teaching reading.

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I was jealous of Washdads comment in another thread- that he had gotten an adult library card when he was 7. I was a reader- taught myself at 4 before I started school, even though the only kids books that our family owned that I can remember, was Green Eggs & Ham , Hop on Pop & Horton hears a Who. ( I memorized that one)</p>

<p>At my elementary school-classrooms didn’t have their own libraries & I don’t ever remember going to the library at the first school I attended ( from K-4th, then a school was built closer to my home & I went there for 5th & 6th)
In first grade we had to read those excruciating Dick and Jane books, everyone was expected to be at the same level & then we were expected to practice handwriting by writing about them :p</p>

<p>When I got a little older, I noticed my mother did buy paperbacks, which I had to sneak since I wasn’t allowed to read them. Heloise Housekeeping hints ( see * I was* desperate) Coffee, Tea or Me- was a little bawdy, and I was mesmerized by Valley of the Dolls.:eek: I read it when I was 9.</p>

<p>So perhaps this is why I went a little overboard when I had kids- my home library at one point could rival a school library from the 1960’s let along a classroom library. :smiley: I did pass on many books either to child care centers or kids in the neighborhood, but I still have trouble weeding them out or passing new ones by.</p>

<p>My older daughter as I mentioned also taught herself to read early, but contrary to my experience she attended a school that encouraged any healthy interest in learning that a child had- of course her 1st grade class had 25 kids , two teachers and a full time aide, my class had closer to 1 teacher and 28 kids.</p>

<p>My younger daughter had a much more difficult time, she wanted me to read to her, but didn’t want me to teach her at all- I didn’t realize that she was dyslexic and it was very difficult. As she got older, she wouldn’t read the correct word, but she would substitute other words that made sense and had the same meaning. When she was much older, I had her tested and it was found that she has lack of phonemic awareness ( ability to differentiate sounds) and when she reads, even now, and she comes across an unfamiliar word she can’t sound it out, but has to sift through her memory of words that might fit. ( thats how it was explained to me)
Still she did learn to read & does read for pleasure- she is even taking AP english as a senior & reading stuff even her sister hasn’t read. But it takes extra effort & unfortunately, I have the impression her teacher doesn’t “believe” in learning disabilties.</p>

<p>I think my point originally was how things have improved in the schools to some extent regarding reading, for example when D#2 attended a K-12 school from 3rd to 8th grade, kids were allowed to take out any book from any part of the fairly well stocked library. Her 3rd grade classroom had an extensive library & every grade of elementary had weekly book groups led by parents according to interest & skill ( depending on classroom)</p>

<p>In her high school, teachers seek donations of extra books so kids can take books home, the librarian makes an effort to extend library hours and one of the Lang arts teachers sponsors a bookshelf where students can exchange books for their own use.
As befits a big reading town where the [city librarian](<a href=“http://www.mcphee.com/laf/”>http://www.mcphee.com/laf/&lt;/a&gt; ) has been immortalized as an action figure, I guess. :D</p>

<p>So while some of us may think schools are not as effective as they were when we were kids- and I would be the first to argue there is a lot of improvement required- I also think that we are getting better about reaching a larger section of kids and getting them inspired to continue their own education.</p>

<p>How did you learn to read?</p>

2

<p>A passionate reader here, daughter of two passionate readers. It’s heartbreaking to me that despite library cards since they were 3, literally thousands of books at home (DH was a literature prof.) one child doesn’t read at all for pleasure – the other sporradically and not terribly deeply.</p>

<p>It’s not just about the “right” influcences. It’s also about interests and personality.</p>

3

<p>They may still come around-
I don’t think my H was a big reader in school- his parents library even now consists of romance novels kept on the top shelf of the basement closet & three leather bound volumes of something to look good on the coffee table- but he reads more than I do now. At his work they regularly exchange books and while most of the books he reads are science fiction or mysteries, he also gets through stuff that I have a hard time with. ( I have a hard time reading history- I struggled through Guns Germs and Steel for book group & he zipped through it)</p>

4

<p>I agree with katlia that sometimes it’s just the kid. As first-time parents, we read ourselves blue to s1. Poor s2 didn’t get near the attention, and he was a much earlier (4) and avid reader.</p>

