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Did you know that boys need male role models in reading? Fathers have a great influence over their child’s education and how well they perform. If a male role model values reading, boys will learn to value reading as well. With this in mind, consider starting a Father/Son Book Club. Consider it the new age “boys club.”
Here is how to get started:
- Gather your son and several of his friends (no more than 5 boys total) and their fathers.
- Determine a meeting place and time (monthly seems to work well). Rotate from host to host.
- The host and his son choose the text for the month they host.
- Provide snacks!
- Provide a guideline for discussion. Or if you prefer, keep it casual, but the host should be able to move the discussion along.
- Boys and their fathers should read the text together ahead of the meeting. Or, if the reading for the month is short, consider setting aside time at the meeting for fathers and sons to read together.
Boys typically tend to enjoy short articles and graphic based texts. Often times, they also prefer “real-world” information vs. fiction or story type novels.
Text Ideas:
- Graphic Novels
- Magazine articles (Boys Life, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Kids Discover, National Geographic for Kids, Ranger Rick)
- Articles of interest from the Internet
- Newspaper articles (or online news sources)
Boys are normally very active! Tap into that natural curiosity and exuberance in your book clubs. Provide activities that require thinking and movement in relation to the text you read.
Activity Ideas:
- Read about the history of a favorite sport and then play that sport. As you play the sport, discuss the reading. Tie discussion into the rules of the game (i.e. for every goal made in soccer or every basket made in basketball, a discussion point is made)
- Choose a specific topic (i.e the history of tools). Take the opportunity to teach the boys about the topic, through discussion and hands-on activities (i.e. the proper way to use tools).
- Read a newspaper article (or online news) with the boys. Discuss current events. Determine ways the boys could get involved in a community or civic event.
- Read graphic novels or comic books. Then have the boys create their own.
At the end of the day, a Father/Son Book Club provides an opportunity for fathers and sons to spend quality time together while reading. Consider keeping a father/son book journal. Write about favorite books you’ve read together and the activities that you did with it. Years from now, you’ll have a lasting memory of a childhood spent together and the enjoyment both father and son felt!
Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing. In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children. She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families. Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com
There has been a lot of talk lately (well, several years lately) about boys and reading. Why don’t boys like to read? What can we do to encourage them to read? What is the difference in learning for boys and girls? As an educator and a mom of a six year old boy, I am intrigued by this “new” phenomenon. I am a reader. I do not know a life without reading. I hope that my children will become avid readers, too. But, I worry about my son. I know the statistics. Even though boys are pretty much developmentally even with girls when they start school, by fourth grade an average boy can be up to two years behind. How is that possible? What can we do to ensure that our boys don’t stray from the path of reading?
What Does the Research Say?
Boys are active beings. They have “boy energy.” They have a need to be physical, in motion, and kinesthetic (Gurian, 2005). . . pretty much all the time! They want to have fun! Instead of looking at these qualities as detriments, why don’t we use them to help our boys? Instead of teaching boys the way society dictates we should, perhaps we should start thinking about how boys learn best. If we begin to provide strategies that encourage boys’ interest in reading, we may begin to increase the possibilities for boys to experience success in school and beyond (Neu and Weinfeld, 2007). More importantly, we may encourage a lifelong love of reading in our boys, and isn’t that what we all want?
How Do We Make Reading “Boy-Friendly?”
The educator in me knew from the moment I had my son that I would have to work hard to raise a boy that enjoyed school and reading in particular. Through five years of teaching, I can probably count on one hand the number of boys that I taught that actually enjoyed reading when they arrived in my class. If we can work on making reading a more “boy-friendly” activity, we may be able to encourage more boys to read and to want to read. If we can attend to boys’ needs more when we read, perhaps we can encourage more boys to want to read and to enjoy reading! Here is a list of ten tips to help make reading more “boy-friendly” in your home or classroom:
Make Reading Active
Boys thrive on activity. Provide opportunities for boys to “act out” what they have read. For younger children, after reading a book, create puppets and put on a puppet show. For older boys, create a Readers Theater script. Have boys act out parts of the book.
Provide plenty of informational/nonfiction texts
Choose books based on interests. (See #8) If a child is going through a truck phase, borrow books from the library about different kinds of trucks. Provide boys with nonfiction subscription magazines. There are some great ones out there: Animal Baby (National Wildlife Federation), National Geographic for Little Kids, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Ranger Rick, National Geographic for Kids.
