Teaching kids to read and helping those who struggle

Reading Rockets offers a wealth of reading strategies, lessons, and activities designed to help young children learn how to read and read better. Our reading resources assist parents, teachers, and other educators in helping struggling readers build fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.

Children's Book Week: a real celebration

Children's Book Week (CBW) 2012 ended on May 13 but the work of celebrated children's authors and illustrators is sure to continue throughout the year.

I have this year's CBW poster hanging in my office. Created by three-time Caldecott Medalist Davis Wiesner, the poster has recognizable characters from renowned children's book creators coming together on a busy street.

(For me, it's a what-if scenario; I wonder what would Marshall's George & Martha say to King Babar & Celeste with Wiesner's own three pigs walking on the cross street with Thing One and Thing Two running down the sidewalk … I bet children could come up with even better ideas than I can ….)

Perhaps they are heading to the CBW Gala, who knows? It was hosted by the very clever Jarrett Krosoczka (whose interview can be viewed on Reading Rockets. You can also see Jarrett in action at the Gala.)

It really reminded me of the Academy Awards program. Nominees were announced, snippets of the books were shared by young people, portions of the books were shown, and then The Winner. Authors and illustrators accepted these awards decided by children's voting — these are the Children's Choice Awards after all.

Children's Book Week started a long time ago — 1919 to be exact. My guess is that young people today still like many of the same things: they like to laugh, they like books with feeling, and (increasingly) they like pictures.

It seems that young people also like having a voice — more than 900,000 votes were recorded. Let's continue to listen to them especially during the summer when reading prevents the dreaded summer slide — but only when reading is fun.

Take a look at this year's Children's Choice books and creators. They may appeal to the young readers in your life, too.

Project Write

If there's someone who knows about teaching writing, it's Steve Graham. He's a nationally recognized professor, teacher, and researcher in the field of writing. The bulk of his work is with students with learning disabilities. His writing is always clear, informative, and helpful.

Graham and his colleagues at Vanderbilt launched Project Write, a website "designed to improve the writing and self-regulation behaviors of students in early elementary grades (1-3)." The site includes an overview of the stages of instruction from Develop Background Knowledge through Independent Performance. There are lesson plans that use two strategies to teach persuasive writing: POW and TREE. Last, there is a resource page which offers online and print resources.

If you teach writing, I think you'll find Project Write a helpful tool!

Managing school and test stress

Our younger daughter has always been super easygoing. She makes friends easily and is quick to laugh. Lately though, we've seen her positive attitude slip away. She's become one of those kids who literally counts the days until the last day of school. She's complaining about headaches and classmates, and she'd really rather stay home. The stress of end-of-the year projects and looming state tests is really getting to her.

Here are some ways we're trying to help her manage her stress and keep it together for these last few weeks of school. Maybe an idea in here can help your family too!

1. We're doing everything the school recommends: making sure she goes to bed on time and that she eats a good breakfast. That's the easy part! It's helping her clear and calm her head that is more difficult.

2. We're talking about time management. My daughter has many, many mastery sheets she has to finish before June 1. We're helping her figure out how many sheets a day she needs to get done. This is helping her plan out her work and subsequently realize she has more time than she thinks she does. PBS Kids has a good resource about time management called You Vs. The Clock. As part of it, kids think through Have-To's, Want-To's, and Goals.

3. We're trying to help her keep it all in perspective. We've been reminding her that she's a good student and that this test is only one measure of her progress. We're downplaying the whole "it's on everything you've learned so far in elementary school" sentiment that can be heard. Helping Kids Manage Worry has several good recommendations for helping kids conquer some of their concerns.

4. We're going outside. An hour or so of outside time after dinner does wonders to clear her head and help her relax.

This will all be over soon (17 more days, as E told me this morning) but some of these lessons we'll take with us into next year. Here are a few other resources on this topic that may be helpful:

• NEA's How to Relax Test-Stressed Kids
• State Testing: Ideas to Take the Stress Away from Wise Guy Teaching Resources
• Some free resources from Classroom Magic on Easing Test Anxiety

The loss of a friend

I never met him but still feel like I've lost an old friend. Maybe we all lost a longtime friend this week. Maybe we thought he'd go on forever — and I suppose in some ways he will.

