help me help you help your kid

April 29, 2018 2:25 AM

Me- English teacher - have been asked to give tips to parent on how to help their kid improve their reading. Help?

I'm not a parent, but I am a teacher, and I teach 7th & 8th grade English in a rural school in country Victoria.

My focus at the moment is figuring out how to encourage our cohort of kids to improve their literacy- things like introducing a culture of reading through interest-based, level appropriate reading. We have been using Fountas and Pinnell (a 1:1 levelled reading test) to test our kids, and discovering that a number of them are behind in their reading age, and beginning to struggle with high school* level literacy. We obviously can adjust our materials to suit at school, but we need to also look at what is happening outside of school.

I've been asked to give tips to a parent so they can help their kid who is behind in their reading age (Year 5, so 2 years behind.)

I know stuff like Vgotsky's zone of proximal development, like you have to give kids stuff at their level and a little bit above for them to build confidence and then step up to the next level. On the one hand this is too technical for parents, some of whom struggle with literacy themselves.

On the other hand I don't want to just give a platitude of "oh yeah, your kid should be reading more."

My request:
What does the research say? Where can I find it?
How do I boil it down into parent friendly language? Step by steps- tips?
How much should their kids be reading? Should it be every day?

*in Victoria Australia high school starts at Year 7, or 12/13 years old.
** I'm in that awkward phase of teaching where I'm not a newbie, being 5 years in, but still feeling way out of my depth, especially when giving advice to parents.

(And yes, I tell all my friends who are new parents that they need to READ TO THEIR CHILDREN.)

posted by freethefeet to Education (16 answers total)

Me - not an English teacher, just a writer and avid reader. Honestly, the best tip I can give and one I’m using for my own child is to find whatever kind of book they like and just let them read it and buy them as many as they like. Regardless of whether or not it is a book you necessarily approve of, if they like it, (and it’s age appropriate) let them read. Once they get sucked in by a book they love, they’ll naturally want more. That’s how you encourage it.

I say this a parent talking to another parent who is horrified their child likes Captain Underpants, because of the vomit and poo content. They have banned them. They insists their child reads books the parent chooses (the child doesn’t enjoy them) yet can’t understand why the kid isn’t getting into books at all and their literacy is suffering. I on the other hand, am also not a fan of Captain Underpants but if it gets my son into reading and loving it, that’s the most important thing. It’s not like I’m letting him read Marquis de Sade here.

I also got my child into cooking the same way. We started off by baking sweet things, using his love of chocolate as the gateway drug. Once that got him into cooking, now he makes all sorts of things. But you have to make it enjoyable first, or they’ll never want to do it.

And so far as how often, yes, every day if possible. And make it fun.
posted by Jubey at 3:11 AM on April 29, 2018 [16 favorites]

Oh, I should also mention we also play computer word games and apps which hooks into the whole make it fun thing. He really loves those.
posted by Jubey at 3:13 AM on April 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

A main issue here is way more basic than getting parents to allow less than great literature. It is that many families do not have books, do not have a habit of going to the library and aren't going to spend limited $ on amazon for books. They are not necessarily going to have confidence about discriminating what books are considered "good" from your pov and in fact that idea might cause some uneasiness. But certainly you can tell them that it's great for their kid to be encouraged to read things that are a little bit of a challenge, and that you'll help let kids know what reading material is best for their level of skill.
Can you possibly set up a kind of informal book lending system from your classroom? You could probably get people through the school or even FB to donate used books pretty easily. If not, can you take your class to the school library once a week?
Once they have books, I would tell the parents that it's good to try to make room for /encourage a designated reading time -- say 20 minutes before bed -- with no tv or electronics.
Tell them it's great if they can ask their kid what they are reading and how they like it.
They can ask the kid to read them a paragraph, if they would like to.
They can encourage their kid to read younger level books to a younger sibling.
In other words, give specific tips on how to make reading feel more like an integrated part of family life -- the way it is for parents who are privileged in literaracy and more matter-of-factly comfortable with and immersed in books, who create this environment for their kids in a way that feels relaxed.
I'm sure they realize that reading well helps people in life. You can reinforce the idea that any kind of reading should be encouraged, and that they can help their kids feel that it is not taking away from normal life but is part of normal life, and that this will help them be successful.
posted by flourpot at 3:52 AM on April 29, 2018 [10 favorites]

Back when I was volunteering with an organization that aims to increase adult literacy, the teachers put a lot of emphasis on making note of how most people do read every day, and leaning into it. This meant stuff like online articles, facebook posts, magazines, recipes, instructions and directions. A common exercise to start off a tutoring session was for a student to talk about the things they'd read that week that they'd had trouble with - and also talking about the things they read that they didn't have trouble with. This helped point out areas most in need of help as well as a motivational tool and marker of progress.

