Tips to Build Better Readers

Not sure how to approach reading with your child? A variety of things you can do before, during, and after sitting down to read will help you and your children be ready to tackle exciting new books:

• Display the book in a public place as soon as you get it home. Make a special place to put the books you are reading together. Maybe even decorate the shelf.
  
  
• Talk about the title, even on the way home in the car. Ask your child what he/she thinks it might mean or what the book might be about.
  
  
• Look at the cover. Have each family member share what the pictures mean to him or her.
  
  
• Ask your child if he knows anything about the subject that the book seems to be about.
  
  
• Discuss what you both hope to learn from the book. (If you finish the book and didn’t learn what you were looking for, you can check the related books links at the end of the book list for even more great books!)
  
  
• Open the book and glance at a few pictures. Talk about what the pictures suggest to you.
  
  
• Examine the parts of the book with your younger child: the title page, any chapter or section headings, the ending pages (see if there’s an index or glossary, a word list) so your child can generalize knowledge about these parts when he uses text books in school.
  
  
• Discuss the author of the book. Have you heard of this author or read other works by him/her?
  
  
• After you start reading, make a note of new or difficult words you or your children might have learned while enjoying the book. Write them on a slip of paper and put it on the refrigerator so you’ll remember to try to use them again. Then praise your child if you hear him/her using them in speech. Or you could write them on popsicle sticks and put them in a cup for a “use this word” game while you cook dinner.
  
  
• Read a few pages, then pause to ask your child what he thinks might come next.
  
  
• After you finish the book, ask your child what a different ending to the book or outcome to the story might have been. If your child can write, ask him to write down a few possible other ways the book might have ended.
  
  
• Ask your child what other books the author could write.
  
  
• Check to see what other titles this author has written and see which ones sound interesting to you.
  
  
• Do a “keyword” search on a library’s catalog page to see if you can find other books with similar content. Note: Many libraries now let you search their collection online. Be sure to ask about that when you go to the library.
  
  
• Write down questions that this book has raised for you and other family members. Ask public or school librarians to help you find books to solve these puzzling issues. Maybe even email an expert you find online.
  
  
• Get a library card and go there with your child. Read some books to your child in the library. Check out the library programs you can attend with your child. They are free, and the librarians will give you ideas of how you can use reading at home. Search for public libraries. If you do not have a public library in your area, ask yur child's school if there are times when you can visit the school library together and borrow books.
  
  
• Take the roles of the characters in the book and have your child play one of the roles also. You can continue these roles even when you’re finished reading!! The characters in the book will begin to seem very important and real to your child and he/she will want to play in this way with other stories. This video will show you how to do role-play.
  
  
• As your children become pre-adolescents and teenagers, try reading a book jointly, alternating readers, or even reading a chapter a day together.
  
  
• Many books are available in taped form as audiotapes or CD’s so you listen to books together as you travel to activities, relatives’ houses, and even run errands. Since books-on-tape readers use a lot of expression and portray different characters with different accents, you will enjoy using this alternative media in addition to regular reading time. If you cannot find a book on tape, why not try making your own recording? Perhaps you can share with other families.
  
  
• Write a book with your child. Write down a few sentences about his/her grandparents and where they came from. Let the child do illustrations of what he imagines or knows the parents looked like as young people. If your child is older, let him/her interview grandparents and find photos to use. If possible, involve grandparents, aunts and uncles with this activity. Your child will love reading this book over and over again. If you don’t feel like writing an entire book, rewrite the ending to some favorite books and let the child draw pictures to go with it. If you like to work at the computer together, you can try the Seussville Story Maker to write a book with your child.
  
  
• Don’t be afraid to read the same book again and again., especially with younger children. Your child will become so familiar with the story that he or she will begin to read it with you. In this way, children develop a love of books, stories, and writing.
  
  
• Let your child know how important books are to you by collecting a small library of your own. Check out book sales with your child. Libraries regularly have book sales of donated items, and prices are very affordable. Your town or city may have used book stores where paperback children’s books can be obtained for very little cost. Give your child his/her own shelf at home to keep his books on, and add to it when you can. Schools and civic organizations (like Association of Academic Women) often have used book sales; your school may also offer books for children at a reasonable price through book sale fliers. Don’t forget to check garage and rummage sales for used children’s books, too.
  
  
• Decorate your house with books. Get new ones from the library and situate them all over the house. If they have good cover art of a hero, ask your child to tell you the hero's story! Let your child make some book covers of his/her own for the books you have finished reading, and display the new book covers around the house, as well.
  
  
• When reading with young ones, sing along with the books you read if songs come to mind. Sing if the book has songs in it. Emphasize the rhyming words in a book written in verse. Your child will remember this book very well because of the repetitious elements the music creates. For a demonstration of how to do this, click to "Watch the video."
  
