5 Things I Wish Parents Knew About Reading via We Are Teachers

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5 Things I Wish Parents Knew About Reading

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body

We Are Teachers: 10.25.2017 by Megan Favre

I learned exactly how important reading was from my parents. They showed me with frequent trips to the library, always scrounging up money for the Scholastic book order, and, most importantly, ignoring me when they were caught up in a good book. Their “just one more chapter, and then we’ll go” or “let me finish this article before we start dinner” showed me that reading was a world that you could get wrapped up in and not want to leave.

These days, the pressure of reading levels, words per minute, and standardized testing has put a tremendous pressure on not only teachers and students, but also parents. Here are five literacy tips for parents that I wish I could share with all families:

1. This book is not too easy for your child.

Reading is making meaning not word recognition. Because accuracy is easy for us to see happening, it’s easy to assume that a reader that sounds good must be making meaning.

2. Reading levels are not a race to the top.

Oh, reading levels. Parents, I’m sorry we’ve done this to you. Understanding acquisition of literacy is difficult (it only takes a degree or two and lifelong professional development to get a handle on it), but understanding a progression of levels is easy. Parents hold onto levels because that’s all we really give them.  READ MORE >>