While in college as an education major my backpack had a pin stuck to it that read: If you can read this thank a teacher.
The key to one’s future was in knowing how to read. If one can read, one can learn anything. That is basically the foundation of a classical education. Everything builds from learning to read.
Turning off the Electronics
As much as possible I kept the television, video games, the computer, and other electronic devices turned off as much as possible. Technology continually proves damaging to development and creativity, as well as proving to be a time sucking activity that interferes with reading time.
Young eyes develop through movement while spatial reasoning develops through hands-on interaction through three dimensional objects like puzzles.
Thus we focused on as much old fashioned entertainment as possible, like outdoor play with opportunities to discover nature and open-ended toys like tinker toys, legos, marbleworks, etc.
Within corners of the home create a book nook, a puzzle table, and a game corner. Include a treasure chest full of old clothes to allow creative impromptu skits.
Wishbone
The rare times we watched tv I tried to make as beneficial as possible, which included watching Wishbone, a dog who loved to read.
Stock the Bookcase with Quality over Quantity
Ensuring my kids had lots of great reading material, I hit all the local yard sales on base each weekend, which was a gold mine. Although I found quantity, I focused on quality.
I chose quality over quantity. I sought books with a world view that taught positive role models who exemplified the type of life God calls us to live: endurance, bravery, faithfulness, compassion, obedience, loyalty, fighting evil.
Read Aloud Tips
Always make time in the day to read books, especially before bedtime. Reading books aloud has many obvious benefits for the young student learning to read, including the building of auditory skills, and a sense of togetherness and closeness.
Some books lend themselves better to reading aloud than others.
Some books are tediously sluggish as a read aloud yet wonderfully fascinating as a silently read book.
When my kids were toddlers, they often came to me with a stack of about 10 books to be read, sometimes the same ones night after night.
Sometimes I might suggest a new book after I read their stack.
Visiting family members were gob smacked at how many books the kids wanted read aloud to them.
Each family member went home hoarse.
One even dreamed the night before her flight that she had to pass a test on how Mrs. Frizzle and her class passed through the digestion system before she was allowed on board the plane!
Transitioning from Picture Books to Chapter Books: Preparing for the Dialectic Years
Some kids are not fans of silent independent reading.
It is concerning when kids do not enjoy independent reading and are reliant on Mom to do all the reading for them.
After all, Mom won’t always be around to read everything aloud.
Whether college is in the future or not, the child grows up and must eventually face reading independently.
Hopefully they can approach it with anticipation and pleasure.
Sometimes the challenge with older students enjoying independent reading is the transition from picture books to chapter books.
Choose Great Junior Classics
One year when I taught third graders in public school, I chose EB White books for our daily read aloud.
After choosing Charlotte’s Web, my students happily settled in for the book after telling me they already knew the book. Their second-grade teacher had read it to them the year before.
The next day I sat down with them to begin a different EB White book, The Trumpet of the Swan.
Charmed by the book most of the students located their own copies to follow along.
After following along, a chapter a day in their copies as I read aloud, they realized they could do this.
Soon they began reading chapter books independently.
Meanwhile they incorporated the lead characters of The Trumpet of the Swan into every creative writing assignment they possibly could for the rest of the year.
The next year I taught third grade I used The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder as the read aloud for the entire year.
I knew a lot of background information that I could easily incorporate into unit studies.
Also, I’ve actually been to her husband, Almonzo’s house, in upstate New York near the Canadian border.
I had plans to bring to life the story of a pioneer girl who lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, then traveled by covered wagon to Indian Territory, Minnesota, and Dakota Territory.
She endured plagues, blizzards, and saw a railroad and a town built from scratch.
She has inspired me to have the Declaration of Independence read aloud every Independence Day, just like the celebrations she attended.
Encourage them with ability
After my new class of third graders arrived, I quickly saw their fear of chapter books.
The new school librarian, who told them they could only check out picture books because they were not old enough to read chapter books, didn’t help.
That was preposterous!
I told the students they COULD read chapter books. They merely contain more words on the page and fewer pictures. That meant there was more of an adventure to savor!
Beguile Them
Opening Little House in the Big Woods (Book 1 in the Laura Ingalls Wilder series) I reeled them in to the historic past.
By the time we were halfway through Little House on the Prairie (Book 2 in the series), they were enthralled.
