The article, 4 Ways to Raise Kids Who Love to Read by Derek James, is intended to persuade parents into understanding the importance of inspiring their child’s love to read at an early age and also provides strategies for encourage children to read. The first is to have them “be an investigator” by looking up questions they have using books rather than google. The second strategy is to “create a reading nook”. This gives the kids a safe and comfortable environment in which to read. The third piece of advice is to “act it out” by participating with your kids in acting out the characters and the plot of the story.…
By not exposing children to non-canonical literature, such as, “Foul Shots” and Bodega Dreams, teachers are depriving their students of enrichment that will constantly follow them throughout life. An enrichment of a diverse selection of literature will not only get students to enjoy reading again, but it could spark interests in reading more often and inspire them to become more open-minded.…
When students can make real world connections to what they are reading they become better readers, and by engaging in active discussion with others, the cumulative experience of each student further deepens their understanding. In my Educational Psychology class, I learned about the work of Vygotsky who was a proponent of social learning with students learning from one another in their zone of proximal development. The conversational strategies discussed by Ketch are a perfect fit for this developmentally appropriate style of learning. and these conversational strategies area ideal for group collaboration and learning. We have discussed literature circles and book clubs in class and read about both in Literacy for the 21st Century, the effectiveness of these activities depends on the way in which a teacher sets these up, providing guidelines and setting up expectations for behavior (pg. 346). These forums provide an ideal platform for the cognitive strategies for conversation if the teacher “modeled positive group behavior and appropriate discussion skills and demonstrated how to use their responses to deepen their understanding.” (pg. 347). Additionally, we learned about comprehension strategies in chapter 2 that mirror the strategies in the article and prepare students to become strategic readers; activating background knowledge, determining importance, summarizing, questioning, visualizing and monitoring (pg.…
Neil Gainman told us that reading fiction is reading for pleasure that is one of the most important things everyone can do (Gainman, 2013). For him the fiction has two uses , first , “It’s a gateway drug to reading” (Gainman, 2013, p.8), and second, “to build empathy” (Gainman, 2013, p.15).…
"Just simply teaching a child to read is not enough; we must provide them something that is worth reading. Material that will make their imaginations grow - materials that will help them to understand their own lives and push them towards interacting with others who 's lives are completely different than there own" (Paterson).…
Cynthia Kadohata 's book, Kira-Kira, is a story about an American-Japanese family during the mid-1950 's who struggle to save money to buy a home. The story begins in Iowa where the family lives and owns a small Asian grocery store. The parents are American born, educated in Japan and still hold some Japanese traditional qualities. Conflict is introduced when they move to Georgia to work in a poultry factory after their family store fails to be profitable. Additional conflict is added later in the story when the oldest daughter develops a terminal illness. Through the story readers learn about the conditions of living in American during this time period. It accurately reflects prejudice towards Japanese-Americans and other cultures, describes horrible factory working conditions, and demonstrates how communities-families pulled together to cope and improve their situations.…
Educating and guiding students to read and become fluent readers is a life changing experience for the students. Increasing literacy skills in students prepares them for academic and professional careers. Educators must reflect on their own teaching practices and implementation of intervention strategies to meet the needs of all children while taking into account of their individual reading readiness: emergent, beginner, and transitional. As educators are implementing strategies and teaching practices, they are creating a literate environment that is conducive to all readers.…
Ciampa, K. (2012). Electronic Storybooks: A Constructivist Approach to Improving Reading Motivation in Grade 1 Students. Canadian Journal Of Education, 35(4), 92-136.…
Reading is an experience that every individual grows from differently. Whether it be a smooth transition or even a positive one depends entirely on the individual. Gerald Graff, Richard Rodriguez, and Eudora Welty all show their growth through literacy narratives. Each one of their experiences although different all relate to my own journey into literacy. My own transition from Dr. Seuss books, to being thoroughly interested in novels such as Kiss the Girls by James Patterson is a novel all on its own.…
All reading instruction should serve the purpose of increasing comprehension (Lane, 2014). The mental process of comprehension begins before a child starts to read and continues throughout the entire reading process. The role of the educator in teaching comprehension is to model, share, guide and apply strategies whilst gradually releasing the responsibility onto the child. This begins with the educator demonstrating and explaining strategies, then scaffolding and encouraging the child to participate, practice and apply the strategies across all curriculum areas (PTSD, n.d.). According to (Department of Education WA, 2014) comprehension strategies are explicitly taught to emergent readers to develop their understanding of texts. Examples of these strategies are previewing and summarising. Previewing encourages children to make predictions about the text; it can also pique their interest. Children taught to summarise, can learn to determine the essential ideas within the text, intern furthering their comprehension skills (Department of Education WA,…
Six years ago, I walked in to my oldest son’s school eager to participate in their celebration of reading, a week long hiatus from regular school activities in which the children simply read books all day. Parents and members of the community were invited in to read aloud as well. This was the first year my sons were in a public school, and I was so excited to discover that the school district and I shared a very important priority: the love of reading. My son and I had just finished reading The Giver, by Lois Lowry. The book had a profound effect on both of us, eliciting thoughts and insight into the values of our society and the cost of conformity. This was the book I…
The purpose of summer reading is to foster a lifelong love of literature in our students and to advance their literacy skills. We believe that students who read during the summer months improve their academic performance and expand their understanding of issues important in their community and the 21st century world. Discussions among administrators, teachers, students, and parents as well as consideration of the NJ Common Core Standards (http://www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/) have led to revision of the Summer Reading Assignment for 2013. The Assignment reflects the Common Core’s emphasis on the importance of reading and the skills that develop through explication and analysis of texts:…
Reading is fundamental to function in today’s society and thus proves integral in the realm of academia. While this notion rings true, educators grapple with challenges of fostering reading among students, as there are many classrooms filled with children who can read, but choose otherwise. Although many educators feel it is important to stay with traditional works from the literary canon, some students have difficulty relating to these texts and therefore cannot engage in meaningful and purposeful reading (Toscano, 2). Because the engagement of readers is key to the reading process, it is essential that educators find ways to increase engagement and foster literacy. In order to remedy this plight and thus produce proficient and passionate readers, educators must allow students to engage in self-selected reading. In doing so, students gain a sense of autonomy, are able to select literature relevant to their interests, and can select literature that will help them in reading traditional works from the literary canon.…
When reading to students or encouraging independent reading, students can have limited information about the topic of the book. The role of the teacher is assuring that students understand what they are reading, and to ask questions as they are reading. Tompkins (2014), explain several methods teachers can use to check if students understand the reading. One method is asking students to make predictions as they are reading the story. By pausing in specific areas, students reflect on what they have just read, and what they think might happen next (263). Pausing the story in specific areas will help teachers check for understanding and analyze the areas students are having challenges. In several classroom observations, I have seen teachers have…
Reading has always been an important part of my life. It was something I could turn to for an escape to my reality, but I could have never imagined the impact one book would have. I remember in being assigned a literary analysis essay of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn in tenth grade. I began by thinking the assignment would be easy because I had already read the book a couple of years earlier. I was completely wrong. This book wound up changing my entire life; It appealed to my empathy and I realized a horrible mistake I had made every day without even knowing it.…