• Reading to your child or with your child?• When . . . What . . . Why read together?• Tips on how to get started• Two styles of reading together• Tips for before, during, and after reading• Ideas for working with reluctant or struggling readers• Tips for working with advanced readers• Booklists and book resources

Studies show children who are read to 20 to 30 minutes a day become better readers than children who are not read to.

Reading to your child provides vocabulary and background knowledge that will help your child when he reads.

Reading to your child allows your child to learn from materials that s/he can’t read on their own.

Reading to your child allows you to model fluency.

Reading to your child provides a great opportunity to spend time with your child!

Reading to your childis one of the mostimportant things youcan do to help yourchild become a goodreader . . .. . . but perhaps it’stime to start readingwith your child.

Three elements:1. You read aloud to your child.2. Your child readsaloud to you.3. You talk about whatyou are reading.

1. Enjoyable experience, fostering a love of reading.2. Provides an opportunity to monitor your child’s reading progress.3. Opportunity for practice and supportive feedback.4. Gives child a break and keeps the

reading flowing and fun.5. Accelerates development of vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency.

1. Choose any book with text at your child’s reading level.2. Choose books on topics that your child is interested in.3. Let your child pick the book or offer a selection. 4. Read books from authors that your child has previously read and liked.5. Read newspapers, magazines, and information on the computer.

1. Sit together in a comfortable, well-lit place. 2. Hold the book so you & your child can

easily see the words. 3. Talk about the topic, what the book might

be about. 4. Page through the book together and

discuss it. 5. Decide on a read-together format: *Choral reading *Shared reading

1. Ask your child to read aloud along with you (reading the same text at the same time). 2. Start louder and slightly faster than your

child. 3. When your child gains confidence, become slower and quieter. 4. Read with expression and show attention to the phrasing and punctuation. 5. Maintain a comfortable pace by speeding up

or slowing down when needed.

1. Take turns reading aloud.2. Agree on signals for switching. *Alternate pages- you read a page, your child reads a page *Switch readers after each paragraph. *The reader gets to decide when to switch readers. *The listener starts to read, and the reader must stop and listen.3. We Both Read or You read to Me, I’ll Read to

You books are special books designed for a child and adult to read together. The adult text is harder than the child’s text.

1. Read with expression—make the story come alive.

2. Try using different voices for different characters.3. Stop and discuss new vocabulary words.4. Talk about how you understand new words. 5. Think aloud- *I wonder if... *I think... *I can’t wait to find out... *I didn’t know...

I cant’ wait to find out if Andy wins

the contest.

6. Talk about what is happening in the story and ask what might happen next.7. Ask open-ended questions about the story.

1. Encourage your child to mimic the way you read to gain fluency.2. Help your child use context and pictures to figure out unknown words.3. If your child might be able to sound out a word or starts to sound one out, provide encouragement.4. If your child struggles with a word for 5 seconds, provide the word.5. If your child makes a mistake that affects

meaning and doesn’t self-correct, ask “Did that make sense?”

6. Suggest rereading a difficult sentence or paragraph.7. Encourage your child to ask you about anything he doesn’t understand.

8. If your child does not understand what she is reading, stop and discuss it, and ask her to read it again.9. Praise your child’s efforts. Praise often.

(But don’t interrupt the flow of reading.)10. Keep the reading fun. Some struggle is good. Too much frustration is not good. 11. Know when to take over reading or end the reading session.

1. Have a short discussion about the story.2. Help your child to summarize the main idea.3. Discuss the problem and solution of the story.4. Ask open-ended questions about the

story or subject of the book.5. Help your child make connections to her world or another story or book.

*Make sure your child is reading books at his reading level. -May even start with books that are slightly easy for him. Reading easier books provides better reading practice than too hard books.*Find books about topics s/he is interested in.*Order a magazine subscription in their name.*Build off of books s/he has shown interest in before (same author, series, or topic.)*Don’t make your child struggle too long over a word. Simply supply the word and move on. -When done reading do a quick demonstration on how to try to figure out the word the child was struggling with. You might give him/her a few more words to practice together.*Set up a reading time every night for the whole family. Everyone reads- NO EXCEPTIONS! Without outside distractions and choices, reading will become a habit.

*Think outside the box- reading isn’t just about reading books consider: reading directions for a game, a recipe to make together, magazines, the newspaper (even just the sports page), the computer, instructions for building a model.

*Read together materials your child would struggle reading on his/her own including textbooks.

*Create a cliffhanger- you read a book to your child. When the book gets to the part that your child just can’t wait to find out what happens, you quit reading. They must read the book to find out what happens.

*Make sure your child sees you reading!

More Tips for Helping Reluctant or Struggling Readers:

Advanced readers have a solid foundation of basic reading skills. The focus for advanced readers should be:

  1. Expanding vocabulary.  2. Increasing and building comprehension.  3. Challenging their thinking in fun and enjoyable ways.

Have higher level books available Go beyond the classroom Do extension activities. Read even more advanced books aloud to them. Partner read together or read and discuss the

same book. Guide deeper discussions of what you’ve read

together. Get your child a magazine subscription. Pair fiction and nonfiction reading. Emphasize quality not quantity. Make sure books match your child’s maturity

level.

www.scholastic.com *Book Wizard- find books by reading level, find books similar to another book *Scholastic Parent (tab on top of web page)- -filled with all kinds of articles on reading -116 book lists (by theme, for reluctant readers, by grade, etc.) *book orders

www.arbookfind.com *search for books by reading level, interest level, topic *teachers can have book lists for your kids to access to

Camden Township Library *all students from Camden-Frontier School can get a library card and check out books for free *order books from library across the state *www.camdenlibrary.org- see what’s available online, access to Tumble Books (online books for

younger students)

www.teachersandfamilies.org * Click on K-12 tab to access book lists by grades and themes * TogetherRead- monthly reading ideas for your family to

do together includes books and activities for all age levels.

*tTo

Questions and Answers???

for coming!