Ten Ideas Parents Can Use to Improve the Quality of Shared Literacy Experiences

Anna Wylie, our school literacy facilitator, shared these ten ideas with our faculty about how to read with your children at home. Happy Reading!

1. Get your children to talk! Children learn by talking and asking questions. Encourage your children to talk about what you are reading. One way to get them to talk is to have them guess what will happen next in the story.

2. Help your children understand the story. Sometimes children don't understand what is happening in a book. Check regularly to see whether your children understand the story. If they do not, try to explain what is happening in your own words.

3. Praise your children. Children love to be told nice things by their parents. Let your children know that you are proud of them when they ask a good question, say something interesting about a book, or read well.

4. Relate the book to your life. Use the book as a jumping-off point to tell your children something interesting about your life or an event the book reminds you of that really happened. Ask your children to relate the book to their lives as well.

5. Ask your children good questions during storybook reading. Questions that will help your children the most are those that require them to talk a lot to answer. Why and how questions are especially useful, such as "Why do you think the Pokey Puppy was sad?" and "How else could the prince have found Cinderella?"

6. Wait for answers. After you ask a question, give your children time to answer. Most children need time to think of good answers to good questions.

7. With younger children, point to words when you read. Pointing to words when you read to young children will help them learn what the words are, that we read left, to right, and that we turn pages only after we have finished reading all the words on a page. These ideas will help young children learn to read.

8. With older children, take turns reading. Your children may find reading aloud to be difficult. Support your children's efforts by taking turns when reading.

9. Choose books carefully. Many books are enjoyable, but to help your children the most it is important to choose books that are not too easy and not too difficult. If you are not sure about the difficulty level of certain books, librarians can help.

10. Have fun! Above all, try to keep the book sharing experience enjoyable! As long as you and your children are having fun together with books, you will be helping them in a great many ways.