Raising Readers

“What is the one thing that I can do to help my child be successful in school?”  Oh my, what a question.  When I am asked this question, I hear the plaintive call in the words and sympathize with parents who yearn to provide their children with the tools needed for later successes in school and life.  Parents want the best for their children.

While I believe parents can do several things to prepare their children for school and life, for today, I want to concentrate on the importance of building a love for and motivation for reading.

Children are taught explicitly how to read in the early grades, but in the upper elementary grades, the focus changes to using reading to learn other content.  And while it is obvious that students need to be good readers to excel in English Language Arts courses, having solid reading skills is also important in the other content areas such as science and social studies.

Reading skills are important to math success as well.  Most of us can remember having to do ‘word problems’ when we were in school.  Good readers have an easier time understanding what a word problem is asking them to do.  With the increased rigor of our current standards, reading competence will provide students with the necessary skills to understand the problems to be solved.

Being a good reader and being motivated to read will also help children (and adults) with their lives after school.  Over the years, I have become interested in a topic or needed to know how to do something, and because I am a good reader, I was able to find the information I needed.

So what can parents do to help promote reading?  Parenting is difficult, but promoting reading is one of the easier tasks a parent can tackle.  There are several things a parent can do, and you may already being doing some of these things.

The first thing to do is provide a home filled with all types of texts -  books, magazines, comic books.  Those of you who like a super neat house might cringe at this advice because these are the kinds of things that can create clutter.  I do not like the clutter either, but I think it is a good trade-off in order to always have something at hand to read.  And that is the point - children need to see that reading material is always available to them at home.

And you do not need a separate line item in the family budget for books because you can use your local library, or if you live in a rural place, you might be able to access a bookmobile.  When I was growing up, we did not have a local library, but the bookmobile came to our community twice a month.  Sometimes my mom would take us into Harmony, where the bookmobile would park in front of the dime store (remember those?).  Other times, she would take us over to Mayberry’s store to meet it.  It was always a treat for me, and I was able to check out as many books as I could carry.  My goal was to make sure that I did not run out of books before our next trip.  Mom would always spend time looking for books for her and my dad.  My brother and sister would usually check out books, too.
Reading aloud to your young children is another thing that you can do to encourage a love of reading.  This needs to be routine.  Children need to know that after dinner (or after being tucked into bed or whenever it fits in the daily schedule), mom or dad will be reading to them.  While you might not read to older children, it is still important for a reading time to be set aside, when everyone is reading something that interests them.

Children need to see their parents as readers, too.  Modelling is a tremendous method for parents to promote and encourage reading.  Both of my parents always had books they would read after dinner and before retiring for the evening.  I remember my dad reading the paper every day, and he and my mom, and grandpa would often discuss items they had read.  

And discussing what you and your children are reading is also a valuable tool.  As adults, we receive a lot of pleasure in talking about what we are reading with our friends and family.  I do this all the time (they may say I do it too often).  If your children are toddlers or pre-school age, talk with them about what you are reading together.  If your children are in school, then ask them about the texts they are reading in school, as well what they are reading on their own at home.

In addition, make sure that you talk to your children about YOU are reading.  An important skill that students need is the ability to make connections with what they are reading.  They need to do this automaticity, so modeling and practice are important.  Sometimes what we read reminds of us something else that we have read.  If so, talk about that.  Sometimes what you are reading reminds you of an experience from your own childhood.  Children love those stories, so share them.

To give you some more ideas about how to help your child become a good reader and enjoy different types of text, I created a Planting the Reading Seed flyer listing some ideas.  Feel free to share it.

Some of my books

I am curious about positive, warm childhood memories that you have about books or reading.  Share them with me in the comments section below.

Mining the Gold

A couple of months ago I accidentally read a book of short stories by Ron Rash, entitled Nothing Gold Can Stay.  It was an accident because I do not routinely read short stories.  I have nothing against them, except, well, they are short.  I like to live with a story for awhile, savor it for as long as possible, even while I read furiously to the end.

That said, I loved Nothing Gold Can Stay.  It was not my first encounter with Rash's work, having read some of his novels previously.  One of the reasons that I enjoy his work is because of all the connections that I can make with it.  English Language Arts teachers know how important making connections to new text and new content is.  It is a great way to activate prior knowledge and prepare oneself for reading.  Not to mention that finding something familiar in a new story just makes it more fun.

The connection in the Gold stories is one of place.  The stories are set in Western North Carolina around Sylva, Canton, Cherokee, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  While there are many extraordinary characters in the collection, the setting feels like a character.  Though none of the stories share characters, they do share the familiar places, and so feel loosely connected.

Shortly after reading the stories, I was facilitating an online professional development course/ book study for some of the educators in my school district.  One of the texts that we were reading was Momaday's Man Made of Words essay.  In the essay, Momaday shares a Kiowa myth that underscores the importance of language.  One of the characters in the myth did not realize his danger because he was unfamiliar with the language of the other characters.  The discussion that resulted from this point of the essay reminded me of one of Rash's stories in Gold.

In "A Servant of History," a young, immature, and blathering man named Wilson thought he would surpass his teachers from Oxford by collecting stories and knowledge from Appalachian settlers that would provide a connection to the language and stories from England.  Being a pushy, know-it-all outsider proved to be a hinderance to gathering the information he sought, but his runaway mouth revealed more about him to the settlers than he realized.  Too late he realized that if he had paid more attention to history, specifically the animosity between clans McDonald and  Campbell, he might have recognized the danger his visit posed.

Another story that resonated was "Those Who Are Dead Are Only Now Forgiven."  It disturbed me because as an educator, I have seen too many students find themselves in similar situations.  In this story, a bright, young couple had plans to attend college in the fall.  Only Jody makes it to the university, while Lauren remains at home and, like so many of their high school classmates, loses herself to drug use.  Jody returns after a year and attempts to persuade Lauren to return with him, but she has long abandoned any hope of having a better life.  Rash mentions how so many young people believe that the hard, poor, and hopeless life is inevitable.  This inevitably often leads students to sabotage themselves through various means as Lauren does.  The most heartbreaking part of the story, though, is the decision that Jody makes at the end.

The book contains several other stories, all of which quickly draw the reader in.  These stories were just the right length to read before sleeping each night.  And like the novels that I prefer, they gave plenty to ponder for days.  I hope you pick up a copy soon.

Some helpful references:
Momaday, N. S.  "Made Made of Words" excerpt.
This is the essay used in the online course that I facilitated.  It contains the story of the Arrowmaker, which provided the immediate connection, but it also speaks about the nature of storytelling and the Kiowa migration.  Momaday speaks of how any burden can be borne if there is a story about it.


Frost, R.  Nothing Gold Can Stay.
This is the poem from which Rash took the name for his work.

"'Nothing Gold' Stays Long in Appalachia." Scott Simon, NPR, interviews Ron Rash.  16 February 2013.

Maslin, J. (27 February 2012).  "Be Careful of the Locals:  They're Tough."  The New York Times book review.