Tha In My Family Reading Survey

For this project, we worked with Eloise Leatham. She is a kindergartener, 5 years old, from St. Paul. She attends Saint Paul Academy, a secular private school in St. Paul. She is exposed to books on a regular basis, as she has an 8-year-old sister who loves to read. Her parents, who are both working professionals with a relatively high income, read to Eloise and her sister every night before bed. Both parents enjoy reading, and have instilled a value for reading in their girls. Eloise attended preschool for 3 years, and was exposed to reading and writing there as well. She speaks fondly of her preschool experience, and continues to enjoy going to school now that she is in kindergarten.

Recently I’ve learned that reading is a crucial part of life. Reading allows you to go on unbelievable adventures that you could only dream about. Bryce Shoemaker, author of “The Not So Lonely Good Company of Books” and Richard Rodriguez, author of “The Lonely, Good Company of Books” write about their experience with reading and writing the way they’ve surpassed their struggles. I personally can relate to both of their experiences with having a difficult time reading at a young age. Despite the fact that both of the authors had the opportunity to have a special teacher help him during school and I did not, we still had other common similarities. Having the resources such plenty of books at home and someone to encourage you to read on your own time such as a parent does not

Before I began elementary school, I enjoyed reading picture books, the touch and feel books and pop-up books. I loved the author Dr. Suess, because he was funny and because I loved the rhyming he did in his writing. I can remember before bed, my mom or dad would read to me until I got old enough to read myself. My mom has always enjoyed reading, if she is not reading a book, then she is reading a recipe or a magazine. My dad on the other hand, I have only seen him read one book, besides reading manuals for his tools. Reading was not a big deal in my house, all of us kids were told that we needed to read, but they did not force us to read. This brings me to Richard Rodriguez’s essay, in his household reading was not as important, but once he got to school, he realized that reading is one of the main activities. I can relate to Rodriguez because in either one of our households we weren’t told that we had to read before we did something else. Once I got to elementary school is when I realized that reading was not for me. Before school, I enjoyed reading, then once I began elementary school, I was forced to read, take tests over books, and read out loud in front of the class which made reading a chore.

On February 9, 2017, I began the HEB Read 3 Program, which is a program that works with families and their children to promote literacy, at the Northside Learning Center on 6632 Bandera Road, San Antonio, Texas. The lead teacher at this center was Sandra Cruz, and there were a total of 15 children in this program. All of the children in this program were 2 to 3 years old. The participants in this program were mostly of European, Hispanic, and Asian descent. However, most of the participants were born in the United States. There were probably only one or two families born outside of the United States. Most of our participants spoke English very well, so we conducted our sessions in English. There were only one or two families that spoke Spanish, so we would speak Spanish every now and then.

Since I was a little girl, I have expressed a great interest in and love for reading. I know my love for reading is one of the reasons I became a teacher. I was excited to pursue a career where I could share my love of reading and books with my students. As I began student teaching, however, I realized not all children have had the same experiences as I have had with reading. Although I am not sure I want to be a literacy specialist, I chose the literacy Master’s Degree program because I wanted to help all children, especially struggling readers, develop a love for reading and become successful readers and writers. If I had not seen children struggle with reading, I am not sure if I would have ever chosen literacy for my Master’s program.

Ideally parents are the child's first teachers. If the parents are non-readers, teachers can help by manipulating the child's home and school environments by sharing this research with parents in addition to ways to help them model reading.

This article discussed culturally and linguistically diverse students entering school and the challenges faced when implementing literacy instruction. This is a challenge for teachers because these students bring with them experiences and socialized patterns of behavior that are not traditional (Bank & Bank, 1997). Culturally and linguistically diverse students are on the same reading and learning continuum as other students; their experiences differ from the mainstream. Reading instruction has been based on European American paradigms for many years. The curriculum mirrored societies that consist of middle income families (mom, dad, two children, and pet). Students who fall in the margin of low-income and single parent families (African American, Hispanic American and Native American) are neglected and tend to fall behind in reading.

