How can you help your child become a reader and writer?
- READ! Read often. Read aloud. Read silently. Read books. Read short stories. Read poems. Read cookbooks. Read letters. Read greeting cards. Get the idea? Read, read, read, and read some more!
- Provide Writing Materials! Provide plenty of writing materials paper of all kinds, colors, textures, and sizes, pens, pencils, felt tip pens, post-its. Whatever will invite your student writer to explore writing in original, colorful ways.
- Take Turns! Be the reader sometimes. Other times, let your child read aloud to you. Reading aloud builds comprehension skills, a sense of voice, and much more.
- Write Notes! A personal note – just a few words – tucked in a lunch box or left under a pillow can be a wonderful surprise. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a response. Writing doesn’t always have to be BIG.
- Reader's Theater! Read a play or any book that lends itself to two voices. Your young writer will soon have an “ear” for sentence fluency.
-Browse! Discover the fine art of browsing at the local bookstore or the library. Look at books, handle books, read pieces from books. What is it about this book that intrigues you? An opening sentence? The layout (organization)? The title?
- Be a Writer Yourself! You don’t have to be writing a novel to teach valuable writing strategies – a simple grocery list hold a dozen potential lessons on word choice, organization, and conventions.
- Reading Corner! Where you read can be almost as important as what you read. In school, children usually must read sitting straight up in hard unforgiving chairs. But most of us, given a choice, would prefer to curl up on the sofa or a favorite chair. A love of reading will lead to a love of writing!
- Share! Do you write as part of your job? Letters? Memos? Reports? Evaluations? Advertising or promotional materials? Directions? Almost everyone in every occupation writes something. Share some of your work related writing with your student writer.
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