As a volunteer I collected and organized and tagged hundreds of things for students to read that were related to things they were already reading - I did a lot of recipe tagging and article summaries to make things searchable, reorganized the small library full of adult easy reader and simple english books by more contemporarily relevant categories, collated and double checked lists of links to sites that had short stories and essays. (Actually I showed a bunch of ESL teachers Metafilter, which they found pretty cool!) This was to help students pursue their own interests and gather their own materials.

So I think one angle you can take with parents who are struggling with their own literacy is to emphasize that they have resources at their disposal even if they think of "books" as some monolithic impenetrable entity and are perhaps anxious about libraries and stuff. That they can encourage their kids to talk with them about the non-book things they've read that day and it's all part of the same path, and that they're not starting from zero. If their kid played a videogame, what was the story, were there any terms they don't understand, can they describe the gameplay? If their kid cooked a meal did they use a recipe from a cooking blog, did they make it up, where did they get the idea from? Anything that might have words to read becomes fodder for talking about reading and making it a part of daily life instead of a chore to be pushed through.

Flourpot has an excellent point. If you can gather some ways for parents to get books to their kids at low or no cost that would be great. Perhaps a regular seasonal bookswap? Plus information on libraries, any local businesses that do an open library shelf, where to get local newspapers, that kind of thing. It's all about giving parents concrete actions they can take, because they don't want to hear "your kid should be reading more", they want to hear "these are the five things you can do to help your kid read more".

I'm not sure that the zone of proximal development stuff really is too technical for parents. Sure, language-wise it sounds hoity toity, but that's what metaphors are for, right? Can you frame it more like "we're always wanting your kid to reach for more, so it's often best to offer them a handful of things that are within their comfort zone as well as have a few that are more difficult or out of their ordinary to pique their interest and encourage them to keep going"? All kids are different so it's not like a parent is going to have a magic formula of difficult books to easy books to borrow from the library every fortnight, so I feel like loose explanations that get the point across are just fine.
posted by Mizu at 4:19 AM on April 29, 2018 [8 favorites]

Hi from a children’s librarian! This is something we struggle with a lot in my field. This year, we are changing our summer reading program for this very reason. According to our strategy folks, data shows that part of the challenge is kids who don’t read well also do not self identify as readers.

This year for our summer program any reading counts as long as you do twenty minutes a day. This includes things like audiobooks, instructions for roblox, texts from your friends, streetsigns, etc. The goal is multi fold:

1. To help kids notice that they are readers in everyday aspects of their lives.
2. To build positive associations with reading.
3. To build interest in discussing what they read.

This won’t necessarily help the kids get to a better reading level right away. The point is rather to give those kids the foundational reading experiences that made some of their peers identify as readers.
posted by donut_princess at 4:23 AM on April 29, 2018 [10 favorites]

Avid reader since early childhood; taught adult literacy classes until hearing loss; frequent host to grandchildren who love to read and play ipad games in equal measure.

1. Absolutely let them choose what they read. It's just too important to impose adult likes and dislikes. As long as they're not reading totally age inappropriate material, let 'em at it. Ask any book loving adult about their first books and the thrill of reading "forbidden" stuff stolen from their parents' bookcases.

2. Establishing a lending library is such a great thing to do, kids from lower income/lower interest households will have much easier access to books (especially here in the UK where public libraries are closing faster than pubs).

3. Not sure if this is possible in the US but I have subtitles/captioning set to be automatically on* - the kids read these almost despite themselves so have a really good vocabulary in all sorts of topics ranging from natural history to baking (they're big fans of the Great British Bake Off).

4. Don't keep reading just for bedtime - switch off the television/computer/devices for short reading sessions two or three times a week. Gradually increase the time allocated as the child's interest grows. Try and organise it so that the whole household is reading.

5. Encourage the adult family members to try the kids's books too, just because they're marketed at kids doesn't mean they're only for kids - I just bought Trenton Lee Stewart's The Mysterious Benedict Society and can't wait for youngest grandson to finish it so that I can read it too.