Provide Male Reading Role Models
This is probably one of the most important tips! My husband, a self-proclaimed non-reader, reads to our son every night and has done so since he was about a year old. They enjoy their time together and this gives them the opportunity to read gross, silly, fun books that I might not necessarily read with my son (see #10). Equally important is for boys to see men in their lives reading themselves. My son mostly sees his father reading news on the computer, but that is still reading (see #6)!
Graphic Novels are Boy Friendly
Boys tend to be visual learners. Therefore, graphic novels/books are excellent for boys. These are typically books that have been written in comic book form, but are not comic books (like your traditional Marvel comics). My son has a graphic book of The Lion King. It is probably at a reading level of a third grader, but we enjoy reading it together and looking at the pictures. I recently found Phonic Comics by Innovative Kids. They are written on various levels for your emergent reader all the way to your independent reader. More publishers are beginning to see the need for graphic novels and are translating known stories into graphic novels for all levels of readers.
Make Literacy Hands-On
For the preschool age child, put pudding on a cookie sheet and allow him to practice writing his name in the pudding. This is a great pre-literacy activity. For older boys, allow them to practice writing their spelling words in pudding. When they are done, they can eat the pudding!
Incorporate Technology into Reading
According to Neu and Weinfeld (2007), there is not necessarily a greater value in reading a book than in reading online. Boys tend to gravitate to the computer and the Internet can be a great source of informational text for boys. If a child wants to know the answer to a particular question, use a book and the Internet to find answers. This provides lessons in reading multiple sources, as well. Encourage older boys to use publishing programs to create visual representations of the text (See #4). This provides boys with an opportunity to process their reading.
Create Competitions
Challenge boys to informal spelling bees, brainteasers, or studying competitions. Boys thrive on challenges and competition can be the stimulant they need to really care about reading (Gurian, 2005).
Match Books to Interests/Allow Choice
One of the most important things we can do for boys is to allow them to choose their own reading materials. Even if the material is above or below their reading level, if it is a text on a topic that interests them, allow them to read it. A book that is “too easy” may allow him to feel good about reading; a book that is “too hard” may allow him to stretch his reading skills. By allowing boys choice, we are providing opportunities for them to develop reading skills without the added stress of disliking the text.
Encourage Audio Reading
Make recordings of yourself, or a male role model reading your child’s favorite books (or buy commercial books on CD). When you are unavailable to read to him, have him listen to the recording and follow along. Hearing books read aloud is a powerful way to increase boys’ interest in reading.
Encourage Reading of Humorous, Gross, Violent and/or Silly Books
Oh boy! This is a big one! If it grosses out mom, then a boy will probably find it engrossing. And that is the goal when getting boys to read. We want them engrossed in whatever it is that they are reading. If it takes a gross, humorous, silly, and/or violent (within reason) text to do it, then so be it!
A Few “Boy-Friendly” Books My Son Would Recommend:
The Trucktown Series by Jon Scieszka
Trucktown came about as a series of books for preschoolers (girls like them just as much as boys!). Scieszka actually researched at a preschool near his house and has stated that all of the characters (which are all vehicles) are based on the preschoolers he worked with.
Fly Guy (a series of books) by Tedd Arnold
A great series of books about a boy and his pet fly. Seeing as the main character is a fly, you can only imagine the gross things you may encounter when reading. However, the author writes humorously, as well. I enjoy reading these books with my son – not so gross, that I’m grossed out!
Chicken Butt by Erica S. Perl
This is an example of buying against type. Not typically a book that would catch my eye for my own pleasure reading, but the title did catch my eye for my son. And, of course he loves it! So does my husband. It’s based on the classic joke, “You know what?”
Smelly Locker: Silly Dilly School Songs by Alan Katz
We came across this book in the bookstore one day. My husband and son were looking for something to read together while I perused the shelves. Written about school life, each new song can be sung to the tune of a classic children’s song.
References:
Gurian, M. & Smith, K. (2005). The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons from Falling Behind in School and Life. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco
Neu, T.W. &Weinfeld, R. (2007). Helping Boys Succeed in School. Prufrock Press: Waco.
Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing. In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children. She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families. Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com
Let’s face it! We aren’t getting any younger. Sad, but true! However, we can remain young at heart and one way I try to do that is by sharing my childhood favorites with my children. I was thinking about this yesterday and realized that by sharing a bit of my childhood with my children, in the form of books I loved, I just might be creating bookworms out of them!
