I chimed in on a discussion on my local homeschooling list about one mom’s concerns that her son had stalled on the learning-to-read process. As usual I found I had a lot to say, so I’m scooping it here (and expanding a bit) in case it’s of interest to others. 

I’ll second what E. said: Six is really very young and at this point (and every point, really), the VERY BEST thing you can do is to read aloud a great deal. There are lots of studies to back up what many of us have been discovering and advocating for years about the immense and rather extraordinary benefits of reading aloud.

Some tricks we have used

• We always turn on the captions when our children watch TV. And it’s amazing how much reading they can pick up from scrolling through the DVR. Huck could distinguish between “Little Bear” and “Little Bill” at age three—his first sight words.

• Video games! or apps, etc. My kids have all picked up a lot of reading just from encountering the repeated text instructions and captioning that is a part of many games.

• Comics and graphic novels. Great reinforcement of decoding skills and incentive to read. My 3rd child learned to read from Tintin Comics. Her older sisters read them and she pored over the pictures until she began to pick up words. (I read them to her whenever she asked but that stage didn’t last long–she just loved to explore them them on her own!)  (I’ve written more about this here.)

• Word games and puns. We are a wordy, wordy family. Dinner-table conversation will often involve why a thing is called what it’s called–what the root word is, where it came from. Someone will hop up to look up a word origin. And scarcely a day passes without some terrible, groan-inducing pun trotting around the house. When I teach kids’ writing and lit classes (I’m teaching three different groups of kids at present), I begin every class by soliciting contributions to our ‘Word Hoard’—asking the kids to look out for interesting words during the week to add to our collection. They really get into the spirit of the game and we have amassed some splendid word piles over the weeks. The boys in my Friday afternoon class have turned it into a competition of sorts, unfurling mile-long words to impress their classmates. I’ve learned a lot of obscure medical terms in the past month, let me tell you.

• Riddles, jokes, joke books!

I am not a fan of 100 Easy Lessons because of so many similar stories of kids getting turned off to reading, or stressed/intimidated/bored–all feelings I don’t want kids to associate with reading.

Books of facts are great for young kids–early reader science stuff, etc. Again, lots of pictures to draw them in & help with decoding.

My primary advice is to not try to “teach” a child to read.

The process can be more organic, less structured. Help them along the way you helped and encouraged them to learn to talk. Read together, allowing lots of conversation and lingering and interruptions to hyperfocus on some little piece of a picture.* Looking for street signs (kids will pick those up as sight words very quickly and naturally). Or names of stores, etc. Text is all over our world, not just in books, and reading doesn’t have to be a Capital R academic exercise. People naturally want to find things out, and reading becomes a means of doing that–so sooner or later, every child will have an interest that drives literacy. What you can do is support that interest. Feed it! Rustle up some intriguing-looking books on the topic, preferably ones with a lot of art.

(Here I come back to video games: one of my girls got so interested in a certain game that she wanted to look up guides for it online, and HER reading took a huge leap forward as she began to devour information about this game. My role was to help her safely find resources on the internet, print out useful pages, provide supplies for assembling a binder (her idea)…so you can see there are many ways for a parent to be involved in the process, guiding, facilitating, without it looking like formal reading instruction–an activity that is so stressful for many children. Lots of so-called ‘reluctant readers’ will inhale anything you give them that’s about their favorite video game. Let them hunt for cheat sites. Who cares if they don’t figure out a game level on their own? They are learning crucial research skills–how to frame questions and find answers, and how to apply that information to a practical task. Hurrah for game cheats!)

Current example: Huck is obsessed with Rose’s Snap Circuits set. This morning I stood in the living room for the longest time, watching him—his back was to me—deeply absorbed in assembling one of the projects in the guidebook. He has worked his way through the entire project book with minimal help, following the picture instructions but also puzzling out chunks of text. Sometimes he asks for help with a mouthful word like “capacitor”—no self-consciousness, no sense that he is young to be expecting to be able to read a word like that. He can’t figure it out, he asks for help. But poring over this book, casually encountering these giant words that tell him things he wants to know, has catapulted his reading skills forward in a way no teacher, no matter how good, how patient, could reproduce. If I made him sit down to a reading curriculum, I can guarantee he would be restless and fretful within minutes. But he’ll spend the whole afternoon immersed in building projects out of this book, interacting with the pictures and text, following complex directions—and consider it ‘playing.’ As in, “Can I play with your Snap Circuits again today?” he’ll ask his big sister.

