READ, READ, READ!
Reading skills are developed no matter what language is spoken at home, as long as children are engaged in active reading activities. The broader their experiences are with families and friends, the more connections they will also have to assist them with expressing themselves and reading new materials.
"While developing oral language is a natural process, learning to read is not. Children must be taught to understand, interpret, and manipulate the printed symbols of written language. This is an essential task of the first few years of school children gain a definite advantage when they are given opportunities to engage in purposeful oral language and early print activities.
These activities include:
• observing others reading
• enjoying and discussing a variety of books that are read aloud by others
• experiencing and pretending to read predictable and familiar books, alphabet books, poems, rhymes, and more
• acting out stories, retelling familiar stories, and singing songs
• sharing experiences with adults and talking about those experiences
• observing print in the environment and connecting print with spoken words and their meaning
According to research, the knowledge and skills that children need in order to read with fluency and comprehension include: oral language; prior knowledge and experience; concepts about print; phonemic awareness; letter-sound relationships; vocabulary; semantics and syntax; metacognition; and higher-order thinking skills.
These are not isolated concepts taught in a lock-step sequence; they are interrelated components that support and build on each other.
It is important to remember that, although some children who speak a first language or dialect that is different from the language of instruction may begin school with a limited vocabulary in the language of instruction, they may have strong conceptual knowledge and a rich language foundation on which to build fluency and comprehension in their new language. The key for these children is to provide support for building strong bridges from the known to the new."
"While developing oral language is a natural process, learning to read is not. Children must be taught to understand, interpret, and manipulate the printed symbols of written language. This is an essential task of the first few years of school children gain a definite advantage when they are given opportunities to engage in purposeful oral language and early print activities.
These activities include:
• observing others reading
• enjoying and discussing a variety of books that are read aloud by others
• experiencing and pretending to read predictable and familiar books, alphabet books, poems, rhymes, and more
• acting out stories, retelling familiar stories, and singing songs
• sharing experiences with adults and talking about those experiences
• observing print in the environment and connecting print with spoken words and their meaning
According to research, the knowledge and skills that children need in order to read with fluency and comprehension include: oral language; prior knowledge and experience; concepts about print; phonemic awareness; letter-sound relationships; vocabulary; semantics and syntax; metacognition; and higher-order thinking skills.
These are not isolated concepts taught in a lock-step sequence; they are interrelated components that support and build on each other.
It is important to remember that, although some children who speak a first language or dialect that is different from the language of instruction may begin school with a limited vocabulary in the language of instruction, they may have strong conceptual knowledge and a rich language foundation on which to build fluency and comprehension in their new language. The key for these children is to provide support for building strong bridges from the known to the new."
Source - Early Reading Strategy, The Report of the Expert Panel of Early Reading in Ontario, pp. 7-26 (2003)
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/reading/reading.pdf
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/reading/reading.pdf
Helping Your Child with Reading and Writing - A Guide for Parents (Ministry of Education - Ontario)
Tips to develop great readers:
- Read with your children at least once every day, and in any language.
- Take a trip to the library to find new reading material.
- Let your children pick the topics and the books.
- Both fiction and non-fiction are great to read, this includes graphic novels and magazines.
- Keep the books at their level.
- Give positive feedback when they are reading.
- Let your children read aloud to you, even if you are busy in the kitchen.
- Explore your community and do things with your children to build their background knowledge and vocabulary, and to give them a basis for understanding what they read.
- Tell stories. It's a fun way to teach values, pass on family history, and build your children's listening and critical thinking skills.
- Be a reading role model. Let your children see you read, and share some interesting things with them that you have read about in books, newspapers, or magazines.