My children (and yours too, I’m sure!) love to hear about my childhood. It’s so interesting to see how they try to assimilate in their minds that Mommy was a kid once, too. I remember doing the same thing with my own mom as a child. Last year, I decided to share Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary with my then 6 year old. I remember reading all of the Henry Huggins books and then moving on to the Ramona books (or it may have been the other way around) as a child. And I vividly remember sharing my love for these books with my friend, Brenda. In fact, she may have been the one to recommend the Henry Huggins books to begin with! In any event, I read Henry Huggins to my son last year and we talked about how it was one of my favorite books as a child. He loved the book as much as I did. And, I had a blast reading it as an adult!
This year, we have moved on to The Littles series by John Peterson. I remember reading these books as a child and watching the cartoon. I loved them and never dreamed I would grow up to become a “Little” myself! So, when I found the set at our school’s Scholastic Book Fair last year, I had to get them to pass them on to my son. He loves that we read books that contain our last name and I love passing on the books I loved as a child. We even have our own Granny Little in our family!
I loved books as a kid (still do, of course!) and I’m so excited to pass on to my children all the books I loved from my childhood! These are the books that are timeless. They are as relevant today as they were when I was a child and even when my mother was a child. Next year, we will move on to my all time favorites, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge, and Fudge-a-Mania. I have a feeling my son is just going to laugh out loud at those!
Do you share your childhood favorites with your children? What are they?
Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing. In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children. She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families. Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com
Book Trailers are like movie trailers, but, wait for it, are you ready for this? Books! Book trailers are a fantastic way to motivate readers to read books. You Tube has a lot of book trailers that you can watch with your child to learn more about a book he/she may want to read. One particular channel I like is RandomBooks. This is the publishing house Random Books and they offer book trailers, author interviews, animated features, and other book-related videos on their channel. It’s a fantastic place to begin if you are looking for ways to motivate your child to read. Classroom teachers (and even parents), consider having your children make their own book trailers of favorite books!
Book Talks are a less technological version of a Book Trailer. Book Talks are an opportunity to “talk up” a book. Of course, you should be familiar with it already (so read it before hand), but talk up funny points or memorable events. Read just enough to entice the prospective reader. Leave him/her hanging on the edge of his/her seat. . .
And finally, speed dating? With a book? What exactly is this? Choose five different books for your child. Consider choosing books from various genres. Provide your child with one book at a time. Depending on your child’s age, provide one minute (approximately ages 8 and up) to a minute and a half (approximately ages 5-7) for your child to read a part of the chosen book. He can pick anywhere within the book to read. Use a timer to time your child. After reading each book, provide your child a quick opportunity to jot down a few thoughts about the book (what was liked/disliked, surprised him, made him laugh, provided information he may want to learn more about, etc.). After all five books have been reviewed, ask your child which one stands out as one he may like to read.
Do you have innovative ways to motivate kids (specifically reluctant readers) to read? I would love to hear them!
Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing. In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children. She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families. Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com
- The number one thing, in my opinion, that families can do together to promote literacy is to read aloud. Consider hosting a family reading night once a week. Each week rotate family members to choose a book to read aloud. If you have children who aren’t of reading age, allow them to pick out the book and have a reading family member read it aloud. Make it an event! Make snacks, create crafts, or make a game up related to the book. Need some inspiration? Check out: Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook for Young Readers and Eaters by Jane Yolen.
- Be a Reading Role Model. Make sure your children see you reading or have older siblings read to younger siblings. I love hearing my son read to my daughter. And she loves it, too! I’ve also had my older child record himself reading two or three favorite books. This helps him practice fluency and my daughter can listen to the recordings when he’s not around.
Jen, from Jen Robinson’s Book Page, posted Tips for Growing Bookworms: #6 Read Yourself and Model an Appreciation for Reading last year at PBS Booklights. She discusses the importance of being a reading role model and what to say to your kids if you aren’t a reader.
Along the same lines, Terry from The Reading Tub wrote Bedtime from Afar: Sharing Books When You Can’t Cuddle Up Close at PBS Booklights last year. In her post she talks about ways to continue a bedtime read aloud tradition, even if you can’t be there in person, by recording yourself reading aloud.