Maurice Sendak's death last week was widely reported including the Washington Post, on NPR, in the New York Times. The appreciations keep coming. And they should.

Sendak's books have been read by several generations. They speak to contemporary kids as clearly as they did their parents — and even their grandparents. We had shared Where the Wild Things Are so often that my son was able to "read" it aloud to the delight of his pre-K class.

Some of Maurice Sendak's books have offended adult sensibilities (his fantastical In the Night Kitchen; illustrations for a collection of Mother Goose rhymes entitled I Saw Esau, for example).

But his distinct style and unflinching respect for children and their ability to handle deep emotions — whether or not they are able to talk about them — is evident in each of his books. Sendak changed children's literature forever because of his trust in children's ability to recognize emotional truth.

Maurice Sendak will be missed but not forgotten.

Thanks to Justin Duvall for allowing his artwork to be used.

© 2012 Justin Duvall

Meet our new edtech blogger, Dr. Julie Wood

How do you hear about great new kids' books?

We're always on the hunt for good books around our house. I rely on friends, librarians, my local bookstore, and several online sources for new titles we should be sure to read.

I subscribe to many blogs through my RSS feed, one of which is Getting Kids Reading. Through GKR, I recently learned about two new YA books I think my girls will like: Serpent's Shadow, the latest in the Kane Chronicles from Rick Riordan, and The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, which is a prequel to a favorite The Mysterious Benedict Society. You can view the book trailer for that book here.

I also subscribe to Anita Silvey's Children's Book-A-Day Almanac. Silvey has encyclopedic knowledge of children's books, and always provides enough background to pique my interest. I often go right from her post to our library's site to put the book on hold.

An unlikely source of book recommendations comes from a blog I use for recipes! Dinner, a Love Story has a section on kids' books that is usually pretty handy, and it includes a Q&A with David Sedaris, in which a lucky 8 year old got to ask Sedaris a few questions. Their Fave Five (updated weekly-ish) includes a rotating list of recommendations their kids are reading right now.

Sadly, some of my other favorite sites seem to have stopped posting, but their archives are worth a look: Open Wide, Look Inside is (was?) a blog about teaching elementary math, science, and social studies. Teach with Picture Books is LOADED with good recommendations. The labels along the right sidebar provide good navigation.

I hope at least one of these links leads you to a good book!

Introduction

Greetings Friends and Colleagues,

Please allow me to introduce myself as a new blogger on one of my favorite websites, Reading Rockets.

I'm a former elementary school teacher, reading specialist, editor of children's books, faculty member of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and contributor to digital projects for young children. That's a lot of careers, but when you figure that I've been an educator for several decades (let's just say that bellbottoms and love beads were part of my early teaching wardrobe — and warm sweaters, since I taught in New Hampshire), it makes more sense.

I love anything that has to do with teaching and learning, especially when it comes to struggling readers and writers. I truly believe that all children can learn and it's up to us to do whatever we can to help them succeed.

Through this blog I hope to reach out to you as teachers and parents of young children. We can think through some of the biggest questions "out there" in the digital age, given that we have no official guidebook or roadmap. The world as we known it is changing too rapidly for the research to keep up with the trends and innovations! How much screen time is okay?  Which apps have the most educational value? Is the time children spend reading a book that glows in the dark any less valuable than the time they would spend reading traditional books with you? And if it's not quite as beneficial, is it okay for children to read e-books once in a while when you're really, really busy?

Let's put our heads together and come up with a few guideposts for the educating children who some refer to as Generation Z (or Gen Z), meaning children born between 1995 and the present. (Believe it or not Gen Z is 46 million strong!) I've been thinking about this subject quite a bit lately for the book I'm coauthoring with Nicole Ponsford, an award-winning teacher in the U.K., called "TechnoTeaching: The Ultimate Guide to Taking Control of the Global Classroom." But more on that later.

For now, we'll tell of our experiences and give our own thumbs ups and thumbs down about digital tools — as well as more traditional ways to get children excited about reading and writing.

