Simple Strategies for Creating Strong Readers
Without doubt, reading with children spells success for early literacy. Putting a few simple strategies into action will make a significant difference in helping children develop into good readers and writers.
Through reading aloud, providing print materials, and promoting positive attitudes about reading and writing, you can have a powerful impact on children's literacy and learning.
- Invite a child to read with you every day.
- When reading a book where the print is large, point word by word as you read. This will help the child learn that reading goes from left to right and understand that the word he or she says is the word he or she sees.
- Read a child's favorite book over and over again.
- Read many stories with rhyming words and lines that repeat. Invite the child to join in on these parts. Point, word by word, as he or she reads along with you.
- Discuss new words. For example, "This big house is called a palace. Who do you think lives in a palace?"
- Stop and ask about the pictures and about what is happening in the story.
- Read from a variety of children's books, including fairy tales, song books, poems, and information books.
Helping Your Child Write Better
Provide a place. It’s important for a child to have a good place to write–a desk or table with a smooth, flat surface and good lighting.
Have the materials. Provide plenty of paper–lined and unlined–and things to write with, including pencils, pens, and crayons.
Allow time. Help your child spend time thinking about a writing project or exercise. Good writers do a great deal of thinking. Your child may dawdle, sharpen a pencil, get papers ready, or look up the spelling of a word. Be patient–your child may be thinking.
Respond. Do respond to the ideas your child expresses verbally or in writing. Make it clear that you are interested in the true function of writing which is to convey ideas. This means focusing on “what” the child has written, not “how” it was written. It’s usually wise to ignore minor errors, particularly at the stage when your child is just getting ideas together.
Don’t you write it! Don’t write a paper for your child that will be turned in as his/her work. Never rewrite a child’s work. Meeting a writing deadline, taking responsibility for the finished product, and feeling ownership of it are important parts of writing well.
Praise. Take a positive approach and say something good about your child’s writing.
Provide a place. It’s important for a child to have a good place to write–a desk or table with a smooth, flat surface and good lighting.
Have the materials. Provide plenty of paper–lined and unlined–and things to write with, including pencils, pens, and crayons.
Allow time. Help your child spend time thinking about a writing project or exercise. Good writers do a great deal of thinking. Your child may dawdle, sharpen a pencil, get papers ready, or look up the spelling of a word. Be patient–your child may be thinking.
Respond. Do respond to the ideas your child expresses verbally or in writing. Make it clear that you are interested in the true function of writing which is to convey ideas. This means focusing on “what” the child has written, not “how” it was written. It’s usually wise to ignore minor errors, particularly at the stage when your child is just getting ideas together.
Don’t you write it! Don’t write a paper for your child that will be turned in as his/her work. Never rewrite a child’s work. Meeting a writing deadline, taking responsibility for the finished product, and feeling ownership of it are important parts of writing well.
Praise. Take a positive approach and say something good about your child’s writing.
Everyday Math Family Letters for Each Unit of Study
http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/2nd-grade/family-letters/
http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/2nd-grade/family-letters/