*********

*Let me elaborate on what I said above about “allowing lots of conversation and lingering and interruptions to hyperfocus on some little piece of a picture.” This is a mistake I’ve seen many adults make. A lot of adults have difficulty tolerating interruptions during a readaloud. There’s a whole big conversation to be had about how much background activity to allow — like, Legos keep little hands busy but can be very noisy. There are ways to work around that (spread out Legos on the floor before reading, since the noisiest part is the digging through the bin–things like that). But what I want to focus on right now are the interruptions that come when a child is looking at the book with you and starts talking over the narrative–pointing at things in the art, or otherwise being chatty about the book instead of listening to the story. This activity may actually be an indication of a big leap forward in skill acquisition–but we adults don’t always see it that way!

Here’s an example — when Rose was five or six, I remember reading her My Father’s Dragon. She was right at the point of emergent literacy, beginning to recognize words like street signs and store names as I mentioned above. We were about halfway through this short novel as a readaloud when she started pointing out Elmer’s name on every page. And “the dragon” and “the cat” — words repeated often in the story. But mainly it was the word “Elmer” (the main character). It got to where I couldn’t get through a page, because she kept pointing at the name all over the place. And I had a moment of being irritated and wanting to hush her–now now, let’s listen to the story. But it hit me in a flash that what we were doing together — what SHE was experiencing in this moment — had changed. It had started out “listening to a story.” Now it was READING. She had learned a sight word and was putting this new skill to use, with numerous opportunities to “practice” it on every page. No curriculum in the world could top this skill practice, because it was completely voluntary and completely absorbing her. It was HER activity, not one imposed upon her from the outside.

So, in that hour snuggled beside her on her bed, I let go of the whole listen-to-this-story concept. I kept on reading to her, page after page, but that was merely a background activity providing the vehicle for her discovery. “Elmer…Elmer…the dragon…” — little finger pointing, skipping around the page. We finished the book that way, with Rose only half paying attention to the words I was reading. When I got to the end, she said it was the best book ever and asked me to start it over. The second time through, she listened raptly to the narrative. Her brain had finished its self-assigned task. By the time I finished the book for the second time (a week or two later), she was reading very well on her own.

So that’s what I mean about stepping back to reassess an activity and your objectives….if a child is hyperfocusing on some part of the story that isn’t your voice reading the words, there is probably a very good reason. A wonderful thing about homeschooling is we have the luxury of time and space to allow this process to unfold at the child’s pace–there is no pressure to ‘get through’ a certain amount of material by a set date.

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by Amy M. O’Quinn, Home School Specialist for the National Writing for Children Center

Teaching a child to read may seem like a mysterious process—whether the parent is the ‘main’ instructor or simply the home facilitator helping out during after-school hours. We all want our children to learn to read well, because we know that good literacy skills are critical for an excellent education and can open many windows of opportunity in life.

However, we should also realize that children learn to read in different ways and according to various time spans. I know from my own experience in teaching my six children to read that they have each mastered reading anywhere from the age of four to the age of seven—and that is okay. No two children are ever the same and their learning processes will vary. I have simply discovered that consistency is imperative when it comes to teaching a child to read. Patience and encouragement are also key elements in the process—for both the teacher and student!

The most important role we can play in our child’s reading journey is to make them feel successful. When tension mounts and frustration levels rise, perhaps it is time to back off just a bit, take a deep breath, regroup, and remember that this IS a process. Moreover, readiness is also a factor, so don’t worry—just keep moving forward. There is a balance between pushing too hard and challenging our children to take their skills up to the next level. However, as parents, we can normally discern between the two, and that’s why ‘reading’ our children is so important. We want the process to be enjoyable—yet we want them to use their abilities to the fullest! Concentrate on strengths, but consistently (and gently) guide them through their weaknesses as time and readiness permit.

Several factors contribute to successfully teaching children to read:

1. Read to them early and often. Talk with them about what you are reading. Research confirms that hearing language is an important part of learning to read.

2. Stock your shelves with ‘living’ books for all ages. Availability and immersion are important.

3. Repetition and consistency are vital for fluency. Confidence grows with mastery.

4. Model reading. When children see their parents reading, they get the message that books and reading are enjoyable. They will want to do the same. According to Jim Trelease in The Read-Aloud Handbook:

“In concentrating exclusively on teaching the child how to read, we have forgotten to teach him to want to read…Somehow we lost sight of the teaching precept: What you make a child love and desire is more important than what you make him learn.”

5. Remember that reading is a process, and children will learn and develop their skills at different rates. Try not to compare. Start where they are and build a foundation.

