I did a talk on Raising Readers for the Parent Group at Charlie's preschool yesterday. I put a lot of work into preparing for it, and thought you all might be interested in the bibliographies and what I had to say (especially since way more people will read it here than the five who attended my talk.)
I'm going to divide it into parts, and will post them over the next couple of weeks.
Raising Readers: Introduction
In case you stumbled upon this through Google, I should probably tell you why I'm qualified to talk about this subject. I have a Master's Degree in Library and Information Studies and was a children's librarian in a large public library B.K. (before kids.) I was also a Materials Selector for the library system, and was responsible for selecting and purchasing all the children's non-fiction books for the 26 Oklahoma City libraries. Now, I'm a parent of two boys who both love to read. The older, Tommy, is in 2nd grade and spends hours every day independently reading big books like Harry Potter.
Enough about me. Let's talk about books and reading and children - three of my favorite subjects.
When it comes to our children’s relationship with books and reading, we as parents have two different responsibilities. One is literacy. We need to make sure they know HOW to read. The second is more complicated. We also want to teach them to love books and reading. In my mind, the two responsibilities are very related, but not at all the same thing. As a matter of fact, working on learning to read can sometimes undermine their love of books (a topic I'll talk about in more detail later.) That’s why it’s so important that you pay attention to both responsibilities. The end goal is to have a child who loves books and who knows how to read well enough to read the books he loves.
It seems like most children love books at some point during early childhood. Many children are lucky enough to have books in their homes and parents, babysitters or teachers who read to them. If they don't have books at home, they are exposed to them at daycare or preschool. We work really hard to push books and reading in early-childhood in this country and all that effort has paid off. Find a 4-year-old and ask him if he likes books. He'll probably say "yes."
However, if you ask your average 4th grader if he likes books, a large number of them will say "no." What happened? Why doesn't every child grow up to be a person who loves reading? I think there are a few possible answers to those questions.
1. They lost their love of books and reading when they had to learn to read. Learning to read is HARD WORK, and if you're not careful, all that work can suck the life and fun out of books for kids. For most kids, it takes a lot of guidance and intervention for parents for them to come out on the other side of the 4-year (or more!) learning process with their love of books intact. This is a big one, and I'll devote a whole section of this series on the topic later.
2. The books available to them don't match their interests. Children are unique individuals, and books are not one-size-fits-all. This means it's important to expose them to a variety of books throughout their childhood, so that together you can figure out what lights their reading fire.
3. The books available to them don't match their developmental level. Children are constantly growing, learning and changing. It's great that your 9-month old loves all those board books, but she'll outgrow them earlier than you might expect. You need to have the next sort of book available to take their place. Think of it this way. You have to buy new clothes for your children all the time. Providing them with appropriate books is just like keeping them in clothes that fit.
4. If the parents don't like to read, then it will be harder (but not impossible!) for them to teach their children to love reading. Reading is like any activity, really. We choose to spend time doing the things we enjoy and value. If you enjoy exercise and physical activity, then it's very likely that your children will enjoy staying active too. If you always have a stack of books on your bedside table, then it's very likely your children will too. It's easy to teach your kids to love something that you genuinely love and value yourself. It's a lot harder to teach them to love something that you really don't care for. I really hope that it's not impossible though. I hate to exercise, so it takes a lot of mindful effort for me to keep the boys active and engaged with sports. They like sports, but it's so HARD for me to remember to provide them with lots of opportunities to be active. I'm sure it's the same for parents who dislike reading the way I dislike exercise. We know the thing we don't like is good for them, and we want them to grow up differently, but it's hard. Keep reading to your children and encouraging them to enjoy books even if you don't. Just be aware that it's going to take more effort for you than for a parent who really loves reading.
It's not all doom and gloom though. If you start encouraging your children to love books and reading when they're babies (or at any age!,) and continue your efforts as they grow and mature, you will see spectacular results. In this series of posts on Raising Readers, I plan to give you lots of suggestions for every stage of development. If you want to raise a reader, then your goal is to get them to the time when their reading ability exactly matches their interests with their love of books and reading intact. Then you can say "my job here is done" and watch TV all evening while they're in their rooms reading on their own. (I'm only kind of kidding!)
Good article, Sally. I'll be waiting for the next chapter. You have great qualifications to write/present a discussion of this topic.
Posted by: Sylvia | January 11, 2012 at 09:34 AM