The following Parent Activities and Teacher Activities are designed to help children develop a love of books and an appreciation for reading.

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1 A second grade teacher that I know celebrates Author Days with her class. During this time, each child dresses up as his/her favorite story character and tells the story of the book from this character's point of view. Following this celebration, she reported her disappointment that a number of the children reported on movies that they had seen; they did not read the book. The children that are described in the previous paragraph are reluctant readers---they can read but they choose not to read. Many of them work overtime to avoid reading. Reluctant readers, as a rule, have never discovered a book, an author, or a type of literature that they enjoy reading. For many of them, reading is ONLY answering questions, taking tests, sounding out words, or completing worksheets. You can help them discover the fun part of reading! And, in the process, you help them develop as readers-- -their reading habits, their reading processes, and their reading skills! ResearchBit: Children become good readers by actually reading. Reluctant readers are likely to fall behind in their reading development because they don't read. The following Parent Activities and Teacher Activities are designed to help children develop a love of books and an appreciation for reading. Parent Activities 1. Set-up a family library or a children's library. Let your children choose the children's books to include. 2. Give children's books as gifts. Pop-up books, flap books, and read-alongs (books with audio cassettes) provide good reading fun. Books that come with toys, stuffed animals, dolls, or kits extend the reading time into play time! 3. Establish a family silent reading time. Make this an important family routine; this lets children see their parents reading, helps them understand that their parents value reading, and provides a quiet time to enjoy books and family. 4. Visit the library and check-out books on a regular basis. Go to bookstore and library story times.

2 5. Read to children (before they can read for themselves and after they've learned to read). Let them delight in the story and language while you read to them. Help children discover different authors, topics, genre, and forms of writing that they might enjoy. Read the first book of a series; if the child enjoys it, s/he might want to read other books in the series. Read fun poetry with your children; read it together and giggle together! Some titles of fun poetry books are provided below. 6. Help your child find books related to his/her interests and hobbies. These books will be more motivating and interesting for them (because they are already interested). 7. Subscribe to a children's magazine (in your child's name) related to his/her interests. Children love to receive mail. This is mail they'll look forward to every month! 8. Help your child locate books with characters that are his/her age or in his/her grade in school. LearningTip #12 includes a list of books about children in each elementary school grade. Reading is much more enjoyable when children can relate to story characters. 9. Allow children to choose their own books. Allow them to read easy books (below their reading level). Some children will enjoy read-along audio cassettes. Initially, it is important for reluctant readers to spend time simply enjoying books. 10. Have your child keep a record of his/her reading. For every book that s/he reads, they can write the title on a balloon shape, a kite shape, or some other shape (related to the child's interests) that is posted on his/her bedroom door. Watching the number of balloons or kites grow can be very motivating for a child. ^ TOP Fun Poetry Books

3 Fun poetry can motivate reluctant readers for several reasons. The sheer humor in "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out" (in Where the Sidewalk Ends), "Backward Bill" (in A Light in the Attic), or "Wilhelmina Wafflewitz" (in Something BIG Has Been Here) and motivate children to read poem after poem.. Many of the poems are hilarious, short, and easy to read. Through these poems, children have fun, experience success, and discover that reading can be fun! Most of these books should be in your public library. If you wish to purchase them, the titles below are linked to the secure web site of Amazon.com. The New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky, Audio cassette also available. For Laughing Out Loud by Jack Prelutsky A Pizza the Size of the Sun by Jack Prelutsky Something BIG Has Been Here by Jack Prelutsky, Audio cassette also available. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein, Audio cassette also available. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein, Audio cassette also available. Falling Up by Shel Silverstein If I Were In Charge of the World by Judith Viorst ^ TOP Teacher Activities

4 1. Set up a classroom library with a wide variety of books. Include fiction and nonfiction, books related to the children's interests, and books on a variety of reading levels. Provide a check-out system so that children can continue reading and you can keep up with your books. LearningTip #13 includes a strategy for creating a classroom check-out system. 2. Establish a silent reading time/routine for everyone (including the teacher) to read. This is sometimes called D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) Time. Allow children to choose their own reading material. 3. Implement reading-writing strategies that Increase silent reading time and give children the opportunity to develop effective reading processes. Reading workshop and writing workshop (to be explained in future LearningTip articles) provide excellent, motivating ways to teach skills and to turn reluctant readers into readers and writers. 4. Help children experience many different books, authors, genre, literary forms, etc. Read a wide variety of books to your class. Employ Literature Circles and other innovative strategies that provide children with opportunities to share books that they've read. 5. Administer an interest inventory at the beginning of the school year. This information can help you locate motivating reading materials for each child, select books for your classroom library, and form research groups. This enables you to teach children how to ask questions, locate information, and write the report (otherwise dry topics) and have them actually do it without moaning and groaning because they're working on a topic that they like and working with classmates that also like the topic! 6. Implement Author Studies. Have the class read several books written by a favorite author. Learn about the author, write letters to him/her, and visit the author's internet web site. Make other books written by that author available to the children. 7. Write to penpals or keypals. Maintaining a penpal-type relationship will get children enjoying reading and writing---just because they love getting mail!

5 8. Make a class FavoritesFile. Put together a notebook with sections devoted to jokes, riddles, poems, songs, tongue-twisters, etc. Encourage children to read to find things to put in the class FavoritesFile. Other reading occurs when children gather around to read the jokes, poems, etc. that other students have found or written. Sharing poems from fun poetry books can provide a good starting point for this strategy. 9. Pair each of your students up with a reading-writing buddy in another grade. Sharing what they've read and/or written with their Reading Buddy can provide success for both children, give students something to look forward to, and broaden the reading and writing experiences of both students. Younger students have another reading-writing role model and get one-on-one attention. Older students reinforce their skills by "tutoring" younger students, develop an appreciation for how much they know, and value how much they've developed as readers and writers. This "one-room schoolhouse" strategy works! These are just a few examples of strategies that will turn "won't read" children into "wanna read" children. We will revisit this topic occasionally to provide additional ideas.