6. Find good resources and curriculum materials that work FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILD. Just because your friend’s child learned to read with ‘Product X’ doesn’t mean it is the right choice for you.

7. Fill your home with language, creativity, inspiration, and enthusiasm for learning.

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Is it Friday already? Wow, what a week! Today at Jen Robinson's Book Page, Jen is wrapping up the week with a look at how we take the next step. She and her guests are offering answers and ideas to some of the toughest questions we have as adults ... mostly parents, but not always. We have a few questions left ourselves, so here goes ...

• Is there a book from your childhood that you didn't like "back then," but that you've since re-read and liked? What was it about the book that you didn't like before?
• Do you have a favorite chapter book for reading with kids of different ages  (e.g., 4, 9, 13)?
• What book(s) has your child recommended to you that you loved?

Just a reminder for new visitors. Here's how it works ...
1. Select the question or questions that resonate with you.
2. Find an old post or write a new one that answers the question. [Be sure to grab the Share a Story button from the sidebar to include in your new post!]
3. Come back here and link your post either via the inLinxz box or as a comment.

We'll be adding links for this question through tomorrow (Saturday). If you haven't had a chance to link up through the inlinkz box, don't fret ... the comments will remain open for 30 days, so if something strikes you next week, we'd love to hear from you then.

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Something old, something new, something borrowed ... Yesterday it was "something true." to finish our rhyme. Today? Well, it's something valued.Okay, it isn't a perfect alliteration, but I tried!

Although reading is a timeless skill, what we read - and how we read - change. Some of the books we loved as kids would seem hokey now. Some have references that wouldn't make sense to kids - phone booths? telephone dials? what are they? What hooked us - maybe a classic Nancy Drewor Anne of Green Gables or Heidi or Journey to the Center of the Earth - wouldn't work for many of our 21st Century kids. There was no realistic fiction back in the day - no edginess, no taboo subjects, and the good guys usually won. It's different now - not better, not worse - different.

Donalyn Miller (aka the Book Whisperer) and her group of rabid readers are going to help us embrace the differences and bring them together. They're talking all kinds of books, sometimes pairing books we loved with modern classics. Whether you're trying to get a pre-reader excited about books or trying to keep a pre-teen reading, they've got lots of ideas.

Here's today's lineup.

• Donalyn Miller has “Something Old, Something New: Pairing Classic and New Favorites” at The Book Whisperer blog
• Danielle Smith has “When I Was Young: The Books That Got Them Started” at There’s a Book
• Tess Alfonsin shares some “Childhood Favorites” at Reading Countess blog
• For some “Dystopian Science Fiction” ideas, see what Kate Sutherland suggests at Kate’s Book blog
• “Read Alouds in the Secondary Classroom” at RAW INcK Blog (still waiting on the URL)
• Professor Nana has “The New Classics: New Books for Tweens on Classic Themes” at The Goddess of YA blog
• Hilde Garcia is sharing some “First Lines from Children’s Books”at The Pen and Ink Blog

Do you have some suggestions of books that bring favorite/classic stories to a modern audience.? We'd love to hear them. Reading is a way to connect with your kids ... share the stories, swap books, laugh, cry ... make these the classics YOUR kids remember!

As has been our practice, we will update the direct links to the individual posts as they go live. You can also follow the discussions on Twitter. We're using the #SAS2010 hashtag.

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It may still be Day 1 here in the Western Hemisphere, but it's already Day 2 in Australia, where Susan Stephenson (the Book Chook) lives, so ...

Welcome to Day 2 of Share a Story ~ Shape a Future. If you're just joining us, then double welcome! We're glad you've found us and can't wait to hear your stories and ideas. (image credit: It Takes a Village logo created by Susan Stephenson at ToonDoo.com)

When we started brainstorming about the idea of a literacy blog tour way back in the Aughts (08 to be exact), we knew early on that we wanted to create a venue that showed how reading is relevant to a child's development, but also to offer literacy ideas in ways that were accessible to everyone.

Well, today's host, Susan Stephenson of The Book Chook, has taken that idea to a whole new level (and another continent)! She and her guests are talking about everything from "low-tech" storytelling and singing to letting kids create stop-motion videos. So let's get started ...

We hear stories before we read them, so it only seems natural that Susan opens the day with a pair of interviews with storytellers. Join her for her chats with Francie Dillon and Helen Evans at the Book Chook. Then *hear* some more stories ...

