Children Need to Enjoy Reading
Posted on May 28, 2009 by Big Universe in Technology.
Tags: learning disabilities, worksheets
Encouraging a child to read and enjoy it can sometimes be very difficult. Children who struggle to learn to read and fail soon fall behind their classmates and learn that reading is not fun. When classmates read books during quiet reading times the struggling reader grabs a book and pretends to read. When it’s time to read aloud in front of classmates, the poor reader learns to a.) Go to the bathroom, b.) Visit the nurse’s office, c.) Misbehave d.) Struggle through the reading feeling horribly humiliated by the time they are done. By the time a child who has difficulty learning to read gets to third grade they have fallen two years behind their peers, started to gain the attention of their teachers and learned to hate reading.
What’s the solution? First, as teachers, we need to begin documenting reading difficulties immediately. Interventions, such as extra reading time beyond the allotted times need to be provided. Make adjustments in the difficulty level of a struggling reader and provide them with plenty of books that they can enjoy. Make sure that reading is occurring at home. Children who are second language learners often have parents who do not speak English and are unable to read to their children at home. Providing picture books, with supporting text is best for these children. A great website for this, if a child has Internet access at home is Big Universe. The choices are endless and the child can keep a reading log so you can track their books and do repeated readings in the classroom.
It can be also be difficult choosing good quality books for a child, struggling or otherwise. Books with too much text do not support younger children or children who are struggling. Big Universe has picture books on every topic for all elementary grade levels.
Why picture books? Colorful pictures that support the reader do marvelous things for the struggling reader. They give a support that nothing else can. We often ask children to visualize as they read but if a child is struggling just to read the words they aren’t able to visualize for comprehension. The books at Big Universe have already done the visualizing.
The Big Universe book Adding and Subtracting at the Lake is just one example of such a picture book. This book has a reading level of K-1 with a Guided Reading Level of A,B,C. At the end of the book there is a three question math assessment. The book has a picture glossary so the student can be introduced to what a glossary its purpose. Comprehension quizzes can be designed to test for reading comprehension levels of students. Here’s a sample Comprehension Quiz.
Reading is the most important skill we can give to our children but they have to enjoy it. We need to provide them with appropriately leveled books that they love to read. Big Universe does this with beautiful picture books AND they are online. Children love them! By having the child read from the computer they are incorporating another activity, which children love – technology, another skill they will need for the rest of their lives.
How soon will you update your blog? I’m interested in reading some more information on this issue.