“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.”
– Robert Frost

Have you ever walked into a Starbucks, sorry, I meant to say a Barnes and Noble, intent on looking to browse the section titled, “Uninteresting Reads” or “Books that Will Make You Think of Reading as a Chore”? What about the public library? Is there a new Dewey category, “Negative Zeroes”, with subjects in this section that range from “Demotivating Reading Enthusiasm” to “Inhibiting Self Discovery and Personal Interests”? Perhaps upon your child’s arrival home from school, he/she has greeted you enthusiastically with, “Look at this horrible book I borrowed!” Hopefully this will never be the case.

At times some parents, as well as, teachers have approached me stating that the book that the child is choosing is too hard and not on the child’s reading-level. The library program at P.S. 32 is committed to fostering a love of reading and self-discovery in our students.  To advance this, students are encouraged to freely choose books that they are interested in. We are also working to open up the students’ to discovering the wealth of genres, subjects, authors, series, and titles that are available. This will allow them to form a personal relationship with books.

A large selection of the material available in our school library, unlike in the classroom leveled-libraries, may be above the grade-level of your child (students should definitely read books from the classroom library that are on their level as reading on their level will help them to advance their reading skill, but there is a research-backed surefire way to help your child to become an accomplished reader that will be discussed below). To promote the joy of reading, I never discourage a child from selecting materials that they cannot read, but I do ask students to also pick materials that they can read on their own. However, it is vital to the success of your child and our students that they are read to everyday. The hope when a child borrows a book that they want to read and can’t yet do it on their own, is that someone will read it to them. My favorite part of my job is reading aloud to children and I do it as often as possible. With you doing it home daily, combined with children being read to at school, your children will not only become proficient readers, but they will want to read for the rest of their lives.

In the article Parents ‘must let children choose what they read‘,  Vanessa Thorpe of the Guardian Observer stresses that children develop a reading life when given free choice. Here are her five tips for parents on how to make happy young readers:

• Don’t make reading a chore; it is not “good” behaviour.
• Let your child choose their own reading from a handful of selected books.
• Don’t edit their choice by the age range on the back: see what they fancy.
• Don’t tell them what you enjoyed when you were their age.
• Stand back and let your child talk directly to the librarian or bookseller.

One Major Factor in Having Children Become Better Readers

The Importance of Reading to Children Each Day
Research at literacyconnections.com shows that, “Children who have been read to several times a day as a young child, did substantially better in kindergarten than youngsters whose parents read to them a few times a week or less often.“

Reading is Fundamental has a wealth of information on reading aloud. In Facts About Reading Aloud they state, “Reading to young children promotes language acquisition and literacy development and, later on, achievement in reading comprehension and overall success in school. The percentage of young children read aloud to daily by a family member is one indicator of how well young children are prepared for school.”

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) posted The Family Literacy Foundation’s list of the many benefits of reading aloud with children are:

• Children’s self esteem grows as they experience the security of having a parent or other caring person read aloud with them.
• Children experience increased communication with parents and other family members.
• Children are introduced to new concepts such as colors, shapes, numbers, and alphabet, in a fun, age appropriate way.
• Children build listening skills, vocabulary, memory, and language skills.
• Children develop imagination and creativity.
• Children learn information about the world around them.
• Children develop individual interests in special subjects like dinosaurs, cats, or cars.
• Children learn positive behavior patterns and social values.
• Children learn positive attitudes towards themselves and others.
• CHILDREN LEARN THE JOY OF READING!

For Reading Aloud: Tips for Parents and Teachers visit LiteracyConnections.com.

To learn how to become an expert on reading aloud, from the master of it, visit Mem Fox’s website. The site is full of great information for parents, teachers, and kids, but the  section on “How to Read Aloud” is a must (click on the links below):

• Introduction
• And Do It Like This
• Ten read-aloud commandments

Hear Mem talk about the importance of reading aloud:

The AASL recommends two books about reading to your child:

Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox (this book is on its way)

The Read-Aloud Handbook, 6th ed.
Jim Trelease (we have this book)

Let me know if you would like to either/or participate in read aloud workshops or just come in and read with your child (and others) in our library. Email me at arm285@optonline.net

We are all members of the literacy club and if we want our students to join too we have to model the benefits of membership.

Adam