• At Saints and Spinners, Farida Dowler shares ideas for Stories in the Bathtub.
• At Dulemba.com, illustrator Elizabeth Dulemba talks about the future of reading in an article called Beyond the Printed Page.
• Last November, Rebecca Taylor talked about sharing family stories and Family Stories Month at Lost in Books.
• Franki Sibberson talks about digital storytelling in a pair of posts at A Year of Reading. First up, her February post Discovering the Possibilities of Stopmotion in Grades 2-5. She also talks about making Tricky Videos with Klutz.
• Dawn Morris helps us understand that literacy is more than just reading and writing. Head over to Moms Inspire Learning for the Circles of Literacy
• At Chatel Village, Kim Chatel shares more about Storytelling in a Multimedia World.

Sometimes we have to be a little creative when it comes to getting kids interested in activities related to reading. If you're looking for ways to sneak in some literacy ...

• Join Joyce Grant at Getting Kids Reading to get ideas on ways to Get Active Kids Reading.
• Pull out all stops. Amy Mascott shares some of her tips for getting a little sneaky at Teach Mama.
• Think pictures. Rebecca Taylor talks about Combining Art with Liter
  1 Comments on Share a Story 2010 Day 2: Literacy My Way, Literacy Your Way, last added: 3/9/2010
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  Tif said, on 3/9/2010 9:50:00 PM
  

  Wow!!! I finally finished going through all of these great links and that is all I can say!! There is so much good stuff here that I have no idea where to even start!! Thank you!!
  
  Once again, here is a post with my thoughts . . . http://www.tiftalksbooks.com/2010/03/share-story-shape-future-day-2-literacy.html

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Yeah! It's here! Share a Story-Shape a Future 2010 has started. We selected the theme It Takes a Village to Raise a Reader because learning to read is an immersive process ... everyone in a child's life plays a role, either formally or informally. One of our goals with this year's event is to share ideas about all of the ways we can create readers and, by extension, celebrate the efforts that each of us dedicate to the children in our lives.

With today's theme, The Many Faces of Reading, Terry will takes us on a guided tour around the proverbial "village."  She's hosting at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub (Reading Tub blog) and we'll share stories with and from people in our communities who dedicate themselves to promoting reading.

• Lee Wind starts us off with Dads! He shares the 3 Secrets of Reading with Your Daughter.If you've got the worry ... Lee's got the answer.
• Greg Pincus
• Melissa Taylor offers a win-win-win with parent-child book clubs at Imagination Soup. Don't tell anyone, but this is the best book club you'll ever join.  From Melissa: "PS, Oprah, I've got one on ya. You forgot the kids."
• Terry thought Just One More Book had something on this topic, but Andrea Ross says it was probably her article The Family that Reads Together ... What's In It for Me? She wrote this as a guest blogger for the Children's Book Review.  Here's a link to the podcast version of The Family that Reads Together.

• Sarah Mulhern will talk about the teacher-student relationship at The Reading Zone.
• The Book Whisperer (aka Donalyn Miller) is going to talk about teaching ethics, responsibility, and the difference between "teaching books" v. teaching to read.
• Terry Doherty shares her experience as a reading tutor at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub.

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It is time once again to thank one of the generous donors for Share a Story 2010 ... The Itty Bitty Bookworm, creator Tara Rison, and her team.

When Tara opened her preschool several years ago, she wanted to create a story-based curriculum. When she couldn't find one, she created her own. The results of her passion are two programs, one for toddlers and one for preschoolers, both built around children's books.

The magic of The Itty-Bitty Bookworm is in the simple, organized, teach-it-yourself curriculum. It’s a literature-based program on CD that does all the planning for you, so you can focus on what's important ~ your children

Tara is very graciously donating one full-year subscription for each of her programs for Share a Story 2010.

• Bailey Curriculum ~ for children 18 months -36 months. Here is a sample (pdf) of what the Bailey program includes. 
• Bo Curriculum ~ for children 3 to 5 years old. Here is a sample (pdf) from the Bo Curriculum. 

When we open the giveaway during Share a Story week, we will accept nominations for recipients. Eligible winners include government funded or subsidized preschools serving economically disadvantaged children; public schools (e.g., Bright Stars, Head Start); or a family services organization that has a literacy outreach. This is a community event, so we will create a ballot for people to vote as nominations are received. More details about the nominations will follow.

You do not have to work at the school or have a child at the school, but you do need to give us the details about the school. Tara's goal, like ours, is to improve access to books for readers in need.

Important Note: These licenses are for one teacher, one classroom. Any reproduction of the material is a copyright violation.

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