Tag Archives: reading

5 Ways Parents Can Encourage a Reluctant Reader

Once a child has the motivation to learn to read, you as a parent are in the clear. Sometimes a reluctant reader might need a little nudge to discover the brave new world offered by reading. Here are some suggestions.

1. Let your child choose his or her own books at the library. If your child chooses Captain Underpants, swallow your pride and check out that book. A child who falls in love with reading will most likely continue to enjoy it for many years to come.

2. At the library, you should choose a few books for your child as well. Do a little research ahead of time or ask your librarian for suggestions that respect your child’s ability and interests.

3. Model nuanced reading for your child. Release your inner actor and read with gusto! New readers are so consumed with sounded words out and learning new vocabulary that they often lose track of the story.

4. Read aloud together. Reading together is a wonderful social activity at any age. You and your child share the experience and can discuss or refer back to it later.

5. Encourage your reluctant reader with positive feedback. Given the right reasons, every child can be excited about reading–and writing too. Let your child’s interests lead the way.

[photo by saundraG via flickr]

Posted by WITS Houston. Categories: books, education, homeschooling, parenting, student. Tags: Captain Underpants, how to, parenting, reading. 2 Comments

May. ’11

Writing is Like… Inspiration from a Third Grade Classroom

There’s a point when all WITS teacher learn to believe in magic. It usually happens when you’re not expecting it—you’re shuffling lessons around TAKS testing, tending to paper cuts and fire drills, repeating “Five more minutes, just five more minutes of quiet writing time, and then we’ll share…”—then you happen upon a moment of stillness and see it: an entire room full of young minds scribbling as quickly as they can. They are writing and loving to write. Moments like these are perfect, infinite, and astonishing.

This school year, I was blessed with one third-grade class that was magical from the start. On my first day, one student waved me over. “Ms. Becca,” she said, “I’m a poet!” The boy next to her leaned in and earnestly confided, “Me too. I feel it in my soul.”

The passion for writing spread wildly throughout my visits. If any students in that room were doubtful, it wasn’t long before they were infected with the “Poetry-in-the-Soul” virus, too. Writing prompts were met with hushed anticipation and riotous cheers. Sharing time took on the extravagance of Grammy performances or Nobel Prize speeches. Students even asked for extra WITS homework. “I was working on a story last night,” they’d tell me. “You have to read it.”

To my utter disappointment, my time with this magic classroom is nearing its end. I find myself thinking If only I could bottle the energy in the room! and What is it that makes an entire class love writing so much? I had no idea, so I thought I’d ask the experts themselves. And so, I posed the question: “Why do you love to write? What is writing like to you?” The students answered (as any illustrious writer might do) in similes and metaphors. I’ve shared a few of my favorites below.

Thoughts On Writing
(by some of my favorite third-grade creative geniuses in Houston, Texas)

“Writing is like swimming in an ocean of words. It is a fun way to express your feelings. There are so many things to write about.” –Caleb

“Writing is like you’re using vision inside your head.” –Trenton

“Writing is like a rainbow after a storm. When I get sad, I write. It flows with nice music.” –Braelon

“Writing is like your head is exploding. It’s like it’s raining money. It’s like thunder. It’s like flying in space.” –Demarcus

“Writing is like living inside of a book.” –Jaya

“Writing is like floating in a pit of clouds. Writing is like flying with birds.” –Jeremiah

“Writing is like an ocean tide that never ends.” – Jemarcus

“Writing is like me on a Saturday morning, when I am just relaxing in my bed on the laptop computer. When I type the first word, my head clears all my troubles.” –Rhemi

“Writing is like eating Pay Days. They have peanuts that make me nutty, and my nuttiness drags along the paper when I write.” –Jazmine

“Writing is like water—it flows from my head to my hand and onto my paper. Just my pencil, my paper, and me.” –Jade

“Writing is like making a life out of words. Use your imagination to do the work. Use your words to feel (snap snap).” –Keshau [Note: the “snap snap” is Keshau mimicking the applause of Beat poets.]

