Latest / The Reading Instruction Show / Teaching Reading at Home: Tips for Parents

Transcript

Teaching Reading at Home: Tips for Parents · The Reading Instruction Show

0:00
This is Dr. Andy Johnson and the reading instruction
0:04
show. Today we are looking at things we can do
0:08
to help your child with reading at home. I want
0:12
to give you some tips to keep your child engaged,
0:15
some advice on teaching, and you notice I have
0:18
quotation marks there, and then some specific
0:21
ideas for enhancing reading fluency. I know this
0:25
is difficult. I know this is tough. However,
0:31
you want to keep things as simple as possible.
0:33
There's no complex answers. Usually the simple
0:36
things are the best things. There's no super
0:40
secret strategies, no best program that you need
0:43
to buy. There's no best method or approach whether
0:49
you're in school or at home. It starts though
0:52
with understanding the basic process that the
0:56
brain uses to create meaning with print. That
1:01
is key. First of all, reading is not sounding
1:05
out words. We often think it's that, and we think
1:10
that struggling readers just need more sounding
1:13
out word practice. If they could just sound out
1:16
more words, you say, then they could read. Or
1:19
read better? But that's not the case. But think
1:22
about this. When you read the stuff on the screen,
1:24
are you doing all this stuff in the microsecond
1:27
it takes to look at a word? Are you putting the
1:30
sounds to a letter? Putting the sounds together,
1:33
creating words, attaching words to other words,
1:35
and creating ideas? Is that what your brain is
1:38
doing? I think not! Reading is creating meaning
1:45
with print. there is a two -way flow of information.
1:50
Information from the cortex flows down onto the
1:54
page to help you understand. And here is something
1:59
that neuroscience has taught us. There is almost
2:03
ten times more information flowing from the cortex
2:07
down than from the page up during the process
2:10
of reading. It's an interactive process. That
2:14
means we're using what's up here to understand
2:17
what is on the page. That's an important thing.
2:22
Now, there are three cueing systems, phonological,
2:26
syntactic, and semantic. And we'll get to that
2:30
in a minute. But know that effective readers
2:33
use very few letter cues when creating meaning
2:37
with print. Remember, Reading is creating meaning
2:40
with print, not sounding out words. When you
2:43
looked at that sentence, you did not process
2:47
every single letter. Matter of fact, your eyes
2:50
were going this way and that, and you probably
2:52
stopped on, oh, maybe five or six of these words,
2:55
but your brain, that top -down flow of information,
2:58
was filling in the blanks. For example, look
3:01
at that sentence. Most of you could create meaning
3:06
with that, even though All the vowels that were
3:09
not first in the word were taken out. Absolutely.
3:17
Creating meaning with print, top -down flow of
3:20
information. Our brain, when we see words on
3:24
the page, uses not one, but three. We use semantics,
3:29
context clues, syntax, which is grammar and word
3:33
order, to recognize words. And we use phonics,
3:37
letter sounds. Of those three, the phonological
3:42
cueing system is the least efficient in terms
3:45
of how much space it takes up in short -term
3:48
memory. Now, an overemphasis on phonics can actually
3:54
impede students' progress. And I've seen students
3:58
reading very well. They come to a word and all
4:01
of a sudden they stop. and they're looking at
4:05
each letter and it slows them up and all that
4:08
stuff in short -term memory. Now when I say to
4:11
the student, well just say blank and move on.
4:14
They say blank, move on, all of a sudden, oh,
4:17
they recognize the word. All right, that's using
4:20
semantics. It uses far less processing space
4:24
and far less time. So to teach them, I actually
4:28
say, say blank and just keep moving on. and they
4:31
end up going back. It takes far less time and
4:35
space. Now this doesn't mean that phonics should
4:38
not be taught. Every single person that I've
4:41
ever encountered believes that phonics letter
4:45
sounds should be taught. It should not be taught
4:47
as the exclusive way to recognize words. It's
4:51
one of three ways. So we need to create activities
4:54
to develop all three cueing systems and word
4:57
identification is probably the topic of another
5:02
webcast or podcast, all right? So four tips for
5:06
keeping your students engaged in reading at home.