* Sadly, a lot of children's programmes aren't captioned unless they're on one of the BBC channels but again, the situation might be different in the US (PBS for example, I believe, has to provide captioned programming? In the UK, 0% of their output is captioned. Never mind, I'd rather be reading...)
posted by humph at 4:30 AM on April 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Special educator/English teacher here. There are a few things you can do but first, a major caveat:

we need to also look at what is happening outside of school.

Yeah, that's not going to work. That rarely works and veteran teachers know it. As soon as teachers say, "Here's a thing you're not doing and you need to be doing this because otherwise you're screwing up your kid," it's game over. We can't imply they're bad parents, it creates an adversarial relationship, and then nothing gets done.

Bu that doesn't mean all hope is lost. What Jubey said is right--the more exposure kids have to reading, the better. It doesn't matter what they're reading (yes to cookbooks, Captain Underpants, sports bios, comics, Eric Carle---it doesn't matter); it's the act of decoding and making sense of print that increases their reading abilities, makes school far less frustrating and with any luck, introduces a lifelong reading habit (which should be the only real goal).

This is where librarians can be your best friends. Can you get the kids to the library biweekly and have the librarian help them learn about authors and genres and then let them pick special quiet reading books? If you can do that, great; if not, you can start doing it in your class and curate a classroom library.

Once you have the books, start 10 minutes to 15 minutes daily of quiet reading time. It doesn't matter what the kids read, but everyone needs to stop, drop, and read--including YOU. Modeling quiet reading is pretty powerful stuff for kids. At the end of each reading time, let everyone briefly discuss something they read--most definitely including you. Model reading and discuss active reading strategies (I thought of...this reminded me of...I wonder if...). When they've finished a book, they get to review and make recommendations. Even the lowest and most reluctant readers engage when they get to be expert book reviewers.

Heavily focus on building a culture of literacy in class. Have author parties, reading groups, have your kids read to littler kids. I have some very low students, but once a month we trek over to the library to pick fun picture books and then we go visit the preschools. My kids sit with the littler ones and read to them and it's one of the highlights of the month.

If these are kids who will be supported with their homework, then assign them quiet reading every night. The can read quietly, they can read aloud, they can record themselves reading aloud to create an audio version of the book, they can read to their siblings or stuffed animals or pets. Make it fun. Give them journals where they note page numbers, brief plot description, maybe sketch a scene, then they have to answer some type of "I wonder" or "I liked" question. You want to ensure the comprehension questions are low stakes to get them to do it.

If you want to say anything to parents, explain that educational studies show that just 1/2 hour daily of reading can make school more accessible, reduce frustration and increase academic success, which increases financial success. Essentially, you can imply that if the kid isn't reading daily, they may be living in the parents' basement forever--that seems to work with most parents.

You want to ensure your message to parents is positive, easy to implement, results-oriented, and doesn't give them any more work to do. So, a forced assignment of 1/2 hour of getting your kid off the damn phone/computer/tablet will pay off by making their lives easier is the best way to sell this.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 4:31 AM on April 29, 2018 [11 favorites]

Nthing letting him read whatever interests him. Take him to the local library with the best selection and let him go wild. Comic books, magazines, zines, Harry Potter, whatever.

Has he been screened for learning disabilities? My sibling and I grew up in the same home - parents read a lot, read aloud frequently (not just in a "reading to little kids" way but also in a "oh hey you'll all love this humorous essay," "hey spouse listen to this newspaper article" way, read to each other), had access to lots of books, audiobooks, etc. I was a reading fiend and scored well above grade level on reading tests; my sibling in the exact same environment just never got into reading. Cut to present day: sibling has dyslexia.
posted by bunderful at 5:47 AM on April 29, 2018

In my family, this issue was finessed by asking the kid who was behind in his reading to help out with child rearing by reading aloud to a younger sibling. That meant that there was no stigma associated with giving him simpler books. He liked being entrusted with the grown-up task of "baby-sitting" (I don't recall whether his parents paid him) and the younger sibling liked the attention. Being nudged to model caring about reading helped cement that in his habits. No one ever told him the real purpose of this task.

Could this idea be replicated by creating a program that paired older kids with younger kids, perhaps as part of an after school program, extra credit assignment, etc.?
posted by carmicha at 6:24 AM on April 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

I have a 12 year old and at his age I think you could inspire the students fairly directly actually. Definitely give the parents some reasons and guidelines but try to make the school culture literacy-rich. The reading to younger students is brilliant. Also try read-a-thons for fundraising, alongside a lending library and associated lists for suggested reading, host a library lunch once a week where students can read and eat in a quieter part of the school...ask the staff to make personal recommendations for books or websites or other print resources whenever they see a student is interested in anything.

