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What Good Readers Do
This past week I began my graduate school classes and have been doing lots of reading and reflecting assignments already! One of the topics that I came across in my reading this past weekend dealt with the concept of reading aloud to our children. I wanted to pass the information on to all of you because I feel that it is important to realize that reading aloud to our children, no matter what age they are, is critical in their development as a reader.
Reading aloud has been proven to positively impact overall academic achievement, along with also improving children's reading skills and their enjoyment of reading. I feel that many parents and teachers stop reading aloud to their children as the students become capable of reading independently. I believe that students can benefit greatly from spending that 15-30 minutes reading with their parents at the ages of 8, 9, and 10 the same way they did when they were 5. This provides a perfect way for parents to model their thinking skills and pass on the passion for reading a good book to their children.
Think back to a time when you were young and I bet you remember how safe and comfortable you felt curled up with your parents as they read to you. I may be speaking for myself, but I know that if I curled up with my mom or dad now at the age of 28, I would still feel that same warm fuzzy feeling I felt when I was a begining reader. We assume our kids grow out of this, but I beleive if you find the right book and the right moment, your children will still treasure that read aloud time you spend with them.
I am encouraging you to find time everyday to read aloud with your children. I try to read aloud to the students everyday here at school. I find the best time of day for us is at the end of the day when we are all worn out. No matter what type of day we have had we can end on a positive note as we lay on the floor together and relax as I read them a wonderful chapter book. They love it and are upset when we run out of time and can't fit it into our day. It's their chance to sit back and have Ms. Black do the work, and it allows me time to show them how much I love reading and the skills and techniques I use when I read. What I model during those informal lessons sometimes impacts them more then lessons I have put lots of time into planning.?"Reading makes possible the connection between our minds and the near magical notions drawn up from our impossible hearts." -Mr. de Vinck
With the New Year underway, many of us sit back and think about our New Year's resolutions and what we will do differently in the year ahead to make it even better than the last. This week I am having the students think and write about their resolutions, so I figured I would use this reflection to share what some of my resolutions are for this year in the classroom.
I will be starting to go back to school myself this month and one of my resolutions has to do with my own studies. I want to make sure that I am sharing with my students and collegues every week what I am learning in my own classes. I want to take what I learn in my lectures and try to apply it to my current students that same week in one of my lesson plans. I also want to have a discussion with at least one other teacher to share what I learned. I also want to use my online research class to hopefully add some new units of studies into my current curriculum. I feel this will be important to show both my students and my coworkers that there is always room to improve and we are students our entire life, not just when we are young and in school.
My other resolution is to try to read or work on writing skills individually with at least one student every day. With so much going on in the classroom it is always hard to find time to spend alone with just one student, but I realize how much that little time spent one on one can mean to these young students.
I hope you will share with your children some of your New Year's resolutions and encourage them to make ones as well.