1) Children pay attention to books they find interesting. Letting children choose the book is a good way to know what interests them.
2) Children enjoy re-reading books that interest them. Have your child choose a favorite book and explain what makes it interesting.
3) Pay attention to the kinds of questions your child asks today to help you know what interests them. Choose books that relate to their questions.
4) Children learn that reading is important when they see the people around them reading to learn or do something. Make sure your child sees you reading. Adults can invite children to follow along as they read. For example, you can invite your child to read cookbooks and plan meals with you.
5) Practice using new words. Have your child draw a picture about a favorite book. Use the picture to have a conversation about what happened in the story.
6) Readers pay attention to important information as they read. Paying attention to important information helps them learn something new.
7) Reading is connected to many holiday traditions like stories and singing. Reading favorite books during the holidays links reading to happy memories.
8) Readers make connections to their own lives as they read. Thinking about how their life and the book are the same or different helps them understand. Invite your child to think about how a story is like their own life
The Always Reading Program emphasizes trying to incorporate reading into a family’s schedule for a minimum of 15 minutes per day, 3 days per week.
1) Research has shown that reading books aloud to children helps them succeed in school. Build a habit of reading aloud by finding a regular time to read one or two books aloud everyday.
2) Reestablishing family routines such as reading aloud each day is a good way to help children return to the demands of school after a holiday break.
3) When you talk with your child about important ideas or parts of a story you show your child that it is important to think about and understand a story. Readers pay attention to what happens first, next, and last in a story.
Knowing what happens first, next, and last helps a reader understand the story. The end of the day is a good time to talk about what happened first, next, or last. You can invite your child to tell you what happened first, next, and last in a story they read or during their own day.
Asking questions starts a conversation with your child about the book.
- Form questions about what you see on the page using the words WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, and HOW.
- You might ask questions about what is happening in the pictures, about the setting of the book/where it takes place, about who the characters are, and about how the characters are feeling based on the pictures. You can also ask what your child thinks might happen next.
For example: Who’s this? Where is he? How is he feeling? I wonder what will happen next. What do you think?
- Readers make predictions to make meaning as they read. You can help your child make predictions by taking turns guessing what happens next.
- Ask questions that you yourself want the answer to. When a child sees that you care about asking questions, they will also want to ask questions about the book.
- Asking questions can focus attention on particular parts of a story. You can ask questions before, during, or after reading a book.
- Asking questions can help children think about what is real or make-believe. Ask Could this really happen? What things on this page are make-believe?
Why is Asking Questions Important?
People ask questions to learn or understand something deeply. Asking questions while reading aloud helps children think and understand more deeply.
Asking questions to your child while reading to them has many benefits, which include the following:
- Children who are taught to think about things at an early age through open-ended questions are better equipped to understand the world around them. Open-ended questions have no right or wrong answers, but help to broaden children’s thinking processes and develop language skills.
- Asking questions is also a way to invite children to verbalize ideas. Say: Tell me what you think about…? How do you feel about…? What do you like about…? After asking your child open-ended questions, allow them time to think before responding. Young children often need extra time to decide what to say.
- Learning how to ask good questions takes practice and mentoring. Asking questions during a read-aloud helps children learn how to ask good questions.
- Asking questions will help your child develop ways of thinking and speaking that will help them be successful in school.
- Asking children questions helps them become thinkers. Ask questions like, What do you notice? wherever you are — at home, the store, the playground.
Young children are curious and full of questions. When children ask questions, take time to provide informative answers.
The most important part of reading is making meaning. Readers make meaning when they use words and pictures to think about and understand the book.
What is a Picture Walk?
- A picture walk is a way of going through the pages of a book by just using the pictures to determine what is happening on each page of the book.
- A picture walk makes connections between the words on the page and the illustrations. As your child grows familiar with a book they will use the illustrations to help them recall information about what is happening in the book.
- As children look through the pictures and talk about what they think is happening in the pictures, they begin to build their reading skills. They discover that the book is a story that has meaning, or a source of information about the world.
- Children need to practice using the words they are learning. A picture walk is a good way to practice using words.
- Knowing many different words helps children succeed in school. Picture walks are especially good for learning new words in the book.
How to Do a Picture Walk
- Hold the tablet between you and your child so you both can see it.
- Tell your child that the book has words and pictures and right now going to just look at the pictures.
- Take a look at the cover.
- Describe what you see and think (for example; name the things in each picture; make predictions about book’s content)
- Turn the first page.
- Ask your child to describe the picture.
- Take turns talking about the rest of the pages in the book.
- You can do a picture walk with any book that has pictures–even non-fiction books.
A picture walk helps a child understand a book. Ask your child to think about the pictures by asking “What is going on here?” or “What do you see?”
For example:
- Take a look at the cover.
- Describe what you see and think (for example, name the things in each picture; make predictions about the story’s content and ask the child to do so: “I see a castle on the cover. I wonder what this book is going to be about?”)
- Ask your child to describe the picture.
Spending time reading aloud promotes healthy brain growth. Children that are read to more often have better listening skills and know more words.
Reading aloud to your child has many benefits, which include the following:
- Reading a favorite book aloud is a good way for children to hear words again and practice them.
- Reading aloud is a good way to include the whole family. Invite family visitors to select favorite books to read aloud to your child. After reading, talk about the story together.
- Readers summarize to explain what a book is about. Summarizing is retelling the most important parts of a story or information in a book. You can invite your child to summarize or explain the important parts of a book by drawing a picture that shows who is in the story and where the story happened and explaining it to you.
- Readers also summarize to think about what they want to remember. Summarizing helps them learn new information from the books they read. Keeping track of what they learn from books helps your child connect reading to learning. After you read aloud you can invite your child to show what they learned by drawing pictures and labeling with words.
Language and Brain Development
Interactions with adults and the world are the building blocks for language, reading and writing development and reading success in school. Hearing and using language contributes to brain development.
- From the very first moments children are learning language in their homes and in their
interactions with the adults around them. - Children use language to function successfully in the world. Language includes listening
and speaking.
Learning and being able to use many different words (vocabulary) helps students succeed in school. Book sharing introduces children to new and different words.
- The more words a child hears the more words he or she will learn and use.
- Children who know more words are often able to think more deeply.
- Children who know more words can express themselves better.
- Children who know more words learn new things more quickly, including more new words.
A person who knows a word understands what the word means. Hearing a word used in a story is a first step to understanding what the word means.
The Benefits of Book Sharing
Book sharing is a way to help children learn and make them want to read. Book sharing can build:
- Knowledge about language.
- Knowledge of the world and how it works.
- Knowledge of how to read and understand books.
Book sharing has many benefits, which include the following:
- It is a way to surround children with language and introduce them to the words in print.
- Exposure to book sharing exercises a child’s brain. It gets the brain working and growing.
- Book sharing introduces children to new ways of talking about the world.
- It also introduces children to the parts of stories (e.g., beginning, middle, end; stories have characters; stories happen in special places).
- A person who knows a word can use the word to talk about ideas. Talking about ideas in a book after you share it with your child is a way for him or her to practice learning and using new words.