My son’s history and math teachers do this regularly and it is pretty neat - the math teacher in particular takes 2 minutes a week to recommend books, most of which are pretty funny. The history teacher gets them reading about military tactics or fiction extensions in the periods they are covering. We’re lucky to be in the middle of a great library system though.
posted by warriorqueen at 7:11 AM on April 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

This was before the internet was a factor.

The only thing that worked for me was books magically appearing in the back seat of the car, where I was a captive audience. I'd ask if I could bring the book in with me.

Then, after I was hooked, libraries. Again with the captive audience. My mom would send my tiny brother with book recommendations to me.

I may have been a precocious reader, but I didn't seem to notice that it was my mother orchestrating all this reading I was doing.
posted by aniola at 7:32 AM on April 29, 2018

One of my favorite English teachers used to set aside a little time every now and then to have a group discussion, where he would invite students to talk about what they were reading outside of school. If nobody volunteered to go first, he would talk about his own reading. And not just books, but interesting magazine articles or news items. I think it helped foster the idea that reading is Just A Thing People Do. And him sharing his own reading reinforced the fact that there isn't really an end goal to it, like passing a class or getting a diploma.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:37 AM on April 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

I teach high school English/literature. I've found that parents who wish that their children were more proficient readers often do not themselves read for pleasure or entertainment. Familes who think of reading as a "school activity" are often very disappointed when their child doesn't initiate reading independently. Even when parents have good intentions, sometimes especially when they do, referring to reading as a job or a task typically does not encourage positive attitudes toward recreational reading.

I am a huge believer in establishing a culture of reading. When my elementary-aged daughter sees me relaxing with a book on the couch, she is much more likely to grab her own book and join me. When she hears my husband and I talking about interesting things we read throughout the day, she also wants to share elements from her own reading during the school day. For me, this is really about normalizing reading - moving beyond school assignments and incorporating the things we read/hear/see into the fabric of our family and social lives. Once students embrace the concept of "new literacies," the notion that everything we read (from headlines to text messages to SnapChats) has validity, I really see their world begin to broaden.
posted by WaspEnterprises at 10:58 AM on April 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

Depending on how rural this area is, getting to a local library may be difficult for the child/family. Does the county library system have bookmobiles? Overdrive? Can the local librarian come into the classroom and register kids for their own library cards then show them how to check things out on the internet catalog? The suggestion of having the 7th graders read to younger kids is a great one!

Can you give the parents some examples of the books at the child's level, and books where you'd want them to be? I imagine that would be more helpful than the fairly abstract grade 5 vs grade 7 distinction.
posted by basalganglia at 11:30 AM on April 29, 2018

Are these families likely to have a newspaper subscription? Are they interested in the footy, and maybe even part of a footy tipping league? If the parents can find a common interest with the kid that would be covered in the paper regularly, then they can read the same things and talk about them. Or if they don't have a newspaper subscription, perhaps they can find good online sources of regularly updated news on the topic?
posted by the agents of KAOS at 2:47 PM on April 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

To be strong readers, kids need to read a lot. If we really want kids to read a lot, we need to make sure that kids have access books they want to read. If they don’t yet know what they want to read or if they think there’s nothing in the world they’ll ever want to read, it becomes the grown-ups’ job to help them find it and ensure they can get their hands on it. And, yes, this approach has real research behind it.

The F&P levels you’re using are great for your own formative assessments and for your instructional planning. They shouldn’t be used to label kids or to recommend to parents what kids should be reading.

Finally, if there’s any kind of worksheet-y, flashcard-y, or competitive (“read more books than your peers!”) approach that you’re thinking of trying, please don’t. What makes people readers is reading, not answering questions on quizzes or racing (or fake-reading) through books to meet a quota. Those things only teach kids to comply, not to become strong readers. As soon as you stop counting the number of boooks they’ve read, they’ll stop reading. They need to read because they love reading. And it’s up to you to connect them to the books they need so that they can love reading.

Your students’ parents may want a quick fix—a workbook they found at Barnes and Noble, a drill, whatever. They may not trust that actually reading is the best way to be a stronger reader—there is a ton of junk on the market that has supported this belief and that thrives on it. Please be sure to warn parents not to fall for it, and let them know that it’s more likely to drive their kids away from reading than to help them.
posted by TEA at 9:15 PM on April 29, 2018