As a homeschooler one of the most important tasks for you to accomplish in your child at an early age is getting them interested in and developing good reading habits. At an early age learning to recognize letters, the sounds they make and words they eventually form should be an activity and not a structured assignment. A great reading activity for kindergarten aged children, for example is to read to them.
As we are about to embark on a teaching career we as English teachers need to be aware that our students will not always share the same enthusiasm and passion we have for reading. Jeffrey Wilhelm's article "When Reading is Stupid; the Why, How and What to Do About It" is therefore of particular relevance as it discusses the issue of how teachers can motivate their students to read more.
It is unfortunate that some children develop serious reading problems quite unnecessarily. The cause can be the design of the early reading books that they use. As a parent or teacher, it is important to know the pattern of symptoms you will see when this is happening. Luckily, we have found it quick and easy to fix.
This article is part of a four part series that discusses how to teach reading and the specialized approach needed within the guided reading philosophy. Simply put, guided reading has many aspects but is a driving philosophy about how to teach children to read. Adopted in most parts of the developed world (Canada, U.S. (midwest), England, New Zealand and Australia, guided reading is now one of the most utilized ways to teach reading.
Reading is a difficult process. The brain must be doing several things at once in order to make sense out of the written word. Many things can go wrong when a student is learning to read. Kids who struggle with reading struggle with life. If there is just one skill you can spend time on to help a student succeed in school and life, it would be reading.
by Pamela Beers, M.S. Ed.
Learning to read doesn't just happen. It has to be taught through systematic, organized instruction. Reading is a skill which is built upon through stages and is an ongoing process.
Would you like to improve your reading comprehension? Do you find yourself reading and re-reading a sentence or paragraph and still not remembering what you just read? Do you find that you can read and entire article and take nothing away from it? Do you find yourself day dreaming when needing to read technical information or study? Then this is for you.
Most educators today realize that teaching students how to read is not the sole responsibility of the language arts teacher, yet many teachers still struggle to come up with effective ways to actually improve reading comprehension in the classroom.
"Books make a complete man," said a man centuries ago. This holds true today as yesterday. Sadly, the young generation might have lost interest in reading books because more and more forms of entertainment compete for their attention. Movies enchant them, music and MTV grab their attention, and computer games challenge their skills. This is very disheartening, especially if we will take into consideration the vast amount of knowledge that we miss if we fail to read voraciously.
R.I.F. - Reading Is Fundamental! I loved those PSAs that ran on television back in the 70s encouraging reading. It made reading and learning to read seem fun. Well, those good old days are long gone but there are still creative ways to get your little one interested in reading.