My Thoughts on Reading from a 3rd grade teacher's (and parent's) perspective:
Upon Googling the word "reading," this is what showed up:
Often times when people I meet find out I'm a teacher, they look at me imploringly and say, "My child hates reading! What do I do?" Wow. That's a toughie. But I have some suggestions.
First of all, if reading is a way of sharing ways and ideas, there are lots of methodologies to acquire information. Some children naturally veer towards reading and some don't, just like some grownups like to read and others don't. Now just imagine, as an adult, that for everything you read, you had to write down the source, the number of pages, and a short summary about it. How would you then feel about reading? Do you count the number of minutes you read each day?
That is why I chose to stop doing reading logs for homework.
Reading logs have led to frustrated parents and children, inaccurate accounts of minutes, and extra paperwork.
My students write once a week about what they are reading during school hours. I help them find books that match their interest, find great articles from the web, and encourage them to write their own stories that they can read and share with others.
At home, let kids read without reading logs.
Alternate reading strategies include:
- Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning (reading comprehension). It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas.
Often times when people I meet find out I'm a teacher, they look at me imploringly and say, "My child hates reading! What do I do?" Wow. That's a toughie. But I have some suggestions.
First of all, if reading is a way of sharing ways and ideas, there are lots of methodologies to acquire information. Some children naturally veer towards reading and some don't, just like some grownups like to read and others don't. Now just imagine, as an adult, that for everything you read, you had to write down the source, the number of pages, and a short summary about it. How would you then feel about reading? Do you count the number of minutes you read each day?
That is why I chose to stop doing reading logs for homework.
Reading logs have led to frustrated parents and children, inaccurate accounts of minutes, and extra paperwork.
My students write once a week about what they are reading during school hours. I help them find books that match their interest, find great articles from the web, and encourage them to write their own stories that they can read and share with others.
At home, let kids read without reading logs.
Alternate reading strategies include:
- Obtain a high interest book/article at your child's reading level. Begin reading with short increments of time and praise often.
- Put subtitles on your t.v.
- Try audiobooks and have your child listen to them before bed.
- Read along with your child; find high interest books/articles for yourself.
- Discover different types of literature, including kid's websites, magazines, short stories.
- Have siblings read to each other.
- Go to the library or download ebooks for free.
- Be patient with your child. They are doing the best they can. And so are you.