Encouraging Parents of Struggling Readers

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Encouraging Parents of Struggling Readers

• Fatmeh Beydoun
• TE 842

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Welcome Parents!

• Thank you for joining us and taking great
  interest in your childs English Proficiency!
• Did you know you can make the difference?
• Students of involved parents have higher rates
  of school attendance, better social skills and
  behavior, higher grades and test scores, lower
  rates of retention, and higher rates of
  high-school graduation and postsecondary study.
  (Morrow Gambrell, 2011, p. 427)

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How to become more involved?

• Ask about your childs progress often
• Create a literacy rich environment at home
• Support your child's selection
• Be a model
• Encourage writing

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Create a literacy rich environment

• A literacy rich home has lots of different
  materials that help students establish good
  reading habits.
• Inclusion of many different materials to
  encourage reading and writing

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Surrounded in books.

• Provide a wide range of books for your child that
  are age and level appropriate.
• Include books at your child's reading level, as
  well as choices that are easier and more
  difficult.
• Genre choices
• Informational texts
• Poem books
• Fiction
• Non-fiction
• Comics

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Choosing the right books.

• Choosing the right book can be a daunting task
  but it makes all the difference in reluctant
  readers. Your job is to keep appealing titles at
  your childs disposal.
• Early Elementary A combination of picture books
  and easy readers.
• Middle Let your child choose titles that
  interest them. Audio books can be introduced as
  well, but make sure your child follows along with
  a hard copy.
• Advanced Again, individual interest is key here,
  just be sure that selection is age and reading
  ability appropriate.

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Writing Materials

• Diaries and Journals can improve students desire
  to write and read. Keep supplies handy such as
• A Journal/Diary
• Card Making supplies
• Colored Pens/Pencils
• Glitter Pens
• Colored Paper
• Scissors
• Glue

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Computer

• A computer can be used to support literacy.
  There are so many programs and websites that can
  be used at home.
• RAZ Kids
• Wordle
• Vocaroo
• Crocodocs
• Voki
• Pixton Comics

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Include Videos

• When your child is watching T.V. or a video,
  include the closed captioning. Their eyes are
  automatically drawn to the words, and they may
  start reading along. Also, they will be able to
  hear the words while they are trying to read,
  which will help with phonics.
• Videos are a great way to introduce and expose
  your child to more vocabulary.
• Try to choose videos that have accompanying books
  such as The Cat in the Hat, or Charlie and the
  Chocolate Factory.
• Encourage conversation about the books and videos
  comparing and contrasting.

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Game Night

• There are many games that encourage and
  facilitate reading development. Playing games
  can contribute to literacy development.
• Scrabble
• Boggle
• Link-it
• Clue
• Guess who
• Monopoly Jr.
• Pictionary
• Guesstures

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Model Behavior

• When children see an adult reading and writing,
  they are more likely to become engaged. This
  behavior shows them the importance of literacy in
  everyday lives.
• Have books that interest you as a parent
• Read the Newspaper
• Read bedtime stories
• Make lists
• Read as they read

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Reading activities on the go

• Reading can happen anywhere, from the dinner
  table, to the supermarket, the bank or the drive
  to school.
• These are some everyday activities you can do
  with your child to build literacy skills.
• In the neighborhood Read street signs and
  building names.
• Supermarket Ask your child to read the names of
  products, the aisle signs, the shopping list.
  Give your child the name of a product and have
  them find it on the shelf.

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Avoid common mistakes

• It is easy to become impatient with emerging
  readers, but we want our children to feel
  comfortable and supported when making mistakes.
  So try to avoid the following
• Do NOT interrupt as a child is reading. EVER! If
  there is a correction to be made wait until the
  child has stopped reading or better yet, before
  the next time you read the book.
• If a reading mistake does not change the meaning
  of the text, let it go. For example if they say
  a instead of the.
• Dont say speed it up, or can you read
  faster, or even slow down. Allow the child to
  read at a pace they are comfortable with.
• Dont say you know this. Instead teach your
  child how to break the word into chunks.

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Great things to do

• Think out loud
• Verbalizing a confusing point makes it easier for
  students to understand how to work through the
  confusion.
• Identify and write words that are difficult for
  your child
• Demonstrate strategies
• MODEL

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Helpful Websites for Parents

• PBS kids
• Scholastic.com
• Reading Rockets.org
• www.atozteacherstuff.com
• www.readingonline.org
• www.gophonics.com
• www.readingresource.net

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Resources

• Mascott, Amy. What Not to Say to Emerging
  Readers. PBS Parents. Retrieved on 12-12-2012 at
  http//www.pbs.org/parents/education/reading-langu
  age/reading-tips/what-not-to-say-to-emerging-reade
  rs/
• Gambrell, Linda and Morrow, Mandell. (2011).
  Best Practices in Literacy Instruction fourth
  edition. New York, N.Y. The Guilford Press.

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Lets Play

• Parents will be given a scrabble board, a paper,
  and a pencil.
• After I explain and demonstrate how to play the
  game, parents will play a speed round of Scrabble
  and asked to write down each word they put on the
  board. At the end of the 15 minute round we will
  have a question and answer session about what we
  have learned.
• Which strategies did we use here?
• Who had the most words?
• Who had the most quality words?
• What do you think your children will learn from
  an activity such as this?
• How can you use this at home?