5:10
First of all, when you're reading with your child
5:13
aloud, stop correcting mistakes. This will be
5:18
tough. I know it. Now listen to me. Remember,
5:21
the emotional component of reading, especially
5:24
with struggling readers, is very tough. I recommend
5:28
strongly, and this is what I do, when you don't
5:31
recognize a word, say blank, and keep moving
5:34
on, or just ignore it. Skip the word. All right?
5:38
Remember, reading is creating meaning with print.
5:40
Often if they skip the word, they're still creating
5:43
meaning. They can go back. And as long as a student
5:46
is creating meaning with print, they don't need
5:49
to sound out every word if they're getting the
5:51
ideas. As well, students need the opportunity
5:55
to develop Metacognition, that's does it make
5:59
sense? So if we jump in and we correct them right
6:02
away, they don't develop this opportunity to
6:06
say, hmm, does that make sense? And go back and
6:08
fix it up. As well, students become very reflexive
6:12
if they're being corrected all the time, so stop
6:15
doing that. Well, what do you do if this student
6:18
stops and asks you for help? You say this, what
6:22
makes sense? And again, they're developing semantic
6:25
if you say that. Or else say, give it your best
6:27
guess. Or else, skip it and move on. Here's three
6:31
things you should say when you're reading with
6:32
your child. Never say, sound it out. Because
6:37
children know that already. You're not telling
6:40
them. But again, sounding it out takes more cognitive
6:44
space. You're slowing them down. And when you
6:47
slow them down and focus on individual letters
6:49
and words, They're not focusing on ideas. We
6:53
want them to focus on meaning, not letters. And
6:58
students are already doing that anyway. Duh,
7:01
I know she would sound it out. I'm just not good
7:03
at it. Don't do that. Here's something that will
7:08
freak you out. 99 % of all students know how
7:12
to read. I would say 99 .9. They know the process.
7:16
The letter makes the sound. You put the letter
7:19
sounds together that create word. They all know
7:21
that. Like I know how to play the piano. They're
7:24
just not very good at it. And what do you do
7:28
when you're not good at something? Why? I hope
7:31
you practice just like practicing the piano.
7:35
You need a little instruction, but a lot of reading
7:39
practice. So tip number two. Students need reading
7:44
practice. Instead of reading class, we should
7:47
call it reading practice. Just like you need
7:50
volleyball practice and piano practice and writing
7:54
practice. Children, adults need practice. You
7:58
get better by practicing reading. Now, at home,
8:04
reading practice should be a big part of the
8:07
instruction or intervention. What they read should
8:11
be at their independent level or below. We don't
8:16
want to frustrate or overwhelm students. It's
8:20
that emotional component. It's the encounter
8:23
with words and sentences and phrases that helps
8:26
them develop the ability to create meaning with
8:29
print. Comic books are just fine as well or graphic
8:33
novels. The goal is to get them immersed in print
8:36
to help them fall in love with books. As well
8:39
with any type of practice we need to be regular
8:42
and consistent. 10 minutes a day of focused practice
8:47
is much better than spread out practice or 40
8:51
minutes in which a child is not focused. 10 minutes
8:55
a day for four days better than 40 minutes a
8:57
day for one day. Brain gets to process in between.
9:01
So regular and consistent it does not have to
9:04
be long as long as it's consistent. And here's
9:07
the thing. If children are engaged in books for
9:10
10 minutes a day, four days a week, if they have
9:13
good books to read, they will eventually fall
9:16
in love with books. Volume of reading is important,
9:21
much more important than reading level. The goal
9:24
is to expose them to letter patterns, words,
9:27
sentence structure. and concept. So this brain
9:30
gets better at recognizing these things, recognizing
9:34
patterns, recognizing sentence structure. As
9:39
well as part of this, your reading to children
9:42
is important. You read a lot of book at bedtime.
9:46
A great story that may be, you know, a chapter
9:49
book, that may be above their reading level.
9:52
This is the stuff you read to them you are exposing.