5

<p>I came from a family of readers. I was also a self taught young reader and couldn’t wait to fill my kids rooms with books. My boys enjoy reading and my daughter does somewhat. The funny thing is that she’s a teacher. Oldest son is an English major. </p>

<p>What I’ve found though is that sometimes it doesn’t matter a bit how much the parents read to themselves or to their kids. I work in a library and all of us love to read but I would say half of the staff have kids that do not enjoy reading. </p>

<p>One of the things that turned my daughter off reading was the innundation of stories that were clearly aimed at boys that all the class had to read in 5th and 6th grade. In every story a dog or a mother died. We started joking about it after awhile, guessing who was going to “get it”.</p>

6

<p>I think that there are way too many electronic entertainment appliances – ipod, dvd player, stereo, video games etc – that take up time that could otherwise be devoted to reading as a pastime.</p>

<p>My kids don’t read during a car trip or a plane trip – there’s the ipod or the seatback tv – and those entertainment devices are easier than reading for many kids. </p>

<p>I often pick up a book, chosen specifically for entertainment value to that child, and bring it along, thinking that one of the boys would enjoy the book as a boredom breaker – but it’s passed over in favor of the movie or the tunes.</p>

7

<p>I am a huge fan of reading… However I feel so swamped with High School work, HS drama, ECs, and everything else that I just don’t find time to read just purely what I want. Sure I read for school but that always is either specified or has guidelines… Can’t wait til summer</p>

8

<p>I’m also an avid reader with kids who don’t read.</p>

<p>One (the better student) REALLY will not read for pleasure. She’ll read Archie comics if I get them for her; that’s about it.</p>

<p>The other actually reads all the time, but ONLY chick lit for teens.</p>

<p>This is despite the fact that we do not watch TV (although lots of DVDs)and do not allow them to go online during the week.</p>

<p>I also grew up in the era of Dick and Jane, but was in first and second grade classrooms that used a phonetic approach to learning how to read (other classrooms in the same school used the standard readers). Did anyone else learn to read this way? The program included special readers that used phonetic symbols in words instead of standard spelling. Then, in second grade, we were weaned off the readers into usual grade appropriate reading material (color coded, as I recall).</p>

9

<p>i LOVE to read. i wish i could read for pleasure more, but for now it’s a lot of college textbooks and other “get my mind off this crazy stuff” type books. can’t wait until i have some more free time to catch up on some classics. </p>

<p>i learned to read with my next door neighbor (also my age) when i was about 4 or 5. we basically taught ourselves how to read really easy stuff, and then he and I went on to be part of the enrichment program at my grade school where we got to read a lot more than our peers. we also had a few hours set aside each week for D.E.A.R time: drop everything and read! teachers read to us a lot too. it was great.</p>

10

<p>They used to throw me outside at recess when I wanted to stay in and read. I thought that was very confusing. Why would I want to stand around in the freezing cold when I could be relaxing with a nice book? And why did teachers think it was a problem that I wanted to read all day?</p>

<p>I suppose they just wanted a half-hour break from all the kids. It’s not like I was getting any exercise outside.</p>

11

<p>Hanna - that’s a subject for another thread. You should have been getting exercise during recess. From grades 1-7, we always played sports during recess - softball, dodgeball, tag on the monkey bars, and on and on. I guess recess was shortened to the point that kids couldn’t do this but I think it’s sad. </p>

<p>As to reading, my D always chose singing over reading but in the last couple of years, she has really enjoyed the reading selections for her AP English classes. Part of the problem was that she just didn’t like the popular books - she hated the Harry Potter books. I thought she just didn’t like to read, so I gave it a try and I couldn’t get through one either. She just needed different choices.</p>

12

<p>Of course kids played dodgeball, tag, etc. during recess. I just didn’t want to play. Being forced to participate is called “gym class.” We had that, too, but at recess you could do whatever you wanted as long as you were outside.</p>

13

<p>By the time I was teaching school in the 70s, I never saw kids playing anything at recess - they just hung out and never organized anything. I guess the difference was that we didn’t have gym class until high school when I was a kid so the teachers organized games that everyone played.</p>

14

<p>My older son taught himself to read pretty much as he was learning to talk. He asked what everything said and figured out the rules by himself. He started reading before he was three. I read to him forever anyway. My younger son had a much harder time, but it eventually clicked in the fall of second grade - he went from Nate the Great to Harry Potter practically overnight. They both read a lot, though my older son reads so fast it’s hard for anyone to keep up with him. My husband probably reads as fast, but not as much. (I just returned about two dozen sci fi books for him though.) Our house has books and bookshelves everywhere. Neither kids had much use for phonics.</p>

