Children Becoming Readers (eBook)

How It Happens in the Home

Tom Schroeder (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
126 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-3024-5 (ISBN)

Infos

This book treats a critical but often overlooked element in the development of strong reading skills in children. Namely, it exposes the vital importance of the home - not just as a support to the school, but as a foundational source from which literate behavior emerges. This is not a 'teach your child how to read' book. Rather, it is a book that examines how the development of reading ability in children can be a part of their natural development in the culture of the home in which they grow up. A key element of the book provides readers with an examination the reading process and understanding what is happening as a child is processing print. This explanation not only gives interesting and exciting insights into what is happening while a child is reading, but also shows that the most important elements that promote success in reading are things that can happen naturally in the child's home environment. These understandings lead to the heart of the book -- the importance of developing a culture of literacy in the home and enabling the child see himself or herself as a natural and powerful member of a literate culture. This is something that is desperately needed in today's world. The book ends by examining some challenges and opportunities that emerge when we engage with this notion of creating a literate culture in the home. Pulling the ideas presented in the book all together, we see that treating children as members of a literate culture unleashes an amazing potential for children to experience the power and the joy of literacy in their lives, which is critical to the well-being of our children as individuals and of our society as a whole.

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This book treats a critical but often overlooked element in the development of strong reading skills in children. Namely, it exposes the vital importance of the home - not just as a support to the school, but as a foundational source from which literate behavior emerges. This is not a "e;teach your child how to read"e; book. Rather, it is a book that examines how the development of reading ability in children can be a part of their natural development in the culture of the home in which they grow up. The book begins by discussing three basic elements that are important for success in any endeavor, including reading, and showing that the home is the critical place where these important foundations for reading are best developed. Along with these basic ideas, readers are reminded that in order to help others develop reading skills, it is important to understand the reading process and how it works. This idea brings readers into a key element of the book by taking the reader inside the reading process, showing what is happening as a child is processing print while reading. This explanation not only gives interesting and exciting insights into what is happening while a child is reading, but also shows that the most important elements that promote success in reading are things that are happening naturally in the child's home environment. These chapters equip the reader with essential understandings that can promote powerful and positive influences on children's experiences with literacy by examining questions such as what is reading? what is happening when the child is reading? where does word power come from? and where does meaning come from? Equipped with these understandings, the reader is led to discover how the home can be a vital factor in helping the child acquire and practice a collection of skills and attitudes that make him an effective and powerful member of a literate society. In fact, this is the heart of the book -- the importance of developing a culture of literacy in the home and enabling the child see himself or herself as a natural and powerful member of a literate culture. This is something that is desperately needed in today's world. The book ends by examining some challenges and opportunities that emerge when we engage with this notion of creating a literate culture in the home. Pulling the ideas presented in the book all together, we see that treating children as members of a literate culture unleashes an amazing potential for children to experience the power and the joy of literacy in their lives, which is critical to the well-being of our children as individuals and of our society as a whole.

Textauszug

CHAPTER ONE:
MAKING IT HAPPEN –
THE BIG THREE

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

–Dr. Seuss

Imagine yourself in the middle of a well-equipped and well-stocked kitchen. You have a big collection of beautiful, fresh raw ingredients and a fancy stove and sharp knives and lots of counter space with everything you need to make a perfect meal and enjoy eating it. And you are a very good cook. But … you’re not hungry. In fact, you are completely full, and the thought of food doesn’t even cross your mind. My guess is that you’re not going to take the time and go to the trouble of cooking. There’s no point! It doesn’t matter how great the conditions are for you to do something, or how great you are at it, if you see no reason for doing it, you won’t do it—especially if it takes some time and effort.

Now imagine that you are a person who loves to eat—and loves to cook—and you’re good at it. You can imagine yourself preparing a scrumptious meal and enjoying it with some friends. And you’re hungry! But … you’ve got no food to prepare and no kitchen to work in. Under those circumstances, you can’t prepare a great meal even if you want to. It doesn’t matter how motivated you are to do something; if you don’t have the opportunity to do it, you won’t do it.

OK, one more time, now imagine yourself back in the kitchen. This time you are hungry. You crave a great meal. You are motivated to create something special for you and your friends to enjoy. All the great raw ingredients are there. All the appliances you need are there. You have unlimited time to spend on cooking and enjoying a terrific meal. Only one problem: You don’t know how to cook! You don’t have a cookbook or a recipe. And even if you did, you probably couldn’t follow it because you know nothing about cooking. You think boiled eggs just come that way from certain kinds of chickens. You don’t know the first thing about how to turn those raw ingredients into a meal. It doesn’t matter how much you want to do something and how many resources are there to do it. If you don’t know how to do it, you won’t.

