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here is a famous saying by Dr. Seuss that says: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Anyone who has read a good book knows how reading can transport us to far and distant places. Not only does reading help us relax, but it also develops our mind, and imagination. Reading has become an essential life skill that helps us interact with the world around us. Equipping our children with effective literacy skills has become a natural and fundamental part of our lives.
However, reading isn’t a skill that we are naturally born with. Whilst it is true that there are some children who are capable of learning to read on their own, the majority of us need to be taught how to read. In most cases children start developing their literacy skills at nursery school, where they start to learn how to decipher the letters of the alphabet. It is only usually at primary school that they begin learning how to read by learning how to apply decoding and blending strategies. Although mastering this skill requires a lot of focused practice both in and out of the classroom, the result is and should be magical.
So how can we, as teachers and parents, promote the love of reading in our children? How can we make it easier for our children to choose a book that appeals to their natural curiosity, as well as their interests? Only with the answers to these questions can we enable them to have a meaningful and personalised reading experience.
Children need to make sense of and personalise their reading experience.
To do this, get them to develop their creativity skills. Ask them to create a final “product” that reflects upon their reading experience. Rather than relying solely on reading worksheets with comprehension questions (which we can use to test the children’s reading memory), there’s a wider variety of activities out there that we as teachers could use to get an insight into our student’s understanding of the story.
I’ll explored this topic in my webinar. Please click here to watch the recording!
We also discussed how these activities allow children to take a step further in their language learning process. As children make and present personalised reading activities, they are also learning to apply the language to real world scenarios. By the end of this webinar, you’ll be equipped with the tools that’ll allow your children to experience and share the magic of reading.
Vanessa Esteves has been teaching English as a foreign language in Portugal for the past 23 years in both private and state schools around the country. She is currently teaching at Escola Superior de Educação in Porto. She has an M.A. in Anglo-American Studies and has been involved in teacher training in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Serbia, Romania, Turkey, Croatia, Slovenia, Malta, Morocco, Egypt and Portugal. Vanessa is a regular presenter at conferences.
Both of my kids could read before they went to school. How we did it?
At first, I read. A lot. I read my very own books, I read to my children and we go to the library and take indistinguishable number of books from we can pass on each time. We check out books on tape in the vehicle too. Read things to them that are over their reading level.
Next, we had stores of enlightening toys that help reading, had letter tiles and appealing letters and I in like manner posted cards with words on them wherever all through the house, naming everything (Stove, Frame, Bookcase, Chair, etc.).
In like manner, I used a book I found on this site. We just got to about exercise 25 or 26 and both of my youngsters were reading by then. We didn’t do a whole practice every day… as it got all the more eagerly and my kid was fighting, I simply did a half or 33% of an activity daily.
One of my youngsters is by and by 12 and is simply right now getting books, as yet he was happy to be read to and read comic books like the Far Side, Garfield, Baby Blues, . It required some speculation. My other youngster is 14 in spite of all that I read to them two around night time. About an hour each time, to a great extent extra, if the cliffhanger is too empowering to even consider evening consider postponing until tomorrow.
In like manner, when they do make sense of how to read, even a piece, let them read ANYTHING. In case they like comic books, get them comic books. Make an effort not to stretch that they aren’t reading huge composition, the critical thing is to make them read… whatever it is, even magazines, on the ipad, etc. Over the long haul, they will get various sorts of books.
Remember: reading is the best approach to advance!
Great karma to you!
Anders