Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM April 2019 | Page 26

JODY CERISANO
Huntington Learning Center of League City
832.864.2769
www.huntingtonhelps.com/center/league-city
BEST WAYS to Support
Your Reader at Home
A
ll parents want to give their children the
tools to be successful in school, but did
you know that making reading a priority is
arguably the most essential academic skill?
Reading is a life skill that helps students
expand their vocabulary, improve their attention span,
become stronger communicators and so much more.
How can parents support their readers at home? Here
are several tips:
• Suggest books and other reading material.
Encourage your child to create a home library of
books and magazines so that he or she never runs
out of material to read. Librarians are a great source
of information and can offer all kinds of suggestions
based on children’s interests and abilities, and
websites like Goodreads are another good place to
get book recommendations.
• Let your child see you reading. Often, children
emulate their parents. If your child never sees you
reading for pleasure, your suggestions to pick up
a book for fun might seem disingenuous. Read
alongside your child. Make it fun, setting out a
plate of treats and serving up tea or hot chocolate.
Incorporate reading into your nightly family routine.
• When reading together, embrace best practices for
reading comprehension. If you’re reading to your
child or having them read to you, use the following
process for boosting reading comprehension:
✓ Preview the text before reading (especially
when reading a textbook).
✓ Pause to check in after every page for words
they don’t know the meaning of and to discuss
confusing parts of questions.
✓ Summarize main takeaways at the end of each
section or chapter.
✓ Reflect on lingering questions and interesting
information at the end of each chapter.
• Make connections to other parts of your child’s life.
When talking about books, encourage your child to
think beyond the words on the page. Ask questions
to get him or her thinking about the main characters
and their motivations, how the story relates to
anything in real life and if the story or people in it
seem familiar.
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• Record daily reading. Your child’s teacher might
require you to do this anyway. If the teacher does
not, it can serve as a motivator to give children a
weekly reading chart on which they can mark off
days they’ve read and for how long, or even a book
journal. Consider small incentives for certain goals
reached (such as an ice cream outing for each book
completed).
Last and most important, be positive and supportive
of the book that your child chooses to read, even if
you think it is not challenging enough for them. If they
are reading daily, eventually they will begin to choose
books with more rigor. You may also implement a
system where you get to pick every 3rd or 4th book.
Children who read 20 minutes per day will be exposed
to 1.8 million words per year and score in the 90th
percentile on standardized tests (Nagy, Anderson &
Herman, 1987). Reading daily is key!