New York City and I work with Kindergarteners through 3rd graders on Reading, Word Study,

and Writing Skills. In addition to be a reading specialist and learning specialist, I'm also

a parent and today I'm going to talk to you about topics in reading.

Reading with your child is an important time that should occur, almost every single day

if possible. For younger children, the best books to read are picture books that you can,

start and finish within ten or fifteen minutes, that have, great illustrations that support

the narrative structure of the story.

For older children you might be interested in more of a chapter book format, I find that

my children love, Beverly Cleary, we've been reading the Ramona and Beezus series at home

and they absolutely love it. The great thing about reading aloud to your children is that

you can access literature that is of interest to your child, but might be beyond an independent

reading level. In other words, your child will be ready to hear stories like Treasure

Island, way before he can actually read them to himself. So when doing so, read to your

child with an animated voice, acting out the characters voices and then also start modeling

for him, some of the comprehension skills, that he'll be responsible for in school and

going forward in life. Such as stop and reflect, and say " oh this book really reminds me of

that other book we read" or " I wonder what that character is going to do and " this is

a real predicament, I wonder how he'll solve this problem".

You can generate predictions together about what might happen in the story, and really

start talking about the characters and making connections from that text, to your personal

life, to the world around you, and also to test that you have shared together prior to

that. Reading together is also a wonderful opportunity to spend some time together and

bonding. It's usually more calm time then other periods during the day and that emotional

components of learning is always what provides the best reinforcement for a love of reading.