“Writing is like a clock flowing through a mind with good sounds. Tick tock…” –Venerick

“Writing is like a feather that falls from above. It is a beautiful thing—to hear the words, to touch the paper. It is as beautiful as the sunset.” –Shelbi

“Writing is like an eruption of imagination. Like daydreaming on paper. With writing, you have to be creative.” –Caleb

“Writing is like you are flowing. When you write with your hand, it is just like your hand flows with the pencil.” –Kamille

“Writing is like a powerful storm that blows you away with words.” –Tianna

By Rebecca Wadlinger, Writers in the Schools

Posted by jrwatson5. Categories: creativity, education, inspiration, student, teaching, writers in the schools, writing, writing prompts. Tags: literacy, reading. Leave a comment

Jan. ’11

Reading Inside

I remember reading inside the cool living room on a hot summer day,
With my mom cutting fresh lettuce for dinner tonight,
With my grandmother humming an old song like a radio.
I remember reading inside the cool living room on a hot summer day,
With hundreds and hundreds of feet of damp grass in front of my eyes,
With the smooth eaves shaking as a light breeze blows, dancing on the wonderful stage.
I remember reading inside the cool living room on a hot summer day,
With my cousin playing a beautiful piano song,
With my mind calming down and my heart full of peace.
I feel there’s something around me, like a color.
Did you notice?

By Ashley, 6th grade

Photo by Chiot’s Run via Flickr

Posted by jrwatson5. Categories: books, family, memory, mother, place. Tags: book poem, reading, reading poem, summer. Leave a comment

Sep. ’10

Fiddle-i-fee Story Basket Lesson

Cover of Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee

Grade level: Kindergarten – 1^st

Genre: various

Objectives: To involve the students in listen to a story read aloud

Primary sources: Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee by Paul Galdone

Materials: a basket with small stuffed animal characters from the book Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee

Contributors: Brooke Brown, Linda Draper

This story basket activity ensures the active participation of all students in listening to a book read aloud. Originally used with Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee, it can easily be adapted to any book by printing and laminating images of the story’s characters. Additionally, the students could make representations of the characters in the book as a pre-reading, art project.

Have the students sit in a circle on the floor with the “story basket” in the center which contains characters and farm animals from the book. The students should each take one animal from the story basket as the book is read aloud, listen for the appropriate time to place their character back in the basket.

Posted by WITS Houston. Categories: animal, art, creativity, imagination, Lesson plan, writers in the schools, writing prompts. Tags: Arts, characters, Educational stage, Kindergarten, Literature, Paul Galdone, reading, student, Stuffed toy. Leave a comment

Jun. ’10

René Saldaña, Jr. will read Sunday, June 27th

Straight from the Inprint press release:

Cool Brains! Inprint Readings for Young People celebrates summer reading with a presentation by bilingual children’s writer René Saldaña, Jr., on Sunday, June 27, 3 p.m. (doors open at 2:30) at Talento Bilingue de Houston, 333 S. Jensen Drive. Admission is free and open to the public. Saldaña will read from and talk about his work, followed by an onstage interview with mystery book aficionado David Thompson of Murder By The Book. Audience members will have a chance to visit with the author afterwards at the book sale and signing.

For more information, click here, or call 713-521-2026.

René Saldaña, Jr., grew up in Nuevo Peñitas in the Rio Grande Valley. His semi-autobiographical first novel for young readers, The Jumping Tree, was described by The New York Times Book Review as a “warm coming-of-age novel.” His second book, The Whole Sky Full of Stars, is, according to a starred Booklist review, “about the perils of friendship and the burdens of parental expectations.” Saldaña is also the author of Finding Our Way: Stories, which explores the many ways teens can feel lost. School Library Journal says, “With a deft touch, the author creates a clear, concise picture of time and place (along the Texas border or Georgia) with characters who sound and think like today’s teens . . . These powerfully written, provocative selections have universal appeal.”

