The Literacy Cooperative Provides Parents With Tips On Reading With Their Children

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On February 23, 2012, The Literacy Cooperative hosted a Parent Learning Session for parents of first grade students at Marion-Sterling School in Cleveland. The Parent Learning Session was a supplement to the STEP tutoring program that The Literacy Cooperative is piloting at Marion-Sterling School. STEP pairs first grade students with a tutor for one-on-one tutoring sessions that follow a research-based curriculum designed to improve the child’s literacy skills.

The February 23rd Parent Learning Session focused on providing parents with tips on reading with their children. During the session, parents were encouraged to read with their children for at least 20 minutes every day.

Parents were led through a series of strategies to be used before, during and after reading a book to their child. Some important tips for reading with a child include:

1) Before reading a book together:

1. Talk about what is on the cover and what the book may be about.
2. Point out and explain the role of the author and illustrator.
3. Talk about the setting and the characters.

2) While reading together:

1. Periodically stop and ask what will happen next
2. Recall details.

3) After reading a book together:

1. Ask what the child thought of the story.
2. Summarize the story.
3. Ask imaginative questions.

Parents learned that an effective reader is able to engage the child, maintain the child’s attention, and make the story relevant.

In addition to reading books together, parents can help to improve their child’s reading skills by engaging in literacy-based activities. These include:

1) Help your child hear and say the beginning, middle and ending sound in words.

2) Help your child hear rhymes.

3) Help your child recognize and write his/her own first and last name.

4) Talk with your child about the letters in the alphabet and point them out on signs and in books.

5) Talk to your child about stories and make connections to things that happen in his/her life.

6) Ask who, what, when, where and how questions.

7) Help your child write stories and make books.

8) Help your child write upper and lower case letters.

9) Help your child guess what will happen in a story.

10) Help your child retell a story.

11) Help your child be excited about learning new words to develop a strong vocabulary.

Read with Your Child booklet used for this workshop: http://www.literacycooperative.com/documents/ReadwithyourChild.pdf