​I know you're thinking, this seems obvious, but here's what's not. How to pick the right book to read at home with your child. 

There are a few thing to consider when picking a book - but here is one that your child's teacher would like you to consider - pick books to read at home that further your child's ability to actually read.

Here's how to do that. 

You guys, this is super sweet. As in, if Liliana wanted to do this for me in 20 years, I would cry but also I would really appreciate it.

Last week, as Liliana and I were recording books together we were talking about who else could record books for her. She loves to hear all kinds of readers - grandparents, babysitters, ladies at the library, poets on the subway. All storytellers. 

And then this other thought has been swimming around in my head for awhile - some of the books that I read to Liliana (and plan to read) are ones that I loved as a child. I bet I'm not alone in this. 

We read the books we like to our kids - and we should. And our parents likely did the same. So, this is how you get multiple generations reading Caps for Sale or Charlotte's Web. Because we liked it as kids, so of course our kids will like it too. 

So here's the idea...instead of a Mother's Day card, 

A book she might have read to you as a kid, a book she read to you that you loved so much that you read it to your kids.

​Maybe it's a book that you love so much you want HER to read it to your kids. 

Or, a book that she showed you and it enlightened you, inspired you, made you want to keep reading - helped to make you into the person you are today.

​Happy (early) Mother's Day!

My recording of Swatch, our favorite book. Liliana likes to listen to our recording when I'm not around. Or even if I am, sometimes she picks the recording, like she did in the above picture. She was "reading" (and practicing her own fluency) with our recorded reading. ​

Our current homemade audiobook playlist includes I Want My Hat Back, How Little Lori Visited Times Square, Swatch and Charley Harper's Animal Alphabet. It's 26 minutes of reading that she can listen to over and over and over again - well past when I would consider reading the story again. My limit is usually 3 times before I start reading poorly - but she can do this 10 times in a row if she wants to (with a well-read, not tired version).

Just the other day I had a conversation about reading with a good friend who is also a parent. We were talking about how there is so much to do with kids and so much pressure and the question came up.
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​Do I really have to read to my kid for 30 minutes everyday? 

​I said, not exactly. That's not exactly the way to look at it.

​Wait, what? Why not? The pediatrician and teachers told me I had to.

One main reason is because it makes reading seem like a chore. It can be much more creative than that. And oftentimes, there are a few instructions missing when teachers, doctors and librarians ask parents to read to their kids for 30 minutes.

​When teachers and pediatricians ask parents to read at home, it's because they want kids to be supported in literacy in all places in their lives. Being able to read is so important. It's a life skill. And we all know that. Just reading 30 minutes every day without much training actually shows very mixed results, especially for the younger set. So, what are we to do?
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There are research-based ways to go about it and  the Reading Workshop model is supported by mounds of research. It was first proposed as a reading model in Nancy Atwell's book, In the Middle. I've gone through this book forward and backward while teaching, so you don't need to. There are five components to Reading Workshop and since 1987, when Atwell's book was first published, the research has supported each component. They are uncomplicated - read everyday, have authentic choice options, respond to books, have a community of readers and have routines around reading.

I will delve into the areas in more depth in future posts, but the one I want to focus on today is having access to authentic choices in reading. Ideally, teachers would evaluate what each student is interested in by experiencing life with together, listen to the questions the student has and then develop a set of reading texts that would support the student in reading.

But, it's just not possible for teachers to do this with all of their students, all of the time. 

That's where you come in. You can go experience life with your kid. And then building reading from there.

Here's an example. My daughter was really interested in doing a butterfly kit last year. So, we did one. I bought a bunch of books ahead of time that showed us how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Some had great pictures, some were only pictures, some were way above her reading level but made good read alouds for us, and some were only somewhat related to gardening. 

When we got the stack of books, guess what happened? She wanted to go outside and find butterflies. Perfect idea. So we did that. And when we got back inside, Liliana looked at me and was obviously disappointed. There were no books about ladybugs!

What?! Of course not! We were doing something related to butterflies! We were both frustrated.