  
• Ask your children questions as you read through a familiar book. They will enjoy finishing the sentences, making accompanying noises, and completing the jokes in the book. Make a few mistakes as you read and let them correct you. For more information and a video demo of this activity, see this link.
  
  
• Read in front of your child. Children imitate everything you do. When they see you reading, they’ll know it is important. It doesn’t matter what you read; just pick up something you’re interested in: magazines, newspapers, novels, books for classes you’re taking, hobby books, or even the sports section in honor of the TogetheRead Sports and Fitness month. There is no greater gift you can give a child than a love of books and reading!
  
  
• Very young children benefit from reading because they begin to recognize connections between words they are just learning in life and words they hear from books. Read to your child as soon as he can sit for a few minutes and look at pictures. Even very young children learn words very quickly and add meaningful vocabulary to their active word list when you read to them.
  
  
• Tell your children about events that happened when you were growing up. If the children are young, have them make a crayon or marker drawing of some of their favorite stories of your youth. Write a simple caption for each picture. They will remember the story and the caption and as if they were "reading" when they see this work of art you have created together. With all ages of children, model comparing the stories from your past with some of the things that happen in the books you read together. This will help them learn to make connections with things they read -- and build better comprehension.
  
  
• Make a family journal together. Write a little each day about every-day events. Let your children decorate it with stickers, simple pictures, or mementos of the day. You can also do this on a large format calendar, such as the ones sold in office supply stores for desktops.
  
  With older children and teens, be clever and use product labels or magazine clippings to remind the family of the day's events: Ex. The day was cozy and comforting like mac and cheese.
  
  
• When watching a movie or reading any book, not just mysteries, stop and think aloud about how you think the movie or story will end. As you read, stop at the end of each chapter or after each major event and talk about it: "Who do you think did it? Why?" or "How will this story end? Why?" Think about hints you may have seen or read already. Learning and noticing story patterns from books and movies makes us all better readers.
  
  
• This idea came from Mike Winerip of the New York Times, sharing his experience as a parent, and is especially helpful for reluctant or picky readers: "I try to find a book that will match their interests and then drop it in their general vicinity. (This can mean picking it up and dropping it several times.)" Try "dropping" appealing books in locations around the house where they might be noticed by just the right reader. If the first location does not work, "drop" it elsewhere--but never say anything!
  
  
• As your child approaches his or her birthday, offer to have a birthday party based on his or her favorite book (preferably something fairly short). Send the invitations early, suggesting that children read the book before they come. Collect materials for party guests to make hats decorated as the characters and spend time with the birthday child planning a game for guests to answer questions about the book. As a prize, give a copy to the child with the LOWEST score so he/she can read it, too! Other games: act out a scene, read a character's dialog aloud, tell the story in thirty seconds. Try to plan party food that fits the book, as well. This makes reading a gift to all your child's friends.
  
  
• When applicable, draw a map of the community, state, or country you are reading about in a work of fiction. Then draw lines from locations to "bubbles" that contain the names of characters or events that are important in that location.
  
  
• Before and after you read a book together aloud or read the same books that your children are reading independently, work together to make a list or chart with these questions:
  
  1. What do you know about this topic that makes the book seem interesting to you?
  2. What questions would you like to find answers to as you read?
  3. (During and after reading) What answers did you find and what new things did you learn?
  Before you choose more books from the library or bookshelf, make a list of topics you discovered in this book that you might want to find more books about. Your "list" of questions can continue with the next book!
  
  
• Use the power of pictures to be a better reader. Use family pictures for young ones to retell things that happened when you were at a reunion or traveling. Have your younger child retell picture books you have read together by flipping through the pictures. Even if he/she changes the story, be sure to listen to the tale. With older children, ask them to tell you what was happening in the story by sharing and explaining an illustration.
  
  
• When you start a book with your young reader, choose one of the first describing words (adjectives) that you come upon that describes a character. Make that word your “remember word” to use as you read together. Then, every time you meet a new person or character, look to see what describing word the author uses for THAT character. Stop to compare how the new describing word means something different from your “remember word” and talk about how the characters are different. You will be teaching your child to notice characters and to connect what he/she knows with the new things he/she reads.
  
  
• When you are in the car or waiting in the doctor's office, take turns as you play the geography alphabet game. For example, for A, say, “I want to go to Athens.” For B, say, “I want to go to Brussels.” Help your children with this game until they are old enough to find answers for themselves. Use the places you have read about or discovered through the “continents” TogetheRead themes to recall cities, towns, mountain ranges, rivers, countries, or any geographic name that starts with the correct letter.
  
  

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