Summer time

It is that time of the year again, summer. If they have not already, your local libraries should be kicking off their summer reading programs soon. Do not miss out on them. It is a good way to encourage literacy and ensure that your child has fun doing it. There is nothing more empowering than when a teacher is reading a book in class and the child can say "I read that book" or "I have that book." Jails/prisons are full of children and adults who never became literate. Literacy is a strong predictor of life-long success.

Remember literacy isn't just about decoding or pronouncing a word. Reading involves decoding, fluency, comprehension, predictions, inferences and much more. You help increase your child's fluency by: introducing them to difficult words in a text before they read it, familiarizing them with high frequency words and phonics, phonemic awareness, teaching the meaning of prefixes and suffixes, using pictures to have them learn the meaning of words, becoming familiar with writing structures and joint reading (this is when an adult reads with the child aloud). This takes time.

Reading is not supposed to be rushed so we can say we read. What is your purpose for reading? Discuss with your child before you read a book what the purpose of reading will be. Ask them what they already know about the book/topic and what they want to know.

You can build comprehension by helping children to connect their world and knowledge to what they are reading. Try to ask reflective questions about similarities and differences of other stories they have read, places they have been or things they have experienced, discuss the structure of the writing (narrative or expository) and their purposes, the author's intent, the author's point(s) of view, and help children learn to write cohesive sentences/paragraphs. Have your child to create a word book. It can have three columns. The first column is for the word, the meaning of the word (in their own words) and a picture that symbolizes what the word means to them. For our ELL learners it can help to have the child write the name of the word in English and their native language (s). Comprehension is developmental. Start with facts, then predictions, inferences, structure, author's intentions and so on.

A love for reading can be contagious. When children see adults that love to read, they become more interested in reading. Remember, children should be checking out at least 14 books per week from a library. None of us have enough books in our homes. Seven hours per weeks should be related to content and the other 8 hours should be high interest reading. Of course, in a perfect world the two can be one in the same but that is not always the case.

Reading programs usually offer free stuff. It is a great way to promote literacy and save money. Many libraries offer free tickets to restaurants, amusement parks, and even free books. Stay away from workbooks. Be sure to get cross curriculum programs. Reading and writing are a part of every subject/content. Set a goal. If your family meets that goal celebrate and when school starts be sure to share how many books your children read with their teachers.

Idea - plan trips around books that you read or take a trip (store, museum, library, different state, monument, and other interesting places) then follow-up with a book about something you saw there. Make books available in the car for those long and short trips, doctor's visits and at the grocery store.

Ready, set, read!

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