9:56
them to vocabulary and sentence structure and
9:59
concepts and you're helping them fall in love
10:01
with books. I'm tutoring a child and her mother
10:05
is reading Little House on the Prairie which
10:07
is a little above her reading level but she loves
10:10
it and she's learning new stuff and falling and
10:13
being exposed to all these other things. So an
10:18
important understanding you don't teach reading
10:20
most children know how to read they just can't
10:23
read very well. So you are creating the conditions
10:28
whereby your child can develop the ability to
10:33
create meaning with print. Now it is much like
10:36
learning to speak and listen. They learn to speak
10:40
and listen by being immersed in real language
10:43
and listening and speaking for real purposes.
10:47
So you want to create these conditions. Which
10:51
leads us to tip number three. Set weekly reading
10:57
goals. And I'm gonna give you some ideas here.
11:00
And start low, but the goals could be number
11:02
of books read, or number of pages read. I would
11:07
recommend starting with a number of minutes read.
11:11
Start low so you don't frustrate, so that child
11:14
can achieve his or her reading goals. Now reading
11:19
four days a week out of seven. That's great.
11:22
You know, start with four. Seven, of course,
11:25
would be great, but you want these goals to be
11:28
attainable. Set aside consistent time for reading
11:32
practice. Again, 10 minutes a day is fine. Four
11:35
to five days a week. If you have good books,
11:39
the child will read. Think about a family reading
11:44
time where you all read together. You shut stuff
11:47
off. and they see you reading as well. That would
11:51
be ideal. But I know in these busy times that
11:55
you have time and stuff. You have conflicting
11:58
schedules. Now, having access to good books is
12:02
key. How do you learn to read if you don't have
12:04
good stuff to read? That is the big dilemma.
12:07
If you have access to a school library, you should
12:11
be getting regular books or a community library.
12:14
We all have different lending systems. There
12:17
are some online books. I use reading A to Z.
12:20
They have books of variety of levels. That's
12:24
something that I use. And you can reread other
12:27
books. But finding good books is one important
12:32
thing. Having a school or community library,
12:34
that's an excellent resource. A teacher's number
12:38
one job is to help children fall in love with
12:40
books. After that, 98 % of their job is complete.
12:46
The child wants to read. The child will be engaged
12:50
and motivated to read. Now, choice is important.
12:55
And think about it. When you go into a bookstore,
12:58
no one assigns you a book. When you go into a
13:01
library, no one says you have to read that book
13:03
and you can't read that. So choice is choice
13:07
of what to read. Choice, here's an important
13:10
one. If you don't like a book, you can stop.
13:13
That's just fine. Choice of when to read. Now
13:17
this does not mean total choice all the time.
13:19
It could be a choice between this and that. But
13:22
the idea of choice is motivating to the child.
13:27
A choice of... how to read and where to read.
13:30
How to read the book. Do you want to read it
13:32
sitting down? Do you want to read it in your
13:34
bed? Do you want to read it here or there? That
13:36
is how to read. That's kind of a where to read
13:38
as well. All right. Here's tip number four. Create
13:42
some chart to keep track of stuff. The minutes
13:46
read or the books or the pages. So on Monday
13:49
you'd say we read these books and these were
13:52
the minutes and these were the pages. if you're
13:55
reading chapter books, and have this someplace.
13:59
Adopt and adapt this, by the way. Where you could
14:03
keep this in a notebook, in a file folder someplace,
14:07
on a computer, you could put up a poster, you
14:11
decide. But keep it someplace, keep it regularly.
14:16
Now, in an ideal situation, the child would be
14:19
able to record this as well. minutes read pages
14:23
and the names of the books read that day. Maybe
14:26
the same book is spread out over several days.
14:29
That's fine if they're older reading chapter
14:31
books. I would encourage some sort of rating
14:34
system, either inside cover of the book or on
14:39
the chart or refrigerator someplace or on a Google
14:42
Doc where you're sharing it with other students.
14:45
Here you have the title of the book and the title
14:48
of the child decides to give it some rating.
14:51
Excellent. Good. Okay. Didn't like. Stinker.
14:54
Of course, adopt and adapt this system. This
14:56
gets them talking about books. Now, when I'm
15:00
working with many students, I like to have a
15:04
common place where they can rate because it creates
15:08
conversation and social interaction. Oh, I didn't
15:13
think that was a stinker. I thought it was great.