<p>I think it’s important for kids to read books they like and to be able to own books they can read more than once. I was very involved with the Reading is Fundamental Program at our school. We were able to make sure that every kid in the school got at least four new books of their very own chosen without any input from teachers or parents (though obviously we chose what was displayed) every year.</p>

15

<p>Dick. Jane. Sally. Spot. Puff. See Spot run. Run Spot Run. But I digress.
My oldest was a self-taught reader and was reading in nursery school. However, I didn’t know it until another parent pointed it out. He’s a first year Ph.D. student, and is still a voracious reader. He recently confessed that he often was reading in his room in lieu of doing his homework in high school. He reads incredible tomes for pleasure, and really gets excited by his reading. His younger brothers are not avid readers. It is very disappointing, and I’m wondering if their 6+ year age difference allowing for the development of more and more electronic gadgetry made a difference, or whether it really just comes down to personality.</p>

16

<p>I am the child of two voracious readers and a voracious reader myself married to a reader. I learned to read in first grade and don’t remember how much I might have been able to read before that. </p>

<p>DS reads but electronic offerings make him a more limited reader. True confession is that the same has happened to me - ever hear of an addictive website called CC?</p>

17

<p>I don’t remember how I learned to read, but being a former teacher that had only taught at the 4th and 5th grade levels-I was quite concerned when we had our only child after I “retired”. I had never really taught any of the kids “how to read” as most could read on at least a 3rd grade reading level when I taught school. My son, I think, learned to read because I read to him all of the time! This means I even began reading to him before he was born!! He loved being read to as an infant and very young child before he ever arrived at Kindergarten. So, you can imagine my surprise when just a couple of months into 5K he picked up a book one day and just read it aloud. No, it was not one that we had already read to him either. Fortunately, he had a teacher at the time who then put him on a reading program for 5K which then helped him soar! He was also a very inquisitive child and learned to “talk before he walked”. He is also a kid that enjoys classical music–which I believe also comes from listening while in the womb and when he was an infant. I also think that his reading skills deeply fostered his writing skills as well. He is not the least bit intimidated by writing research papers at college and tended to write with much ease and confidence throughout high school. As I look back on the years of his education, I truly believe that those early years of reading and music appreciation paid off. And while my degree is in elem education, it is the early childhood education that I think I provided my child that made such an impact on his reading skills. And, not to wander off-topic, he is a boy with a late August birthday. It is the norm in the school system that he attended for elem to hold boys back for another year of 5K. We did not elect to do this because he was reading so far ahead at the end of 5K. We do not regret it for one minute as the pediatrician advised that socially he would level off–he would have been bored with another year of 5K!</p>

18

<p>I was lucky to have parents who read to me a lot, and then a first-grade teacher who knew a lot about teaching reading. </p>

<p>[Reading</a> Instruction Series (Learn in Freedom!)](<a href=“http://learninfreedom.org/readseri.html]Reading”>Reading Instruction Series (Learn in Freedom)) </p>

<p>I have taught my three sons to read, and am beginning to teach my daughter. They are all very avid readers. I have read to them since they were infants, as my wife has.</p>

19

<p>Oh and as to the question of how I learned to read? Sort of a funny story. We were living in Japan at the time. I’d just finished up a year in Japanese kindy and was about to start at the International School when they discovered I was about to turn six and would be a year older than other first graders. Horrors! So they told my mother to send me to summer school to learn how to read so I could start in second grade. I spent the summer with two other kids who as I recall were a bit older and learned to read. The first thing I remember reading for pleasure is “Now we are Six”. Anyway, for three years in Japan, I was the same age as other kids in my grade. The next nine years I was a full year younger - sometimes more with a September birthday. Luckily I liked being young, and suspect it kept me from finding school more boring than it was.</p>

20

<p>I like this thread–hope more will respond. I have told many new parents about the importance of reading at very early stages of development. And while I may be out of touch with the state of early childhood education in our country, I still believe that the earlier one starts reading, learning a language, math skills or music is crucial. Our brains are like sponges esp in utero and at birth.</p>