Okay, I'm taking a literacy course as part of my teacher education. I have sort of a quick interview for any one here with kids - no matter how old they are. I guess just pick one kid for these questions unless you want to do extra work! If no one wants to do this, I understand. It would help a lot with a project I'm working on even if just one or two people could answer these questions. 1. How old was your child when he/she started reading independently? 2. Could your child read before Kindergarten? If so, what did you do to help your child learn to read? 3. Did any particular teacher (don't name anyone) help your child the most in learning to read? If so, what strategies did she/he use to teach literacy (that you know of)? 4. Does your child struggle or has your child ever struggled with reading? If so, what or who helped them the most? 5. Do you ever (or have you ever) encouraged your child to read (other than for school assignments)?
Hi, I was posting on our own poll and thought I'd try to help you with your assignment as well. Especially since I am a crazymom2crazyboys (one in early elementary, the other in college: like I said "crazy".) So I can post 2 different views as they are "opposite scenerios" and I'll label the older child (A) and the youngest Child (B). Hope this helps!
1. How old was your child when he/she started reading independently? Kindergarten 2. Could your child read before Kindergarten? If so, what did you do to help your child learn to read? He could recite his favorite books that I read to him before Kindergarten. He could pick out his name and very few words in his favorite books. But I wouldn't call that reading. 3. Did any particular teacher (don't name anyone) help your child the most in learning to read? If so, what strategies did she/he use to teach literacy (that you know of)? His first grade teacher was THE BOMB! He didn't retain what he should have over the summer between K & 1st and was a few steps behind when he started off last year. She used sight word drills, silly/nonsense sentence drills, word games, and a host of other resources in school. 4. Does your child struggle or has your child ever struggled with reading? If so, what or who helped them the most? Yes, see above. Good teachers make a difference. (**They need more pay!**) 5. Do you ever (or have you ever) encouraged your child to read (other than for school assignments)? Yes, constantly!
1. How old was your child when he/she started reading independently? She was reading in Kindergarten, but was able to read early reader books independently at age 6. She's 7 now (2nd grade) and does really well with the early readers and some of the larger early reader chapter books. 2. Could your child read before Kindergarten? If so, what did you do to help your child learn to read? She had sight words, and of course knew her name and address, but was not able to read per-se. Most of what she knew was either from practice (name/address) or from us reading with her. We read a lot in our house and each of our kids has tons of books. 3. Did any particular teacher (don't name anyone) help your child the most in learning to read? If so, what strategies did she/he use to teach literacy (that you know of)? No 4. Does your child struggle or has your child ever struggled with reading? If so, what or who helped them the most? Our biggest struggle was with learning new words. They're teaching the kids "sight words" in school, but not the old method of sounding things out. So that helps her if she knows the word 'goat' and sees the word 'coat' for the first time, but not if she sees the word 'under' for the first time. So we spent a lot of time at home working on sounding words out, and that made a huge difference. She now does really well with both her sight words and sounding out new words. 5. Do you ever (or have you ever) encouraged your child to read (other than for school assignments)? School requires that she read at least 15 minutes each evening, Monday through Thursday. We require that she read at least 30 minutes every night of the week, and I encourage her on the weekends to read even more. She's been doing really well reading to her 3 year old brother on the weekends, which I think helps even if he chooses really simple baby books. I'm a huge believer that reading a lot outside of school has a big impact on how well you test and in picking up new concepts.
1. Probably about four with simplistic words. 2. Yes. He was exposed to several LeapFrog-type electronics, including the Leap Pad, which I think helped a lot. 3. I think it is the curriculum more so than an individual teacher, although our son bonded well with his kindergarten and his first grade teacher, which helped a lot. A good teacher-student relationship is so critical. 4. Early on, I think he was limited some due to undiscovered nearsightedness. He would get frustrated reading at times. Now, he reads very well for his age, sounding out specials sounds and blends to do a pretty good job of pronouncing words I would figure he'd have a tough time with. He is actually leading his class in the number of books read at home for the year. He struggles with some words, but most of them would probably be considered above his reading level. Yet, he still manages to get more words correct than those he gets wrong. 5. Admittedly, not as much as my wife. However, he likes to read. He has a very creative imagination and books draws that out. He even pretends to read aloud his own story books.
Woo - hooo! Thanks people for taking up your precious time answering these questions!!! :grouphug: You have helped me so much!