I'll start.

E-Books are great! I-Books, meaning those that are "i" for interactive, can be even better, especially if the activities deepen the plot or mood of the story. Often children can opt to have the books read aloud to them, with the text highlighted as they go. And while children can experience digital books on their own, a shared reading is so much richer. A shared reading allows you to ask "What do you think will happen next?" "What kind of a bear is a persnickety bear?" "Did anything like that ever happen to you?" Questions like these help children understand and interpret what they read, as well as give them extra practice with language. They also make reading even more fun.

What experiences have you had with children and digital books? Write back and tell us what you think!

Musings on a digital world

I'm seriously considering getting my first-ever tablet soon. Not only would I be able to travel without the heft of enough books to keep me going for a week or so, a laptop wouldn't be needed for email and I could even read my favorite newspapers.

As an adult, however, I know how easy it is to be seduced to follow a link that takes me way off whatever topic I started with; what about children who are just beginning to develop skills to stay on task?

A recent link sent to me by a friend who knows my concerns about digitizing the world in which children live and learn made me think about where we're heading. South Korea is putting the brakes on making all of their elementary, middle and high schools textbooks digital.

Where are books going? They're being offered in multiple formats — digital, physical, audio — often from the time of their release. Is one format more effective for children than another? Why? What is the impact on a child's capacity to focus; to imagine; to solve problems creatively? How do digital books impact children at different ages and stages of development?

There doesn't seem to be a great deal of consensus yet and certainly these formats haven't been around long enough for meaningful longitudinal studies.

Some are suggesting the death of the book. But it does seem that more thought and research is needed before we diminish the role of physical books.

How much is too much strategy instruction?

Teachers teach reading strategies to help with comprehension. The most common strategies teachers use are likely those found by the National Reading Panel to have enough scientific evidence to conclude that their use can improve comprehension: comprehension monitoring, graphic organizers, question answering, question generation, summarization, cooperative learning, story structure, and multiple strategy instruction.

In a recent blog post by Prof. Daniel Willingham, a UVA Professor and Cognitive Scientist at the University of Virginia, Willingham wonders whether teachers are spending too much time teaching strategies. Willingham fears the "collateral damage" of too much strategy instruction is bored kids who never get the opportunity to sink into a book (my words, not his).

Willingham reviewed the research on comprehension strategies. Research generally supports teaching children strategies. Evidence suggests that strategies are learned quickly, and can provide a short-term boost to comprehension.

But in considering how often the instruction takes away from a child's reading, Willingham asks, "How can you get lost in a narrative world if you think you're supposed to be posing questions to yourself all the time? How can a child get really absorbed in a book about ants or meteorology if she thinks that reading means pausing every now and then to anticipate what will happen next, or to question the author's purpose?"

This issue doesn't feel that different to me than problems with prereading. When thinking about effective instruction, it may be that the questions to ask are about time. How many minutes are available for instruction? How many of those minutes are used for strategy instruction (or prereading)? Is that the best use of those minutes? I'd love to hear what you think.

Fun with science and math IS possible

All too often, children hear the word math and they freeze. It just can't have pleasure associated with it nor can it possibly have anything to do real life.

Math really is everywhere but like the narrator in Jon Scieszka's funny and slightly offbeat Math Curse (Viking), fear of it can be a serious affliction. It can even impact how children perceive and school success — and eventually their career choices.

Well, this weekend in Washington, DC, there's a free event, the USA Science & Engineering Festival, devoted to engaging children and adults in the excitement and possibilities in these subjects.

There will be lots of authors talking about their books including Sean Connolly who's written The Book of Perfectly Perilous Math (Workman).

Even those who suffer from a serious math aversion will appreciate the approach of this book. It presents outrageous stories which can be solved by math. It was the step-by-step explanations that helped me understand some principles that had left me in the dark for what has been a long, long time.

Whether or not children understand all of math concepts presented doesn't seem to me as important as the pleasure presented in trying to figure out (as the book's cover declares) "24 death-defying challenges" and the fun of their fantastic, humorous stories with comic illustrations. It's a multi-pronged approach that seems likely to engage the most reluctant young mathematician.

