Meadowside School

Greetings from the Office!

Dear Members of the Meadowside School Community,
I hope you had a holiday break filled with fond memories and special times with friends and family. As a parent, I embraced this time with my children took every opportunity to learn something new along side them. Recently, I came across a great excerpt from Elementary Educator on how parents can work with their children at home to build and foster literacy skills. When children are in the primary grades their parents often take an active role in helping them learn how to read. Then, as reading moves from the basic skills to comprehension, parents find it is more difficult to help children grow into strong and confident readers. The shift from learning to read to reading to learn has always been a challenge. However, as this article outlines, there are many strategies that parents can use in order to remain involved in their children's “reading life”. Here are some of their suggestions:
Read aloud every day - Read and encourage children to read directions, labels, and signs in the classroom, at home, in the car, and at stores or shops. Have children take turns reading aloud with a parent or sibling. Discuss what you are reading.

Model reading as enjoyable - Let children see family members or teachers enjoying reading. You might informally discuss what you are reading. Have DEAR time several times a week where everyone Drops Everything and Reads for 20 minutes.

Use movement - Play charades to act out words. This activity can build vocabulary and word understanding.

Build on students' knowledge - Select reading topics that enhance subject matter previously covered in school or that reflect a child's interests. Encourage them to develop expertise in a subject and to read different types of texts about that subject, such as articles, books, and online materials.

Connect yesterday's reading to today's - Continue a story over several days. Have children make predictions about what they think will happen and then compare those predictions to what actually happens in the story.

Use self-questioning strategies - Have children develop a list of questions to answer after reading. These questions and answers can become the basis of small group or parent-child discussions.
Connect reading to what children know - Have children discuss what they already know about a topic before reading. Then have them list the things they would like to learn about the topic, and make predictions about whether the assigned reading will include these things or not.

Engage several pathways - Use pictures and diagrams to explain concepts; use stories on tape or tell stories; and encourage children to interpret stories through drawings, models, or other constructions. Teach children to "make movies" in their heads" as they read, visualizing the setting and events. Stop after a few paragraphs or pages and ask them to describe their "movie."

Focus on important information - Before children begin reading challenging material, offer an outline of the key ideas or help them make diagrams or charts that capture key concepts as they read.

Preview difficult vocabulary - Offer children a glossary of selection-related words and concepts to use while reading.

Read in stages - Break lengthy passages into short segments. Ask children to summarize each section as soon as they finish reading it, or have them write a brief summary for themselves at the end of each section.

Help children locate main ideas and important details - Suggest that they think about the "5 W’s" as they read: Who? What? When? Where? Why? Post these questions on a wall or have children write them on a sheet of paper they keep nearby or use as a bookmark.

There are many other great strategies you might already be implementing to support your child. I would encourage you to continue whatever you’re doing as it sends the message that reading is important to your child. I further encourage you to touch base with your child’s classroom teacher for suggestions on how to support literacy in your home. We have many great resources here at Meadowside that are tailored to meet the needs of our student population.
Thank you for your support of what we do – Have a great month!