Articles
Aug 23, 2012
Reading Practice
Not surprisingly, the only way for young readers to develop into fluent readers is to practice reading. The term ‘practice’ makes it sound like young readers are engaging in a parallel activity to reading, related to it, but not exactly reading. However, reading practice is a bit like the practice of a musical instrument, in the sense that the only practice is in the doing of it. In some ways, reading practice is just another way of thinking about guided reading—reading appropriate to the child’s level of ability, so that the young reader can effectively develop the skills that will...
Aug 23, 2012
Teach Toddlers to Read
Reading is the most important skill that children can have in their educational ‘toolbox’, so to speak, and the plain truth is, children don’t just ‘pick-up’ reading, they have to learn how to read. And learning to read begins long before the first day of school. While children usually don’t begin to read until they are five or six, there are a variety of pre-reading and pre-literacy activities that help teach toddlers how to read, before they even enter the classroom. ### Sing Sing songs to your child, recite nursery rhymes, even simple songs and rhymes like “Eensy Weensy Spider”...
Aug 22, 2012
Reading Log
Reading logs can be a contentious issue for both educators and parents. For educators a reading log is often the signal of the trench war between enthusiasts for phonics and the devotees of whole language instruction. In a reductive nutshell, teachers who favour phonics tend to work on the literacy skills that help kids break down words into their parts in order to be able to read, while teachers who favour whole language instruction tend to favour the use of reading logs and stress the reading of entire texts. For parents, reading logs can seem like just another box to...
Aug 22, 2012
Kids Spelling Tips
Kids’ spelling is nothing if not inventive, but sometimes, the funny way kids spell things is a great reminder to parents and teachers that the English language is rather, for lack of a better word, irregular, in its spelling. The very frequent irregularities in English spelling can perplex and baffle students who already struggle to read, much less work out all the hidden rules lying beneath English spelling, such as: ‘I’ before ‘e’, except after ‘c’. However, learning the spelling of words can help kids become better readers. Researchers have found that spelling and reading are linked in the brain....