These three scenarios illustrate “the big three” elements that need to be present for anyone to do anything:

• They need to have a reason to do it.
• They need to have the opportunity to do it.
• They need to have the tools to do it.

This is absolutely true of learning to read. To be successful, our children need to have reasons to read, opportunities to read, and the tools to read. If these three elements are not present in their lives, learning to read will be a struggle. Let’s briefly look at these three ideas.

First, what about having a reason to read? Think about it What reasons do our children have to read? In school, the reason is usually that the teacher tells the children to read. They are assigned the task of reading. They are told what to read and when to read. Of course, having an assignment in school is a legitimate reason to read, but no one ever learns to love reading if they only read when they are told to.

That’s where your home life can play a leading role. You can make reading a vital part of your child’s life. Take a moment to think about some ways you can give your child reasons to read at home or in your community.

First, there are practical reasons for reading, like reading you the recipe while you’re cooking, or looking up and reading information about the place you’ll be going for vacation, or finding reviews for a new movie, or reading letters or text messages from friends or family.

Then there are personal reasons to read, like reading books of their favorite author, or articles about some idea that’s close to their heart, or an issue that worries them, or a skill they want to learn. Children need to know that their home is the place where reading is a way to indulge their interests, explore their problems, and pursue their desires.

Second, they have to have the opportunity to read. Here is where your home has a huge role to play. Teachers work hard to find time for children to read in school, but they have lots of required activities to carry out and many subjects to cover. Opportunities to engage in reading are clearly limited in school.

But you can provide almost unlimited opportunities for your children to read. One very important way is just to make print available. Why do you pick up that magazine on the table in the doctor’s office waiting room? Because it’s there. The question is, what is there for your child in your home?

We all know that there is huge competition for your child’s attention. What is almost always available these days is technology. If an appealing game is instantly available on a cell phone or tablet, and nothing else is around, guess what will capture your child’s attention.

Think about what your child is interested in or is passionate about. Are there books and magazines around that speak to his interests and his passions? He won’t pick them up if they don’t exist!

Making sure that appealing and interesting reading materials are available in your home takes work and time and attention. It could involve visiting libraries and museums and other places that are rich in print materials. And it means taking advantage of opportunities to use technology to find interesting information and to take virtual field trips. But the investment is worth it – not only because it contributes to reading power, but also because it contributes to your child’s growth as a person.

In addition to making print available in your home, you can make time available, too. Actually, the time is there. Remember all those hours that your child is not in school? The question is, can you help to see that some of those hours are spent in real reading activities?

An effective way to make this happen is to set aside a regular time when adults and children just read. It doesn’t need to be long or programmed. Everyone decides what they want to read. You simply set a time for reading. I think you might be surprised at what could happen. Your children get valuable time to practice reading and it could spark some interesting family conversations. If you start this when your child is young, it will be a familiar practice by the time he is a teenager. As you think about it, you will find many other ways to help make time available for reading in your home.

So, as a parent, what happens in your home is crucial for your children to find reasons to read and opportunities to read in their everyday life. What about the third element of the “big three” —the tools to read? This is clearly where we look to the schools for leadership. Research regarding the science of reading is continuously leading to new insights about how reading should be taught.

Can you as parents and concerned adults help provide your children the skills and competence needed to read effectively? Absolutely! In fact, that’s what the rest of this book is all about. As you learn more about what reading is, you will discover that the home is a critical place to help children acquire the tools they need to become powerful and effective readers.

So What?

In this chapter, we’ve stressed that’s it’s important to give your children practical and personal reasons to read, and to give them opportunities to read by making lots of print materials available and making time available for reading. What might this look like in your home?

Look for reasons for your child to read. How about having your child “look up” something for you (on-line, in the newspaper, in a recipe book, etc.) or going through the mail for the day and telling you about what’s there for the family. Or write your child a note on a regular basis (like every Friday morning) and put it in a special place where she will always find it. Or give your child something you have read that you think is meaningful and ask his opinion or reaction.

There are endless ways to provide children with reasons to read, but they won’t always occur to a child without someone drawing their attention to them. You have to be intentional. Take a thoughtful look at what’s going on in your home. What are some things that can naturally give your child a reason to engage with print? Go for it.

Likewise, you must be intentional about providing your children opportunities to read at home by making print and time available. Intentionally place interesting reading materials in strategic locations in the house. Set aside a time for yourself to read. Let your child know that he’s welcome to join you. Talk about things that your child is interested in and cares about. Find reading materials related to her passions and have them available. When you’re out and about, pick up flyers and notices from merchants and community agencies. Ask your child about what they say. Ask your child what signs are saying as you are out in the car. Again, there are endless opportunities for children to...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.3.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-3024-5 / 9798350930245