Putting some pleasure back into science and math not only makes STEM education more fun but just may present chances for families to find positive new — and important — shared experiences.

Yuo might also want to check out Reading Rockets' Literacy in the Sciences tip sheets for parents (in English and Spanish).

More school library dreaming

I'm lucky enough to be involved with our school's library renovation project. I wrote about our first meeting here. Yesterday we met with the architects and we had a chance to see their first drafts.

We all know that school libraries are important places. A new two-phase study from Rutgers University helps us understand even more about libraries: they impact entire schools, not just test scores. School librarians are co-teachers to all teachers in the building, and they can help teachers integrate skills and content instruction. Libraries are safe, multidisciplinary learning centers where information is available to all.

That sentiment was reflected in our thinking about renovations. Beyond movable shelving units and comfortable cushions, we talked about glass walled "huddle labs" with white boards for planning, and a multimedia project room where students can pull together projects using a variety of technologies. We talked about "ambiguous furniture" that can create partitions but than can be pushed aside to create larger collaborative spaces. And also the need for smaller, cozier spaces for kids to hunker down on their own and fall into a book.

We drooled over the ideas and pictures the architects brought, and we left dreaming about how we could transform our library, including the entrance way. And don't get me started on color! There are such neat ways to think about color as a way to welcome patrons, and as a way to delineate and articulate different spaces within the library.

Then we all woke up when the building facilitator started talking about costs. And budgets. And using a phased plan. Boo-hiss! Sadly, that's the topic for our next meeting. I'll lobby hard for the PTO to get involved with fundraising, and with the administrator's help, we'll think about different allocations of money that could be used.

Want to fall in love with pictures of libraries? I've added several pictures based on yesterday's meeting. Take a look at our school library Pinterest board.

Helping parents help with homework

This week my 5th grade daughter came home with math homework that involved finding the surface area and volume of pentagonal prisms. She needed help with it, and it was really hard! It was hard because I hadn't worked problems like those for years, and even when I did, I'm not sure how easily I did it. We got through the homework okay (after a looooooong time and several Google searches) but the experience made me think about ways teachers can help parents help with homework.

I've written about homework before here and here. It's tough to be a Mom, an educator, and a blogger without confronting the H word!

One way teachers can help parents help with homework is by encouraging parents to ask questions that encourage thinking about the problem. Rather than being able to solve the problem themselves, parents help their child think through the problem and make a plan for solving it.

A teacher once shared with me a helpful handout on this topic, called Parents as Questioners. The handout describes questions parents should use freely and sparingly, as well as questions to avoid when helping their child think about a homework assignment.

Parents are encouraged to use freely any questions that will help students think about the way they are tackling the problem. These include: What makes sense so far? Is there another way to think about it? Is this like any other problem that you have worked on in any way?

Questions to use sparingly include How might you organize this? Have you tried smaller cases? Can you see any patterns?

Questions or hints to avoid include: That's not quite what I had in mind….Explore it like this….No, you should….

Some of the "use freely" questions may have helped us this week as we worked through pentagonal prisms. I could have guided Molly's thinking by asking her to think about what she's done with rectangular prisms, and how the current problems relate to that. That may have winded us around and gotten us closer in solving the problems.

Take a look at the suggestions on the Parents as Questioners PDF and let me know if you think that would be helpful to the parents you work with!

Beyond Earth Day

A friend of my son and I were talking about a high school course he's taking on environmental science. He said that it wasn't as much about saving the planet as it was saving people.

I thought about what he'd said and I agree — at least in general.

Where does respect for the environment and people begin? When children are very young. My son's interest in observing backyard birds started when he built a small birdhouse as a 6-year old Cub Scout and continues to this day.

I was reminded again of this when I read a recent picture book biography entitled Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle (Farrar) by Clair Nivola.

Earle's devotion to the outdoors started early on as a young child living in New Jersey. When she was 12, her family moved to the Gulf coast of Florida where her mother is quoted as saying "that Sylvia 'lost her heart to the water.'" Sylvia's wonder becomes the reader's wonder as they examine this handsomely illustrated, beautifully told, and well researched look at one person's life in and near the ocean. And like Sylvia Earle, the more we know, the more we'll want to learn, and the greater care we'll take of this beautiful resource.

