How to Get Your Child to Love Reading

1. How to Get Your Child to Love Reading Part I: Beginning Your Adventure in the World of Children’s Literature

2. Potato Power: The Art of Using What You’ve Got What can you teach with a potato?

3. Potato Power: The Art of Using What You’ve Got Why did the author write this?

4. Hat Trick Parents and teachers both wear big hats. When parents and teachers work together instead of playing the blame game, great things happen when it comes to literacy. Esme’s advice: “If you don’t perform a hat dance, if you don’t step outside your assigned role to do something extra exciting, don’t expect that others necessarily will.” Spare time? What’s that?

5. Potato Possibilities: “Let’s not focus on worrying whether or not a child is full. Instead, let’s assume a child is hungry.” -Esme Potato Power: The Art of Using What You’ve Got Variety is the spice of life!

6. Bridging the Gap “Every single one of the outcomes of literature-based education is something that a child’s teacher is hoping for and working toward every day, so read-aloud is the perfect home/school collaboration. Conflicts often arise between teachers and parents when they forget they are working toward the same goals.” -Esme

7. Potatoes Up Close and Personal On Educational Theory – Behaviorism “I don’t like operating on instinct. If you know why you are doing what you are doing, you can do a better job of advocating for your approach if it works, or understanding why it doesn’t work and being more helpful next time. . .we are not reinventing the wheel here, we are trying to ride the bike.” -Esme Did I mention that I like read-aloud?

8. Children’s Book Basics:Magic Pieces of Background Knowledge Read-Aloud Works Every Time

9. What’s in it for me, anyway? Source: How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esme Raji Codell (2003)

10. Hints for Reading Out Loud Love the book yourself before you read it to the children. Choose a book that lends itself to reading out loud. Have high expectations. Make read aloud time special. Be versatile in your approach. Introduce the artists. Show the pictures while you read. Read with expression. Don’t over evaluate. Read aloud every single day. Leave them asking for more. Applause, applause!

11. Kids Have Reasons for Reading and These Reasons—or Motivations—Can Be Milked The Three Is: Interest – what motivates a child to read Integration – making connections to the world beyond the book Invention – The book holds the child’s interest, the child sees possible connections to the world beyond the book, and then the child decides to use that interest and insight to create something new.

12. Your job is to connect children with books. There is a book for every job in the want ads. Ask the right questions, and make the connections. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “What do your parents do for a living?” “What do you like to do?”

13. Award Winners Are Children’s Literature’s Royalty and Knowing Them Is Handy “Readability, personal tastes and interests will dictate children’s visions of excellence, and will likely fluctuate with their development.” -Esme Books that have won awards may not always appeal to children, but it can be a good place to start because awards point out writing and illustrative above the ordinary.

14. Web Sites That List Awards AMAZON.COM AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH LIBRARIES BOOK SENSE CARNEGIE AND GREENAWAY AWARDS CATHOLIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION CHILDREN’S LITERATURE WEB GUIDE INTERNATIONAL BOARD ON BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION

15. Innovative Ideas Invent your own award and hold your own awards ceremony program.

16. Readability Formulas Kincaid Readability Formula (words/sentence X .4) + (syllables/word X 12) – 16 Fry Readability Graph 100-word section of straight prose Count number of sentences Count number of syllables Compare to obtain grade level based on the graph (doesn’t account for content)

17. Useful Information Reading levels can be useful for children in the midst of emergent literacy or when trying to find materials for children with special reading challenges, but they should not “define your child” or “level your child’s love of reading.”

18. Speaking of Levels Esme’s Easy Designations: Primary – preschool through third grade Intermediate – fourth through sixth grade Older Readers – seventh grade and up

19. Levels, Shmevels! In the World of Letters, Numbers Can Be Misleading: • Have child choose a page in the middle of book with lots of text and make a fist • Have child read the page silently • When he gets to a word he doesn’t know, have him put out thumb • For each unknown word, hold out another finger • If three to five fingers are up at the end reading, it means the book will be a challenge • Let the child decide if he wants to try to read the book anyway • Pleasure reading should have 0-2 fingers up Rule of Thumb

20. You Can Locate Long-Lost Books www.addall.com www.alibris.com www.bibliofind.com www.half.com Amazon.com

21. Raise Your Hand If You Want to Volunteer in Your Child’s School Which type are you and what (exactly) does that mean? Type A Type B Type C

22. The Silent Scream: Adult Illiteracy in America Congress developed the following definition of literacy: “Using printed word and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals and to develop one’s knowledge and potential.” - 40 million American adults in lowest functional level - 52 million American adults can barely read at all

23. Creepy Schools “I have a teeny-weeny confession. Sometimes schools give me the creeps. Too many rules. The continual assertion of the nonsensical idea that if the children are having fun or making choices, they aren’t learning anything.” -Esme

24. Imagine the possibilities. . .