Saldaña will read from his newest book, The Case of the Pen Gone Missing: A Mickey Rangel Mystery / El caso de la pluma perdida. A longtime fan of Encyclopedia Brown, the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew detective stories, in this book Saldaña develops his own spin on detective stories through the character of Mickey Rangel, a web-licensed kid detective protagonist. Kirkus Reviews writes of the book: “it will engage intermediate readers in both languages, English and Spanish, and offers multiple possibilities for school projects, group discussions and read-aloud sessions.” The Case of the Pen Gone Missing is the first in this bilingual series.

Posted by jrwatson5. Categories: books, education, fiction, Houston, Spanish, story, student, writers in the schools. Tags: Cool Brains, Inprint, mystery, novel, reading, Rene Saldana, Talento Bilingue de Houston. Leave a comment

Jan. ’08

On Meaning

A few years ago I saw an author speak an Houston. During her talk, she spoke about a friend of hers who had passed away. Her concern was moving; she didn’t need to memorialize her friend, yet she freely chose to honor her with her speech. However, her execution wasn’t perfect. If her testimonial had been a service, complete with instruments, then a couple of the musicians sounded jarringly out of tune. There was an edge to her stories; some of them portrayed her friend in an unflattering light. At first I thought it might just be me, but a friend who had also been in attendance that night later confirmed my impression. We agreed that the author’s words had a double meaning, in which the edges of her speech cut against the grain.

It’s true of the literature we read, too. Our writing has unintended effects; it can reveal more about us than we meant to show, or speak in tones we would’ve preferred to hide. Sometimes, it can even make our work better.

I often begin the school year with an exercise where I ask the children to write about themselves. When children are asked to tell their personal history, they will often adopt a clipped, deadpan, almost clinical tone. They are recounting events that to them seem mundane, even boring; they have long since merged with the wallpaper of their lives. When we teachers read them, however, the details often leap out and grab us by the throat. Some children have experienced losses that are truly tragic; after reading their stories, their ordinary difficulties in the classroom seem trivial by comparison.

Even when we, as authors, think we can predict the effect of our writing, the example of those children shows us that readers will often glean meaning we didn’t know was there.

posted by Julian Martinez, Writers in the Schools

Posted by julianeon. Categories: essay, memory, writer, writing. Tags: reading, teaching, writing. Leave a comment

Jan. ’08

Three favorite books to inspire young writers

Good reading makes for good writing! Here are three books I love to bring into the classroom to engage young writers’ imaginations.

If by Sarah Perry, is a simple text with fantastic illustrations. Using ideas such as “If cats could fly…” and “If leaves were fish…” the book asks its readers to use their imaginations to ponder the possibilities of small changes to the world we know. These ideas are a great jumping-off point for young writers. I like to ask them to write stories about one day when they wake up to find one small thing has changed about the world, and the big differences that one small change can make.

My Map Book by Sara Fanelli is a collection of surprising maps drawn with a childlike sense of the world. Using the concept of “map” rather loosely, Fanelli shows us not only maps of her neighborhood and her room, but also maps of her family, her tummy, and imaginary places. Young writers like to draw their own maps in response to this book; these maps help them focus on an idea for writing about aspects of their lives.

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox is the story of a boy who tries to find out what “memory” is so that he can help his friend, an elderly woman, who he hears has lost hers. After being told that a memory is “something warm,” “something that makes you laugh,” “something that makes you cry,” “something from long ago,” and “something as precious as gold,” he assembles a box full of items that he hopes will fit the bill. I ask my young writers to create their own “memory boxes” that are filled with short memoirs about an item they have that fills each category. This helps them see how even small objects can contain and represent powerful memories and emotions.

There are so many wonderful children’s books out there that can inspire writers at all levels. What are your favorite children’s books, and how have they inspired you?