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Q: How do I continue to support my child’s reading growth when they are not attending school?

Notes from Mrs. Pizzo's Workshop

A: No matter the age or development level, the best way to continue to support your child’s reading growth is by reading actual books.

One of my all-time favorite responsibilities as an educator is to share a wide variety of books with parents, educators and children to foster a love and appreciation for literacy. Reading books is a game changer for every student’s growth and proficiency. And yes, I understand access to those books is more difficult when schools and libraries are closed, and financial resources are limited to purchase them.

My recommendation: reread what you have available. Find new elements of the story to focus on and discuss. For preK-3 graders this might include language and word usage, color choice in illustrations, setting and why the author chose to put the story in that location. For 4th and up, you can go deeper into plot elements like symbols and repeated motifs, themes, character traits and the reason characters chose to act a certain way. Both levels can discuss the emotions they feel as they travel the story’s journey.

One of my great joys as a parent and teacher was rereading beloved stories and looking for new ways to discover our love of the book over and over again. Research shows that reading 6 books over the summer at grade level will keep students on track academically. Perhaps we increase this by 3 to make up the additional learning time loss or simply reread the same 1 beloved story 9 times. Pretty cool, I integrated math into a reading response.

Overall the goal is to keep children reading.

Mrs. Pizzo

visit Mrs. Pizzo's Workshop

Robin Pizzo leads the education outreach efforts of WKAR Public Media at Michigan State University, the PBS and NPR affiliate serving Michigan's capital region. Robin convenes partnerships and coordinates station initiatives such as WKAR Family and Ready to Learn to bring workshops, learning tools, and other resources into the community to help kids be resilient, lifelong learners.
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