There are a number of books that are likely to generate interest, inspiration, enthusiasm to last beyond Earth Day. Who knows what wonders will start with a child's sparked imagination?

April celebrations

April is a month full of promise. The sun feels warmer, the days are longer, and there are celebrations galore.

100 years ago, the people of Japan gave cherry trees to the people of the United States. The centennial year of this gift is celebrated with events in Washington, DC all month long during the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

April is National Poetry Month and Keep America Beautiful Month.

Families and teachers can find out about these and other April celebrations through books and information and other resources. And where better to find them but at the library?

And of course, April being a month of promise holds special festivities for libraries.

It is School Library Month. Interestingly, the theme of its first national observance in 1985 was "Where Learning Never Ends: The School Library Media Center." That statement really applies to all libraries but especially important to families: the public library.

Notably, this week is also National Library Week which celebrates books, reading, libraries, and more.

Making libraries part of every celebration is sure to keep April magic going long beyond the 30th!

Fun ideas for parents on Pinterest

I'm off for a quick Spring break this week, but I thought I'd recommend stopping by our Ideas for Parents board on Pinterest. Frankly, all our boards are so much fun! If you haven't started your Pinterest addiction, your Spring break may be a perfect time to check it out.

Our Ideas for Parents board has some cool literacy-based ideas like magic message bananas, a very sweet hungry caterpillar hand print, and a graphing idea with colored eggs — but there's a lot more too.

Enjoy your week!

Authors are real!

When I was growing up, I thought that all authors had to be dead and gone to have a book published. That misconception has quite happily been dispelled. I've even gotten to know some published authors, all of them quite alive and well. Many of these authors enjoy hearing from their readers.

One kindergarten class recently read books by Kevin Henkes and learned more about him. I'm sure that these children and their creative teacher discovered that Kevin won the Caldecott for Kitten's First Full Moon; that it looks different than his other books like Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse or even his newest, Penny and Her Song (all Greenwillow) — and lots more.

Their teacher, Laura Caplan, keeps parents informed of classroom activities through regular correspondence.

Here, Ms. Caplan shares one of the "Bright Spots:"

"Earlier in the year, we did an author study of Kevin Henkes and learned about his writing and artistic style. During our exploration of cities, our class created our own city, Gan Shemeshville. The class did research in Dupont Circle and saw that there are statues of important people located in roundabouts. As a result, the class decided to create a statue of Kevin Henkes in a roundabout in Gan Shemeshville. The class insisted that we write him a letter to inform him of our work and show him a picture of his statue. A week later, we received a personalized thank you letter from Kevin Henkes and a signed copy of his newest book that wasn't published until days after he sent it to us in the mail. This has been a thrilling experience for our class to reach out to a beloved author and hear that he appreciates our hard work."

Because of the thoughtfulness, creativity and concern of an inspired early childhood educator and a remarkable author, a group of kindergarten children are on the road to becoming lifelong readers and writers. That's something to celebrate.

My guess is that the children's statue of Kevin Henkes will be put in a place of honor — Ms. Caplan was going to the post office today to mail it; maybe next to his Caldecott Medal.

Learning more about learning disabilities

All of us who have worked with young children have worked with kids who struggle. Many of us have worked directly with kids with learning disabilities (LD). PBS NewsHour is putting together a terrific series about kids with LD as part of the American Graduate project. I encourage you to read, watch and share! Among the resources:

Despite a wealth of information about causes, prevalence, and effective interventions for kids with LD, many misconceptions continue to linger. Five misconceptions about learning disabilities addresses issues such as what is LD? What isn't? Whether learning disabilities are easily diagnosed, the relationship between IQ and LD, prevalence numbers, and whether LD lasts a lifetime.

Engaging students with learning issues early on highlights an elementary school with a technology and arts focus to their early intervention. Dr. Tom Hehir from the Harvard Graduate School of Education provides context for the challenges of keeping kids in school and engaged in the educational process.

