"Do not skip this time. A half hour every week does not begin to help as much as a few minutes each day. The long-term effects of skipping
nightly reading homework are well established..."
- Carolyn Wilhelm
This is the thirteenth blog entry focused on Home Reading this school year,
intended to help families successfully support children as they learn to read :)
In elementary classrooms in particular, teachers usually establish a daily pattern for reading instruction (including phonemic awareness, phonics and vocabulary), reading practice (for fluency development) and reading comprehension, understanding that attending to each of these elements every day in some way perpetuates the growth of children as readers in consistent, incremental ways that eventually lead to confident, competent young readers. While the classroom routines may vary somewhat from day to day, learners are confident in understanding the expectations and knowing their boundaries and expectations related to reading within the context of the classroom. They are happy to see themselves succeeding and confident when they make mistakes to 'give it a go' and try again, knowing there are always ample opportunities available for 'do overs' as the school day progresses. Confidence in the daily-ness of the routine means confidence in steady improvement rather than the seeking of huge major learning milestones for children.
The same should be true of any and every child's home reading experiences - a routine time and expectations that a child can count on and anticipate with a level of confidence in their own abilities and how that time will be managed. I am including a link to a home reading video I've used with parents over the past five years from an online educational magazine, Cult of Pedagogy, created by one of my preferred bloggers, Jennifer Gonzales. I encourage you to take a few minutes (5) to watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=korfvEOQb14 This video offers suggestions for setting up routines that will successfully support your child through the home reading experience with confidence and consistent increments of improvement.
Why should reading happen every day - even if it's just for a few minutes? Because research shows it is the small, repeated practices that have the greatest, long term impact on learning anything - but particular complex thinking tasks like reading. Maybe it's not possible (and I certainly know it wasn't always possible in my home when the children were younger!) to establish a routine that gets followed every single day, but it is definitely possible to establish a routine children get to know and count on that can be abbreviated as necessary.
When it was hockey night in our home, or swimming or soccer or music lessons night (it depended on which child was part of the home reading experience at the time!), we had a cache of Highlights or Ranger Rick magazines with poems and short stories applicable to young children we could pull out and read together just for a few minutes before our read-aloud bed time stories (honestly, we rarely ever missed read aloud bed time stories regardless of how late bedtime was because that was how the children loved to fall asleep!). We didn't worry about trying out new words or which strategies we were using on those nights; we just tried reading together for a few minutes to keep the practicing going - even 5 or 10 minutes is all that is required as a supplement to what usually happens 3 - 5 times as a whole home reading experience such as that described in this little video.
Because the bottom line is simply that children who regularly practice reading at home, and consistently participate in read aloud experiences at home, are statistically far more successful readers and students than learners who do not participate in regular home reading activities. Practice, practice, practice - it is what is required for bike riding, swimming, singing, playing piano or any other activity we engage our children in learning.
Once, a friend of mine told me she couldn't do home reading with her child because he was a high intensity hockey player who needed to practice every single day to stay on top of his game. I was impressed by his dedication to hockey and told her that; a few months later she was very upset because he had brought home his report card for grade 8 and he had failing grades in two subject areas, and was only marginally successful in all the rest. Homework was not completed, the report card said, with any regularity and he was struggling to read his Science and Social Studies textbooks (this was a few years ago). Without even thinking, I said I was surprised he could be so dedicated to hockey without putting similar effort into school and she said to me, 'but he feels successful with hockey!" My response was what I am sure everyone who knows me would expect - said as gently as I could - 'Well, if he put even half as much effort into school and learning as he does hockey, he would probably feel successful there too'.
'If it matters, put in the time required to make it worthwhile'. My dad used to say this to me and to my siblings when we were younger and complaining about doing something for school, or a chore we didn't appreciate taking on, or even something we loved when it got tough (for me, this was figure skating). I heard him say this so many times over the years, I am sure it is engraved in my brain! It was, however, the most important lesson I learned as a child and carried forward into my adulthood. And it is still extremely good advice.
Reading matters. Learning to become a successful, competent reader matters - even in this world of digital everything, reading is an absolutely required skill (and even requires reading skills we have not traditionally taught in schools - perhaps a topic for a later blog...) and for children to become truly successful, lifelong learners as adults there needs to be at least some degree of focus placed on practicing reading at home - there are simply not enough hours in a school day to achieve the level of focused reinforcement and practice children need to continuously improve in their approaches to reading. We may not all be able to be great at hockey or soccer or playing piano, but truly every child can become a more proficient and successful reader with consistent focus and practice. And, as parents, I really see it as one of our primary responsibilities to ensure we encourage them to take time each day - as little or as much as possible - to develop their best potential as readers.
I do encourage all parents to watch the short video mentioned in this blog (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=korfvEOQb14 ) and try to include at least 10 - 15 minutes every day focused on reading at home with your child. I will end this blog with a final quote from Carolyn Wilhelm, whose words opened this entry, and look forward to seeing every child continue to grow and excel at reading as the school year progresses as a result of consistent home practice :)
"Do not stop reading aloud to your child. It is a mistake to think that now the child can read
on his or her own, the parent is out of the picture. Reading aloud to children should continue
through grade four or higher. Why? Adults can read such a great variety of stories
and expose children to a huge amount of vocabulary that children cannot access on their own.
Children need to be reminded that reading is interesting."
Lorraine Kinsman, Principal
Eric Harvie School
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