, the less they read = lower scores in performance on tests: 98%tile reading score read 1 hour daily 50%tile reading score read 5 mins. daily 20%tile reading score read less than 1 min. daily

10 Ways to Help Your Children Become Better Readers  8. Monitor your children’s school performance.  Children tend to be more successful readers when their parents have an accurate view of what their child is doing in school.  (Checkpoint for progress in Reading and Writing for Families and Communities - Developed by subgroup of America Reads Challenge: Read*Write*Now)

10 Ways to Help Your Children Become Better Readers  9. Encourage your children to read independently.  One of your top priorities should be to encourage your children to spend more time reading - books, magazines, newspapers

10 Ways to Help Your Children Become Better Readers  10. Continue your personal involvement in your child’s growth as readers.  Set a good example for your children by reading. Establish rules for reading activities.

Kindergarten -2nd Grade  From Sunshine State Standards: Get better at reading and writing by speaking and getting to know the alphabet, sounds, and words. They learn to develop vocabulary by listening to and discussing stories that are read aloud and can summarize stories by giving details of events Understand and follow simple directions

Kindergarten -2nd Grade Understand that print goes from left to right Know the letters and sounds of the alphabet Know simple words and begins to recognize high frequency words by sight Start to read signs, food packages, everyday items Like being read to and has favorite books of different types - fiction, non-fiction, poetry They can generate ideas for writing

 How you can help!  Read out loud and talk about stories every day  Get your child a library card and go to the library regularly  Read nursery rhymes and sing songs together  Talk with your child’s teacher often about your child’s work  Let your child see you reading for fun Kindergarten -2nd Graders

 Take time each day to talk about school and share your day  Have a writing supply box with crayons and paper  Watch education TV programs together that teach letter sounds and words. Limit other television viewing  Listen to your child  Encourage your child to act out stories in plays or puppet shows with friends, brothers/sisters, relatives, etc. Kindergarten -2nd Graders

 Have your child draw a picture. Together, write a story that goes with that picture. You may use a family photograph, a picture from a magazine, or one drawn by child.  Play games with your child that require concentration - card games, memory games, etc.  Play rhyming games, sing songs with rhymes, and play with the sounds of words. Kindergarten -2nd Graders

 Make tape recordings of books when you will not be available to read in person. The child can still “read with you” in your absence…great for non- custodial parents who want to read regularly with their child.  Read a story to the child and have him retell the story to you later. Ask questions during reading...”What do you think will happen? Guess the ending, what would you do?” Kindergarten -2nd Graders

Strategies for Learning to Read  Parent led activities: Introduce a new book - look at the cover - think what the book will be about- do a picture read - look at new vocabulary Guess the Ending Predicting - “ What do you think will happen next?” “What should he do?” Give help when needed- Wait time: use cueing strategies Does it make sense? What is the beginning sound? Does it sound right? Skip it and read on to the end. Backtrack and reread. Use key words and picture clues. Find chunks of words that you know. Use letter sounds from families - onsets and rimes.

Strategies for Learning to Read Choose books with: Repetition or rhymes Simple Text Predictability Picture clues Interest to child

Strategies for Learning to Read  Reread favorite books  Retell the story  Tape a book  Put a story in order  Play word games

 From Sunshine State Standards: v (read and write every day. They start to move from “Learning to Read” to “Reading to Learn.” ) Read many kinds of children’s books Read for fun, information, and understanding Use different ways of reading - sounding out words, getting information from the story, and personal knowledge - to understand stories and new words Understand main ideas and purpose 3rd - 5th Graders

They can identify fact, fiction and opinion in texts In writing, they create logical beginning, middle and ending appropriate to their writing. They can identify an author’s purpose in writing They can read and organize information and understands how plots are developed. 3rd - 5th Graders

 How you can help!  Have a daily family reading time. Take turns reading out loud  Talk about family and community events  Talk with your child’s teacher and ask how you can help with learning at home  Ask your child to read wherever you go - in the car, grocery store or park

3rd - 5th Graders  Watch and talk about TV shows together  Give books and magazine subscriptions as gifts  Encourage conversation; share experiences  Ask questions about what the main ideas are from fiction and non-fiction books and articles.

What Parents Can Do to Help! Spend time talking to your children every day. Talk about everything - Your values education, society, life. This will make a difference! **GO MAD** Go Out - Make A Difference