Which made me think about this: when I was a child, my father was in the military and often spent six months or more out to sea. One of my fondest memories was my mom, brother, and I sitting around the kitchen table recounting our day into a cassette tape for Dad. Mom would mail the tapes off and in a month or so we received several cassette tapes from my dad telling us about his travels. Taking this idea a step further, wouldn’t it be fantastic if the children of deployed military men and women recorded themselves reading aloud books to send to their moms and dads overseas? United Through Reading provides books and recording equipment for deployed parents to read aloud to their kids on DVD, but I’m sure parents would be delighted to hear (and even better, SEE) their children read books to them as well! Check out A Story Before Bed to create videos of yourself reading aloud to your child or grandchild.
- Play literacy games, such as Boggle or Scrabble. Boggle, Jr. is perfect for kids 3-6. Break your family into teams and make it a game night! Or make up your own literacy games. My children enjoy playing Go Fish with a twist. My three year old goes fishing for letters and my six year old goes fishing for sight words. Simply create pairs of letters or pairs of sight words on index cards. If your child already recognizes capital letters, make lower case letters or create a mixture of both and have your child match the capital letter to the lowercase letter.
Susan at The Book Chook recently posted Book Chook Ideas for Making Books with Kids. Check it out for fun ways to make books with your family.
- Make regular family outings to the library, book store, or yard/garage sales to find new books. Libraries and book stores often showcase new books each month based on seasons, holidays, special events, etc. Both also often provide story times for young children and special events. Often you can find special treasures at sales. . . if you really look.
- Pay it forward! As a family, donate books you don’t read anymore to local hospitals, homeless shelters, etc. Volunteer your time to read to patients in hospitals, nursing homes, etc. Nothing beats sharing a love of literacy as a family than sharing it with those who can use a little extra attention. So as the holiday season approaches, consider reading aloud holiday books at your local children’s hospital or nursing home.
Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing. In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children. She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families. Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com
This year, I’ve had the pleasure of taking my kids to see Pigeon Party at our local theater, based on Mo Willems’ 
book Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
(and others), Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical at The Kennedy Center, based on Mo Willems’ book, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, and How I Became a Pirate at a local children’s theater, based on How I Became a Pirate
by Melinda Long. We had a blast at all three. I think that had we not been familiar with the stories already, we probably would not have even thought about seeing the musicals.
We have been so lucky that the books we have enjoyed reading have been turned into musicals in our area. Tying in familiar stories with a “field trip” is one way to motivate young readers. My children were fascinated by the idea that the books could turn into real people on stage acting them out. They were even more fascinated with the idea that the musical (at least The Day I Became a Pirate) was not exactly like the book. This led to an interesting discussion about how sometimes the musical is written differently, to give more detail to the story.
If there is a children’s theater in your area, I suggest looking into the schedule and seeing what musicals or plays they are performing. Chances are, at least one of them is based on a book your child is familiar with. And what can be more fun (or motivating) than seeing that book come alive in front of their very eyes?
By the way, I’ve recently read that Knuffle Bunny: The Cautionary Musical is going to be on a national tour for 18 months. Check your local theater to see if it will be near you!
Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing. In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children. She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families. Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com
When children are motivated to read, it shows. They find pleasure in reading that comes from within. Here are five ways you can help motivate children to read:
1. Choice
Choice is so important when motivating readers. If a child doesn’t feel as if his reading choices mean something, then why will he want to read? Allow a child to choose his own reading material (magazines, graphic novels, books, informational guides, etc.), places to read, or time to read.
2. Read Alouds
Twenty-five years ago in Becoming a Nation of Readers (Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson, 1985) reading aloud was called “the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading” (p. 23). Reading aloud to children (whether our own or our students) provides an opportunity for children to hear what good reading sounds like. It also allows for adults to entice children with wanting to hear or read more.
3. Be a reading Role Model
As adults, it is our responsibility to be a good role model in life for children. It’s also our responsibility to be a good reading role model for the children in our lives. That means they need to see us reading. Children learn to value reading when they see the adults in their lives value reading.
4. Book Talks
Book talks are advertisements for books. When a parent or a teacher talks up a book and reads aloud parts of a book, it tempts children to want to read that book. Read an exciting part, a scary part, any part of the book that makes the child want to pick up that book and read it himself.