15:16
Or here's an excellent book. I loved it. And
15:21
when children find other children liking books,
15:24
they're more apt to want to read that book. It
15:26
goes back to that motivation thing again. And
15:30
again, adopt and adapt some sort of rating. We
15:33
have the title. For younger kids, sometimes it's
15:36
a happy face, a straight face, and a sad face.
15:39
Adopt and adapt. So four tips. Stop correcting
15:44
mistakes. Practice reading. Set weekly reading
15:49
goals and keep track of stuff or simple tips.
15:54
Now, ideas for the child who is highly resistant,
15:58
and I've worked with many of these. Set short
16:02
specific goals. Today we're just going to read
16:05
two pages that's short and specific, all right?
16:09
Be regular, short and consistent again. Five
16:14
minutes of focus time is better than 15 minutes
16:17
of unfocused time. 10 minutes of focus time better
16:22
than 30 minutes of unfocused time. You need to
16:25
have lots of good reading material for the child
16:30
to read. And sometimes it's a choice. All right,
16:33
we're going to do this for 10 minutes. Your choice
16:35
is you can sit there and you can do nothing or
16:38
you can read. Maybe the first day they'll do
16:41
nothing, but eventually they all choose to read.
16:44
The choice is to do nothing and sit there and
16:47
read, and you're all reading. The child will
16:50
read. I'll bet you $20. And then scaffolded oral
16:54
reading. I'm going to explain that. Three specific
16:58
strategies, scaffolded oral reading score, language
17:02
experience, activity, and fluency. Really silly
17:07
stories. Now with score, this is a variation
17:12
of the neurological IMPRESS method, and I'm going
17:16
to demonstrate this in just a minute, but you're
17:19
reading out loud with the child, but you're reading
17:22
just a millisecond ahead to provide just a scaffold.
17:27
You don't pause if the child does not recognize
17:29
a word or stumbles. You keep moving and you provide
17:33
a scaffold and you use a quiet voice just enough.
17:37
to keep the child moving ahead. If the child
17:41
is more proficient, maybe just sound out the
17:44
first word or a couple of words here and there.
17:47
You decide every other paragraph. You can have
17:51
the child read independently one paragraph and
17:54
then you use score the next one, etc., etc. Variations
17:59
of score. whole passage or maybe you do every
18:02
other passage, they read one independently and
18:06
you read the next one using scaffolded oral reading,
18:09
independent score, independent score. Now let
18:13
me show you an example of scaffolded oral reading.
18:46
this together. Living in Africa, cheetahs spayed
18:52
across Africa's grassy savannas. Cheetahs are
18:59
the fastest animals of all time. Excellent. Because
19:05
the animals, yes, running makes cheetahs hot.
19:12
They find a cool place. choice is very important
19:26
after a page or two you always ask you want to
19:30
keep reading or would you like to find another
19:32
book just like you and I they should be able
19:34
to choose which book they want to read and I
19:38
would do this maybe two or three times Okay,
19:50
you get the idea. That's scaffolded OR reading,
19:54
and that is me demonstrating that. The language
19:58
experience approach. This is so good. The child
20:01
is reading. First you have an experience, and
20:04
then you write about it. It's a child that dictates
20:07
to you. What did you do yesterday? Okay, well
20:09
let's write about it. And I usually have... I
20:13
like to use a computer. I use 24 -point fonts
20:16
so I can save it, but I do this every day. The
20:19
child dictates and then the child rereads until
20:23
fluency is achieved. Now, when I do this, I usually
20:29
have a minimum of five sentences and I use it
20:32
in paragraph form. And you can see what I actually
20:35
did this summer. Don't do it in list form. With...
20:39
Really emerging readers, I might have two sentences,
20:43
but usually it's five. So we reread it until
20:46
fluency is achieved. Usually it's once or twice.
20:49
So they're practicing reading using words and
20:54
experiences and concepts with which they are
20:57
familiar. This is much easier. They're learning
21:00
to read using words that they actually used.
21:04
There's an example there. Then we use analytic
21:09
Phonics meaning there's a word here that ends
21:12
with the no sound. Can you find it? Yes, open.
