Helping Your Child to Become a Better Reader
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Wondering how you can help your child improve in their reading and their understanding of what they read? You are not alone. Many parents read with their child but often don't take the time to talk about what has been read to see if the text is actually being understood. In the classroom we spend a lot of time focusing on reading strategies that can help us to better understand what we read and to become critical readers as well. Four of these strategies are listed below... |
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| Making Connections |
We want students to connect to what
they read. When children "connect" with the text it makes it become more
meaningful. When we think about how something we read is like our own lives,
we understand it better. When we relate to the characters or the author, we
understand on a deeper level. You can help your child to "connect" to what
they read by asking these questions and talking about the answers
together... - How is the main character like you? |
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| Asking Questions |
We want children to ask questions
while they read. It helps them to check their understanding as they go. You
can help your child to ask questions while they read by reading together and
sharing the questions that you have during the story...
- I wonder why the
character did that? |
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| Visualizing | Strong readers form a picture in their mind as they read. It is the reason by many people prefer a book to a movie version of a story. Once the movie is created, the vivid picture you had in your mind of the characters, the setting, etc. is taken over by the director's images. As adults, we often don't realize that we are visualizing. We can help children visual by watching for those descriptive passages that create amazing mind pictures. Why not stop and ask your child to draw a picture of what they see in their mind? You could also do this and then you can compare each other's drawings. What are the similarities? The differences? | |
| Inferring | Inferring or making inferences is
basically "reading between the lines". By looking at a picture or reading a
passage, we can figure out what the author/illustrator wants us to know.
Often, messages are there but aren't explicitly stated in the text. You can
help your child make inferences by talking about these things...
- What is
the most important thing that you learned from reading this? You can also look at images/photos in magazines and talk about things like... How is this person feeling? What is he/she wondering/thinking/wishing? What do you think has happened? What makes you think this? |
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