5.Interests
I began this list with choice, which is so important for a child to be motivated to read. Equally important is allowing children to choose reading materials related to their own interests. When children feel validated in their choices based on interests, they will want to read more.
Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing. In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children. She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families. Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com
Do you ever look for resources to help you explicitly teach your child comprehension strategies when reading? Good readers use these strategies without even thinking about it. It is our job as parents and educators to teach our children how to use these strategies so that they become second nature to them as they read independently. You can use the book I’ve focused on or any of the books on Big Universe.
Visualization
Visualization is another fun and somewhat easy comprehension strategy to model for children. Visualizing means picturing in your mind what is going on in the text. Good readers visualize what is going on in the text to help them to better understand the text.
To encourage your child to visualize, read aloud Dear Mr. Blueberry
by Simon James. Dear Mr. Blueberry is about a little girl named Emily who discovers a whale living in the pond in her yard. She wants to learn more about whales, so she begins a correspondence with her teacher, Mr. Blueberry. Mr. Blueberry provides her with details about whales, but is also adamant that a whale couldn’t possibly be living in her pond. The pictures tell the reader otherwise.
- The illustrator never depicts Mr. Blueberry. After reading aloud the book, discuss with your child what Mr. Blueberry may look like. Choose a specific page and re-read it to your child. Give him a piece of paper and ask him to draw what he thinks Mr. Blueberry looks like.
Use your read aloud time to sneak in some comprehension strategy lessons without missing a beat. The likelihood is that you will discuss the book anyway, so make your discussion a bit more focused and your child will begin to learn a few strategies as you model them. As you read aloud other books to your child, choose a specific page to read aloud (without showing the picture) and ask your child to draw a picture of what he/she visualizes. Then compare pictures and ask your child how his picture differs from the illustrator’s version.
Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing. In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children. She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families. Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com
Title: Paws, Claws, Hands, and Feet
Author: Kimberly Hutmacher
Illustrator: Sherry Rogers
Published: 2009 Sylvan Dell Publishing
ISBN: 9778-1-934359-88-4
Paws, Claws, Hands, and Feet by Kimberly Hutmacher is a rhythmic rhyming book about animals and how they use their appendages. A book like this is especially helpful for exposing children to a variety of verbs that they may not ordinarily use. When asked to describe what feet can do, many of my lower elementary students would say: walk, run, stand, hop, or jump. After reading this book, they discover that feet can also: cling, leap, dash, roam, etc.
Our 2nd and 3rd graders are beginning an animal inquiry. After choosing an animal and researching basic facts about the animal, they will organize their findings and present information to the class. Big Universe’s Book Creator is a great way to showcase their findings. As a bonus, students can create their own rhyming couplets similar to the style seen in Paws, Claws, Hands, and Feet.
Resources
Keisa Williams (aka Ms. K) is a K-5 School Librarian at Monarch Academy, a public charter school in Oakland, CA. She is certified in secondary and elementary education (MLIS and MEd) and loves collaborating with teachers and integrating technology into her library lessons. She considers herself a “Technology Diva” and “Gadget Junkie”.
Do you ever look for resources to help you explicitly teach your child comprehension strategies when reading? Good readers use these strategies without even thinking about it. It is our job as parents and educators to teach our children how to use these strategies so that they become second nature to them as they read independently. You can use the book I’ve focused on or any of the books on Big Universe.
Asking Questions
Asking questions as one reads, allows the reader to clarify points of confusion, or help the story move forward. Explicitly model how to ask questions for your child.
Charlie Anderson
by Barbara Abercrombie is a great book to model asking questions. A cat shows up one night to the
house where Elizabeth and Sarah live. They take him in, feed him, love him and name him Charlie. Every morning though, he disappears into the woods. One night, he doesn’t return and Sarah and Elizabeth become worried. They look for him and find a surprise.
As you read aloud, ask:
- Where does Charlie come from?
- Where does Charlie go every morning?
- What is he doing when he’s gone?
If you have post-it notes, ask your child to mark in the book when he comes across the answers to these questions. Clarify any other questions he may have about the story. Ask if he wonders about anything else.
Use your read aloud time to sneak in some comprehension strategy lessons without missing a beat. The likelihood is that you will discuss the book anyway, so make your discussion a bit more focused and your child will begin to learn a few strategies as you model them. As you read aloud other books to your child, stop and ask questions (to clarify the text or to move the story forward).
Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing. In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children. She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families. Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com