My students wore the librarian down
They started asking the librarian to allow them to check out the Little House books.
She insisted they couldn’t possibly read the chapter books.
They insisted they definitely could.
She insisted they could not.
They wore her down.
My students bought and read the entire series
Starting in late September, 99% of my students had 1-2 Little House chapter books stacked on the corners of their desks every day to savor when they had completed seat work.
Interestingly, that school year, the Scholastic book club offered a different Little House book in each month’s order.
My students bought the entire series!
We did related art projects, which I’d post on the wall outside the classroom for all to see.
Above the art work I made a USA map with a moveable Conestoga Wagon that traced Laura’s journeys throughout the Midwest.
I put the titles of the books at the locations where they occurred.
This got the other students in the school excited!
Students from other classrooms were jealous
Other teachers told me that their students were jealous of my students who had fun traveling with Laura.
When the third grade received money to purchase classroom sets of books, the lead teacher looked at me and said, “Laurie, since you teach the Little House books, why don’t we order classroom sets of the first two books in the series?”
Those books were often checked out by the other teachers in the school. By the end of the year, we got halfway through The Long Winter.
Sadly we said goodbye at the end of the year.
I gave them a synopsis of the rest of the series and eagerly they went home to begin summer reading, completing the series!
The Art of the Possible
The difference in outlook between the librarian and myself is that she made it impossible. All I did was make it possible.
She told my students they couldn’t. I told them they could.
Our greatest role as teachers is to be the students’ greatest cheerleader.
They need to know that they can. Our outlook can make all the difference.
If we make it exciting, if we say “they can”, if we help them through the process, the students are more likely to try…and “accidentally” enjoy.
Favorite Topics
That leads me to my own kids. My daughter struggled with learning to read, yet finally got a handle on oral reading. My younger son practically taught himself to read.
During their early school years, we had our read aloud snuggle time with the Little House books, which were highly enjoyed and brought up a lot of conversation.
When the time came to transition my kids from picture books to chapter books, I looked for books that would match not only their interests, but also their reading ability.
My son enjoyed trains, so I introduced him to The Boxcar Children, a charming set of stories first published in 1924.
When he first saw that they were chapter books, he wanted me to read them out loud to him. No, he had the reading vocabulary to read it to himself.
He said it was too many words and not enough pictures. I replied that’s because it had more adventure.
Curious, he finally read the first book and got hooked. In fact, he got so hooked, he would read nothing but The Boxcar Children.
His favorite character was a boy in the story who has the same name he has. These story book characters became my motivation for everything.
If the Boxcar Children did something, my son had to do it.
If the Boxcar Children said it, it was so. I began to worry. I had created a monster! How to motivate him to read something else? Eventually he expanded his repertoire when other great literature books were presented to him in homeschool.
Rules for DEAR: Drop Everything and Read
My daughter, however, could not grasp the concept of reading a book independently, nor silently.
It was time to use the DEAR method: Drop Everything and Read
One afternoon I called the kids down to the living room with a book they’d enjoy reading for 30 minutes. I set the timer. (Can’t argue with a timer.)
They were not allowed to leave for any reason..
It could not be a schoolbook. It had to be a non-school book.
Nor were comic books allowed. The point is to have them read chapter books. Of course younger children can enjoy picture books.
And I was going to read a book too! The teacher can only read a fun book. It must be a fun chapter fiction book! No homework allowed.
Like the kids, I did not allow distractions to hinder me. I ignored the telephone and doorbell.
This was an opportunity to model that even Mom reads for fun.
DEAR Problems and Solutions
How often do the kids see me reading things that I HAVE to read? How rarely do they see me reading a book for pure enjoyment?
In truth, I have done very little of that since before college.
This became my favorite time of the day.
It was incredibly soothing and relaxing in the midst of a busy day to pull apart from a hectic schedule to lay down on the sofa and enjoy a trip to other lands in other times.
My son quickly got engrossed in his book Boxcar Children adventure.
My daughter tried to avoid the book for the first two days.
I merely ignored that scenario and kept reading my own book. Nor did I mention it to her later.
When she saw that I was firm, and she realized she could be forever bored out of her gourd 30 minutes a day unless she read a book, she started reading independently.
Today, she and my son rarely go anywhere without a fun chapter book in hand to read silently.