21:17
Okay. There's a word here that has the long a
21:20
or the a sound. Very good. All right. That is
21:24
an example of analytic phonics. You're analyzing
21:27
sounds within a word and these are words with
21:30
which they are familiar. Okay. Save on a Word
21:35
document. This is why I like using a computer
21:38
screen because I save them and at the end of
21:41
the week we can practice reading stuff that they
21:43
have written and we can save them and they have
21:45
books that they have written and they can practice.
21:48
That's a good thing to practice reading. every
21:51
day. Students can include pictures as well. I
21:55
had a student that had a picture of her dog.
21:56
She loves her dog so she sent me that. We put
21:59
it in the Word document and she was, what do
22:01
you want to say about your dog? And she said
22:03
a whole bunch of stuff and we practiced reading.
22:05
It was great. It was great. And the last idea
22:09
is really silly stories. This is a great idea,
22:14
great activity for developing reading fluency.
22:17
Now there's three deficit areas. word identification,
22:22
three deficit areas for reading, word identification,
22:25
fluency, and comprehension. Today we're working
22:29
just on fluency, all right? Now, Really Silly
22:32
Stories is designed to develop reading fluency.
22:36
This takes three to five minutes at most, and
22:40
it develops self -efficacy because students see
22:43
themselves getting better. and it really enhances
22:47
reading fluency. Fluency is the ability to quickly
22:51
process letters, letter patterns, and words.
22:55
Now here it is. It's a story that's silly. It
22:58
has a lot of repetition, repeated words, and
23:02
it has dialogue. These are all things with which
23:05
students are familiar. They're more familiar
23:07
with dialogue than they are expository text because
23:11
that's the sound of the language around them.
23:14
And I have marked off the 30th word and the 40th
23:20
word. We read to, if they're very beginning,
23:23
the 30th word. If they're more advanced, the
23:27
40th word and we time them for each attempt.
23:31
They get three attempts and we time their times
23:35
each after each attempt. First try, second try.
23:38
third try they see themselves getting better
23:42
this was day one 40 words and these are the times
23:48
at five weeks twice a week we see at 50 words
23:53
we see the times going better so this really
23:56
is effective and i'll show you some results that
23:59
we had this is a really silly story again it's
24:02
a story that's kind of silly They read either
24:05
to the 30th or 40th word. You time each attempt
24:08
and you record the times somehow. Lots of repetition,
24:15
dialogue. I have a bigger story broken into six
24:18
to 10 parts. They do just one part each day and
24:23
they record each attempt. You can record them
24:27
in a table like this, a line graph like that.
24:32
This would be each of the three attempts. or
24:35
a bar graph, and I like to have students record
24:38
this. And again, it develops self -efficacy.
24:41
They can see themselves getting better. Now,
24:46
there are some free really silly stories at redocity
24:50
.com. You can go there and you will see them.
24:54
Printable directions and the stories are right
24:57
there. That's free. You can use that. I recommend
24:59
it. Bunch of really silly stories with the 30th
25:03
and the 40th word marked. Now, I have been doing
25:08
this with a student from October to December.
25:13
We started at that lexile level, 50 words per
25:17
minute, word identification, and we weren't working
25:19
on word identification. All right, but then we
25:22
moved up to the 440 lexile level. You can see
25:27
this is the biggest increase, and this was 14
25:30
sessions spread out over Seven weeks a third
25:34
grade student. This is a pretty dramatic increase
25:37
in words per minute score and this student's
25:40
mother also made sure the student had books and
25:44
practice reading at home and Mother was reading
25:48
Little House on the Prairie with the child every
25:50
day as well So all that combined reading practice
25:53
with the really silly stories and things I was
25:57
doing but the really silly stories really helps
25:59
so three specific strategies, scaffolded oral
26:04
reading, language experience approach, you can
26:07
do both of these, and really silly stories. That's
26:10
a repeated reading activity to develop fluency.
26:15
Hopefully I've answered that question and given
26:18
you some ideas to think about. Keep it simple.
26:21
There's no one idea that works for everybody.
26:24
If you have questions or things you'd like me
26:26
to cover on a future podcasts or webinars. There's
26:31
my address right there. Happy to deal with any
26:36
one of these issues. Let me know. And this is
26:41
a book I have coming out soon, designing meaning
26:43
-based interventions for struggling readers.