Read advice for parents of children with learning disabilities from Daniel Paris, a graduate student at Harvard who first dropped out of high school and was later diagnosed with LD and ADHD. His advice (be patient, resilient, understanding, and never lower your expectations for your child) is good for all parents!

Looks like a good series on an important topic.

What books do best

Books entertain, educate, inform, engage, and more — more than we may realize. Readers meet others and see themselves in them. They may feel validated, see change, or may be changed by a book.

A recent piece by Katia Hetter exploring how children's books help families explore diversity brought this home for me.

Each of the mentioned in this article has withstood the test of time; many of these books help adults tackle difficult ideas, share them, with their children and allow children to see themselves in story.

I think that the range of books may also teach something to adults, helping them figure out what withstands the test of time and multiple readings as well as how books in which story comes first convey often touchy themes or ideas effectively. Readers — regardless of age — are engaged readers.

I may never again read any version of the folktale, "Bremen Town Musicians" — a favorite of my son when he was very young, read literally hundreds of times — with no skipping parts allowed. There are others, however, that held up well — and which we still quote and produced shared experiences to this day.

Farmer Duck is rightfully relieved of his grueling duties and of a slothful human. Ferdinand the Bull is different — but comfortable in his own skin. Max is still loved even though he gets angry. Sylvester is reunited with his parents who never give up. Strega Nona's wisdom can clean up even Big Anthony's mess. And no matter how bad today may be, there's the promise of tomorrow as Alexander figures out.

Books shared often are those in which children may most readily see themselves, their families, and their feelings. They are also the ones that can be happily shared again and again.

Sharing science with your youngest learners

I recently read a post about providing opportunities to connect families with their child's education that I really liked. Peggy Ashbrook's post Involving families in early childhood science education from the NSTA Blog provides several ideas and resources for getting parents together with a focus on science. I've listed a few of my favorites here, plus a few others.

Family Science offers a few free sample activities that can be done at home, including Wet Surfaces and Charge It, a racing activity that explores the push and pull properties of static electricity.

Peep and the Big Wide World from WGBH is a fun online way to teach science to preschoolers. You can watch a video, play games, and do a related activity all based in age-appropriate science concepts. The videos are narrated by Joan Cusack.

Bring Science Home from Scientific American features a series of science-related activities. These activities, designed for six-to 12-year olds, include instructions, material lists, and necessary background information.

TLC's How Stuff Works offers up a fairly lengthy list of science projects for kids including sugar crystals on a string and soda pop in a balloon. It looks like there are some fun activities here!

A love of science can begin at an early age. Hopefully some of these resources can get you and your child thinking and talking about science!

Beyond cookies

I was one. So was my sister. We did lots of things in Girl Scouts, but what I remember most is summer day camp and selling cookies — door to door — and having a good time with other kids. I don't remember being taught anything specifically, though I learned a lot. We were part of a Girl Scout troop where learning was engaging and part of all activities.

As I listened to the radio today, I found out that Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, and Lucille Ball were once Girl Scouts, too. (Each of these women clearly took the Girl Scout motto "Be prepared" to heart!)

The very first meeting of an American troop of Girl Scouts was held in March 2012 headed by Juliette Gordon Low. Juliette Low, nicknamed "Daisy," was a spunky girl, well ahead of her time. Who would have thought that her organization, established before women could even vote, would still be in existence — and seemingly thriving — a century later; perhaps because it took on the characteristics of its founder.

Readers interested in Juliet Low can meet her in a new picture book biography by Shana Corey. Here Come the Girl Scouts!: The Amazing All-True Story of Juliette 'Daisy' Gordon Low and Her Great Adventure (Scholastic) with lively illustrations by Hadley Hooper, presents Daisy and her lively personality, often through Daisy's own words.

For older, more sophisticated readers, there's First Girl Scout: The Life of Juliette Gordon Low (Clarion) by Ginger Wadsworth, a highly readable, well researched look at Low and the early Girl Scouts.

It's a terrific anniversary to note, especially during Women's History Month. Who knows... maybe a Girl Scout of today will be tomorrow's Secretary of State. She might even become U.S. President. After all, when one is ever-ready, anything is possible.