involving parents in take-home reading
"The story of school as a protectorate is a story that has outlived its time. The literature
and research on parent engagement is broad enough and rich enough to provide a good plotline
for a counter story – a story of a shared world in which educators and parents lay their
knowledge alongside one another in schools to support and enhance the learning outcomes of
children and to strengthen parents, families, and communities" (Pushor, 2007, p.11).
Research leans heavily in favour of early literacy being of vial importance to academic achievement in later years. Increased parent involvement directly correlates with increased student success; especially in literacy. The more children read with their parents, the greater their literacy skills, and it can therefore be inferred that these children will enjoy reading more than those who have lower skills; and the cycle repeats itself until the student is self-sufficient in literacy practice. involvement in early literacy is directly connected to academic achievement. As a beginning teacher, it is important that I share some responsibility with parents for many reasons: for example, inclusion will likely lead to parents being more accepting and encouraging of me as their child's teacher; and student success and achievement will be higher because of extra work done at home; and students can feel proud to show their parents how much they're learning at school. I will make a purposeful effort to involve parents in their child's learning by written correspondence, volunteer opportunities, and take-home handouts to help parents continue their child's learning after school. Resources for parent involvement in literacy practice from a variety of sources can be found below. I plan on sending these resources and others I come across home in students' take-home communication journals.
Edutopia (2014) Parent Invovlement in Early Literacy Guidelines for Parents
Point to each word on the page as you read. This beginning literacy strategy will assist children with making print/story/illustration connections. This skill also helps build a child's tracking skills from one line of text to the next one.
Read the title and ask your child to make a prediction. Beginning and seasoned readers alike need to make predictions before reading a story. This will go a long way to ensure that a child incorporates previewing and prediction in his or her own reading practices both now and in the future.
Take "picture walks." Help your child use the picture clues in most early readers and picture books to tell the story before reading.
Model fluency while reading, and bring your own energy and excitement for reading to your child. Both new and seasoned readers struggle with varying pitch, intonation and proper fluctuations when they read aloud. Older readers will benefit from shared reading (taking turns).
Ask your child questions after reading every book. Reading comprehension is the reason we read -- to understand. The new CCORE standards assessing U.S. children's readiness for the workplace and college ask children at all grade levels to compare and contrast their understanding of concepts. This takes practice. Help your child explain his or her understanding of any given story in comparison to another. Have your child share a personal experience similar to a problem or theme within a story. Higher-order thinking skills (critical thinking) are skills children are expected to use in both written and oral assessments in school. There is no way for a teacher to ask every child to use a critical thinking skill every day. Parents can.
Connect reading and writing if possible. The connection between reading, writing and discussion should be incorporated with daily literacy practice. Have a young child dictate to a parent who writes in a journal or on a sheet of paper. Modeling the formation of sentences aligned with the words of a story is crucial for a child to begin making a neural interconnectedness between reading and writing. A child's process of drawing pictures brings his or her personal creativity toward the story. Sharing these illustrations of experiences and individual interpretations related to the sentence he or she has created on the page is yet another step toward this early balanced literacy approach.
Beginning and lifelong literacy is transformative and constantly growing. However, the process must begin when initially learning to read, and must be as intuitive to a child as when he or she learned to speak. This can happen through incorporating repetition, proper skills and modeling.
Read the title and ask your child to make a prediction. Beginning and seasoned readers alike need to make predictions before reading a story. This will go a long way to ensure that a child incorporates previewing and prediction in his or her own reading practices both now and in the future.
Take "picture walks." Help your child use the picture clues in most early readers and picture books to tell the story before reading.
Model fluency while reading, and bring your own energy and excitement for reading to your child. Both new and seasoned readers struggle with varying pitch, intonation and proper fluctuations when they read aloud. Older readers will benefit from shared reading (taking turns).
Ask your child questions after reading every book. Reading comprehension is the reason we read -- to understand. The new CCORE standards assessing U.S. children's readiness for the workplace and college ask children at all grade levels to compare and contrast their understanding of concepts. This takes practice. Help your child explain his or her understanding of any given story in comparison to another. Have your child share a personal experience similar to a problem or theme within a story. Higher-order thinking skills (critical thinking) are skills children are expected to use in both written and oral assessments in school. There is no way for a teacher to ask every child to use a critical thinking skill every day. Parents can.
Connect reading and writing if possible. The connection between reading, writing and discussion should be incorporated with daily literacy practice. Have a young child dictate to a parent who writes in a journal or on a sheet of paper. Modeling the formation of sentences aligned with the words of a story is crucial for a child to begin making a neural interconnectedness between reading and writing. A child's process of drawing pictures brings his or her personal creativity toward the story. Sharing these illustrations of experiences and individual interpretations related to the sentence he or she has created on the page is yet another step toward this early balanced literacy approach.
Beginning and lifelong literacy is transformative and constantly growing. However, the process must begin when initially learning to read, and must be as intuitive to a child as when he or she learned to speak. This can happen through incorporating repetition, proper skills and modeling.
Birkner's (n.d.) Before-During-After reading question guide
references
Edutopia. (2014). Parent Involvement in Early Literacy. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/parent-involvement-in-early-literacy-erika-burton
Birkner, E. (n.d.). Reading Tips. Retrieved from: http://www.besmrsbirkner.com/reading-tips.html
Pushor, D. (2007). Parent Engagement: Creating a Shared World. Retrieved from: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/research/pushor.pdf
Birkner, E. (n.d.). Reading Tips. Retrieved from: http://www.besmrsbirkner.com/reading-tips.html
Pushor, D. (2007). Parent Engagement: Creating a Shared World. Retrieved from: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/research/pushor.pdf