Education
Acquiring Reading Strategies: What Parents Can Do to Boost Student Success
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Sep 1, 2005, 00:56

(ARA) - With students’ achievements now firmly tied to high-stakes testing, it is more important than ever for parents to help motivate their children to read, not just during the summer break but all year long. Reading strategies allow kids to understand their textbooks, complete homework and even follow test directions properly. By understanding the individual reading strategies a child needs to learn, and becoming an active participant in acquiring these skills, parents can help pave the way for ongoing academic success.
Research shows "the importance of the role parents play in providing children with early language and literacy experiences that foster reading development ."(Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) (2001). Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read. Jessup, MD: National Institute for Literacy at ED Pubs).

National standards are a good place to start in understanding the skills each child needs to acquire at a given age. The International Reading Association (IRA) Web site lists the standards for English language arts developed by both the IRA and the National Council of Teachers of English. Visit the Web site at www.reading.org and type the keywords “language arts standards” into the search box. Parents can also use free resources, such as those found on Curriculum Associates’ Web site (www.curriculumassociates.com) to view detailed reading skills as described in Curriculum Associates’ program STARS (Strategies to Achieve Reading Success) and to download sample activities.

Also, request that your school use a reading assessment in the beginning of the year and communicate the assessment results to you. Traditionally at-risk students have been tested in reading by a diagnostician. Today a three-step approach within the classroom is possible -- and recommended -- empowering the teacher to differentiate instruction for ALL students:

1. Assess to identify the strategies students have mastered, and those needing to be reinforced.

2. Tailor instruction to teach or strengthen strategies based on students’ individual needs.

3. Re-assess to measure progress and plan the next instructional steps. This method guides students through their trouble spots and is effective in producing successful readers.

An example of this approach was used in Sky Ranch Elementary School in Oklahoma City, OK. Teachers used the three-step process with 69 students in grade five. The students not only gained an average of two grade levels in one school year, but the school also had a 90 percent passing rate on the state’s PASS (Priority Academic Student Skills) test, earning it the rank of second highest among 20 district elementary schools.

Kids love doing activities with their parents, so you can help them improve their reading skills at home by visiting the library and joining them in reading or discussing the books they choose. Since different types of text are read in different ways, encourage your children to read a variety of genres: biographies, folk tales, poems, articles and so on.

Knowing what words mean does not necessarily lead to actual comprehension of the text, so keep in mind 14 key strategies for reading comprehension:

* Finding the main idea

* Recalling facts and details

* Understanding sequence

* Recognizing cause and effect

* Comparing and contrasting

* Making predictions

* Finding the meaning of words through context

* Drawing conclusions and making inferences

* Distinguishing between fact and opinion

* Identifying author’s purpose

* Interpreting figurative language

* Reading pictures (grades 1-2)

* Distinguishing between real and make-believe (grades 3-4)

* Summarizing (grades 4-8)

"Research indicates that effective or expert readers are strategic. This means that they have purposes for their reading and adjust their reading to each purpose and for each reading task. Strategic readers use a variety of strategies and skills as they construct meaning."(Paris, S.G., Wasik, B.A. & Turner, J. C. (1991). The development of strategic readers. In R. Barr, M.L.Kamil, P. Mosenthal, & P.D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 2, pp. 609-640). New York: Longman).

Help your child practice these strategies by asking them questions. For example, to help them find the main idea of a piece, ask them “What was the poem/story mostly about?” Or, to have your child examine cause and effect, ask “What happened and why?” You can also have your child retell the story in terms of chronological events or as a summary.

When you’re asking reading comprehension questions, use short reading passages as your material so that your child can concentrate on the strategy rather than the text or unfamiliar words. As kids use the strategies, explain why their answers are correct or incorrect so that they get a better understanding of what they are doing.

You can also help children improve their strategy skills through “think alouds.” That simply means you verbally walk through the process that you used to arrive at the answer. For example, to model prediction, you could say, “I think this book will be about a frog who has dinner because the title is ‘Froggy Eats Out.’” When your child seems comfortable with the process, have them do their own think alouds.

By understanding what is required of young readers and how to help, you’ll arm yourself with the information needed to enable kids to overcome learning pitfalls and gain confidence and success.
Courtesy of ARA Content

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