Therefore, raising a kid to admire reading demands the parents to put their hands with teachers. In fact, motivating children to love reading begins in the early years of a child's life. Those years pass when the children are attached to their parents, interact with them and imitate them the in most situations. Therefore, the family plays a big role in developing and encouraging the child to read. Kids consider their parent as their ideal. Consequently, the parents have to keep in their mind that if they are a lover of reading, their children will become like them. There are several steps which teachers and parents can cooperate to grow children who love reading. First, Parents should visit the school and meet the reading teacher. Then they discuss about reading programs like when they meet at school events. Finally, if parents and educators do their duty in the right way, they will achieve their

There are students who seem to read only material that they are familiar with, having many different genre will encourage students to read other books but if a teacher only has one genre then students will get use to reading it and not wanting to read any other genres. A teacher can have several different genres for students to choose from in the classroom or the teacher can plan times with the library to allow for students to exchange their books as they finish them (Allington, R., & Johnston, P., 2001). By doing this it will allow student to check out books that they know they will enjoy reading and know they will complete. In addition, teachers can provide students with literacy games and activities to enhance literacy within the

Parents are a child’s first educator and have the greatest influence on their educational development. Research shows us that encouraging family reading should be high on any school’s agenda (National litreracy trust, 2008:37). Rich get rich , poor get poorer. Parents unable to understand systematics of phonics and underconfident in teaching their children this as they weren’t taight like this

To match a student’s reading, the library needs to have books that can reach across the curriculum. Ercegovac says that the “idea is to align reading-for-pleasure collections with required texts that discuss global, national, regional, and personal concerns” (p.38). As you work on that as a school, you can very easily develop your collection across different expressions. Adding books from movie and television adaptations as well as adding audio books will give you a good variety that meets current levels of interest. You combine that with developing collections across different expressions and you will have a wide variety of of books for students to choose from. As a principal, you need to open to ways to expand your library collection. Combining with the public libraries in your area would be a great way to get students into e-books and audiobooks. It is so easy to download those books to a device but students need to be made aware of these types of

The importance of knowing the child’s reading interests is emphasised within Hill’s textbook (2012 p.429). As a teacher, one must know and acknowledge the student 's interests. This helps in being able to plan topics and ensure that the activities and content are engaging. Integrated learning such as this enables the children to understand and draw upon their own experiences. The reading survey (Appendix 4), assisted in getting to know what Child A was interested in. Throughout the interview, it was found that she enjoys exciting stories with a focus on fictitious characters and plots (Appendix

My philosophy of literacy is centered on providing a learning environment rich in authentic literature, instruction that is engaging, fun, and balanced, collaborative, and also involving families in the child’s education. My ultimate goal of literacy instruction is to help children become lifelong readers and writers by providing the skills necessary to comprehend, construct, and make meaning of text, speak, and write. (Torgesen, 2002). According to the National Reading Panel, there are five essential components that must be taught in effective reading programs: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. (Reading Horizons). According to Konza (2014), reading instruction should be changed to six foundational reading elements, adding oral language and early literacy. I also believe that early literacy should be

Literature can help children develop positive self-concepts through content and also through activities, which may follow the sharing of a book (Giorgis et al., 2009, p. 179). A child’s personality development is part of who they are and who they can become; therefore, selecting the right book for a certain child could help the child deal with a problem or situation they are dealing with at that exact moment.

I believe all children can learn to read in a classroom that is integrated with differentiated instruction and has a safe and engaging learning environment which is rich with a variety of literature to light that spark in the children to want to learn. I will make an effort to get to know my children in order to be able to provide a classroom library with nonfiction books to inform the inquiring mind, picture books for the artistic mind, and fiction books to entertain. All books will be chosen based on their curiosity, interest, personal connection, and learning profile, in order to attract and enchant the young readers into going back to the book area again and again.