Had I done an outside garden walk first - had we lived first, I would have known. I would have heard her questions. I could have better tied butterflies into ladybugs and gardens and showed all of them were related to helping gardens grow. Instead, I was scrambling to find books about ladybugs (good or bad). 

I had made the mistake.

​I tried a cold open to reading and learning. I counted on the subject being interesting enough, with a hook (the butterfly kit) to get her interested, but ignored that she might have tangential interests that were still pertinent.

I should have warmed her up. Taken her outside, to the farmer's market, the botanical gardens, a museum, or watched a video and listened to her questions. This is true for bigger kids too. It's always better to base your reading with them on something they have real questions about or a real interest in.

It's actually a form of reading comprehension. And, it's good child psychology. Your child is in a zone of proximal development. Your child is ready to learn and understand, with your help.  

Text to self connections are one of the first ways we teach readers to understand what they are reading. And, it's one that sticks with every good reader. That's why when kids get older, they want to see characters in books that look like them and act like them too. They are making those same text-to-self connections. They are asking questions while they read - is this believable? Would I do this?

So, I contend to make your reading successful with your readers at home, you need to warm them up. To foster a love of reading, foster a love of living. Listen to what your child is talking about, what gets them speaking up and speaking fast, what lights their eyes up. Then, base your reading time with them on their interests and their questions. Surround them with authentic reading choices.

And yes, experiencing life with them, should absolutely count for your 30 minutes. 

​Enjoy! 

Dads are awesome in all sorts of ways. 

Now that that's out of the way...

​Dads who read are more awesome. 

​Reading aloud to your kids is a great skill to have. As we discussed last week, reading aloud to your kids is important and there are ways to make it fun at home and reachable. You can read stories over and over and over again. Day after day. You can focus on the art one day, words another day, story the next. For bigger kids, you can practice your inflection while reading. You can choral read. You can do it at the library. You can can do it in a new place altogether. There are lots of possibilities - and we'll get to them. But one of the best is, handing reading aloud to your kid off to your partner.

I love reading. And, I love reading to Liliana. I love getting lost in the story - getting loud, whispering, pointing out pictures, catching funny words in a story and seeing the bigger picture. I love listening to her say, out loud, the parts of stories that she knows - showing me that she's latched on to a story. I used to love reading to bigger kids and middle school kids because they get so into a story. You can see them analyzing its believability as you read it. You can see the wheels turning.

And sometimes, Dads are the best to get those wheels turning.

By second grade, most students start to identify reading as a feminine activity. Moms do the bulk of the reading aloud at home and many elementary school teachers are women. Boys see girls reading more at school and this contributes to the cycle. 

And it follows, fathers only read to their children an average of 15% of the time. Jim Trelease, in The Read Aloud Handbook, posits that boys who are read to by their fathers enjoy higher reading achievement scores. And sons who see their fathers read recreationally, read more themselves. Makes a lot of sense.

So, what's the big deal? This is not new, but girls are outperforming boys in overall reading achievement. Anecdotally, I always had a harder time getting my middle school boys to read for fun. And, I'm not the only one - engaging boys in the classroom is a topic of discussion for many teachers.

Much of this is due to the differences in motivation to read, having good reading choices and having good reading role models. Studies show girls are more intrinsically motivated to read and have an easier time finding books to read. Boys have a harder time and start to shy away from reading in the classroom (and at home). A lot of my boy students wanted to read about dinosaurs and sports and that starts to wear thin after awhile.

Boys also perceive themselves to have a lower ability to read than girls. This perception of lower ability starts early in elementary school and persists through to high school and you guessed it - this perception concurs in timing. It's right when reading is identified as a girls' activity. 

Let's make it an everybody activity. And, let me amend my earlier statement.

​Mom, hand off the reading aloud time every once in awhile because Dads who read to their kids and read recreationally in front of their kids are the most awesome. Dads who read to their boys have an extra level of awesome added on.

Enjoy!

And, in case you're wondering, it's Judy Blume's, Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing, that's getting those two reading goofballs laughing. And, Joe will read it to Liliana for real one day.