The Teacher’s Guide On How To Nurture Your Child’s Love For Reading
Learning to read and to read fluently can be a long process, requiring patience and dedication from the child, the educators and the parents. In this process, educators and parents play an important role in forming the child’s attitude towards reading. At Lorna Whiston Schools, one of our main goals is to model how engaging and informative reading is so that our students develop a love for reading whilst being empowered with strategies that they can use to interact with a variety of texts.
How can parents nurture a love for reading?
• One of the most pleasant ways of nurturing a love for reading in your child is to set aside time to read with your child. Children of all ages enjoy listening to their parents read and interact with texts. By having this quality time with your child, this models that reading is enjoyable and interesting. It provides your child with the opportunity to hear the way words are pronounced and listen to the way words flow when read by a fluent reader. For parents who are not very confident reading in English, listening to audio books with your child and discussing the content of the story is a very beneficial way to nurture a love for reading.
• There are many real learning benefits that come from sharing a book with your child. It provides him/her with a time to ask questions about things that are not understood, to learn new words and their meanings, to discover interesting facts about the world around him/her and to increase in general knowledge.
• In order to nurture a passion for reading, source for books that relate to your child’s interest. A trip to the school library or the neighbourhood library will be a great place to start. When children take ownership over the book selection process, they are more intrinsically motivated to read the book. If your child is choosing the same book regularly, this displays that he/she is confident with that text and it is being read for enjoyment. This should not be discouraged as your child’s confidence continues to increase when books are read with a high level of accuracy. Your child’s enjoyment and word knowledge is improved every time the story is read. Gently guide your child towards selecting new books that will expose him/her to new vocabulary, new story lines and require the use of a variety of comprehension skills to understand what he/she is reading.
• Before reading the text, discuss the cover page with your child. Work on making connections between your child’s existing knowledge on the topic and knowledge of the world. Encourage your child to predict what the text will be about. By encouraging prediction, you will be fostering your child’s creative thinking abilities. When you ask your child to compare, contrast, consider new content and formulate his/ her own ideas, his/her creative thinking skills will further develop.
• During the reading, focus your child’s attention on the text. For young learners, you can model how words are tracked by gliding your fingers under the words as you read. This demonstrates left to right reading and draws attention to the fact that the letters and words have meaning. For confident readers, using a finger to track words will slow down their reading process and be a obstacle to fluency.
• Before the end of the story, stop and ask your child what he/she thinks the ending will be. Another strategy to work on your child’s creative thinking skills would be to ask your child to come up with a different ending to the story. By allowing your child to be creative, it fosters a love for reading as they see how a story can give us a new experience and new vocabulary to use in different contexts. These strategies ideas will work best when done in a caring and supportive environment. Enhancing your child’s reading ability will take time. A love for reading is the key that unlocks the door to a brighter future.
“I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.”
By Renee Stone - Regional Academic Director
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Renee is from Perth, Western Australia and has resided in this beautiful country for nineteen years. She has been a teacher and a leader at enrichment centres here for the past sixteen years.
Renee is a passionate educator and believes in empowering her students to achieve success. She values interaction in the classroom as she believes that when students are engaged in the lesson, optimal learning can occur. Renee takes great pleasure in seeing her students develop confidence in their language acquisition.
She holds a Master of Education and a Bachelor of Education from Edith Cowan University, Western Australia.