How many books are enough books for a preschooler?

Posted on May 27, 2014 | Leave a comment

Preschooler looking at a tall stack of books.1,000 books is a great goal, according to the 1,000 Books Foundation, a nonprofit organization which has enlisted the help of libraries across the US to promote reading. Their effort, “1,000 Books before Kindergarten,” has a simple goal: Children should be read 1,000 books before they start kindergarten.

1,000 books before kindergarten? Yes. They can be all different books or some of the same books read over and over to a child. The reading can begin in utero, or when the child is an infant or toddler, but the counting must stop by the day the child starts kindergarten. Parents are encouraged to write down the name of every book and the date it was read (Log sheets are available at 1000 books).  Writing down the names promotes accountability, and the growing list encourages persistence.

1,000 books might sound daunting, but if a parent reads one book a day for three years, that is more than 1,000 books. Many parents read more than one book a day, making the feat even easier. And if a parent reads a book to two or three children at a time, that counts as a book for each of them.

Some libraries provide their patrons with a journal in which they can list the titles. Some libraries offer stickers to children for meeting benchmark goals. Some local newspapers publish the picture of all children who reach 1,000 books.

Have you participated? Were you able to reach 1,000 books? Let our readers know. –Mrs. K

Of course there are some parents who may be turned off by the idea of listing the title of every book read every day. I know that would become tedious for me. It reminds me of diets where you list every food eaten every day. After a few weeks, most of us cannot maintain the daily log. But how about just a check mark or a number on the calendar…adding up the total at the end of the month and then adding on as the year continues. –Mrs. A

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Ever hear of the “summer slide”?

Posted on May 16, 2014 | Leave a comment

For years, educators have known that students loose reading skills during the summer if they don’t continue reading.  They call this loss the “summer slide.”  It is most severe among low-income students who lose up to two months of reading skills, yet it is sometimes nonexistent among middle class students who make slight gains in reading during summer months.
 
Summer slide (decline) of reading scores.
 
Here’s what some studies show:

  • B. Heyns’ 1978 study of 3000 sixth and seventh graders in Atlanta Public School showed that students who read at least six books during the summer maintained or improved their reading skills.  But students who didn’t read lost up to a whole grade of reading skills.

  • K Alexander’s, D. Entwisle’s and L. Olson’s 2007 longitudinal study of Baltimore students over 15 years found that by the end of fifth grade, students who didn’t read during the summer measured two years behind their classmates who did.  They concluded that 2/3 of the reading difference in ninth graders can be attributed to reading or not during summer school breaks.

  • Dominican University’s study of students completing third grade who took part in their local libraries’ summer reading programs scored 52 Lexile points ahead of their classmates who did not.

  • The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, funded by many foundations, concluded that children’s absence from reading during the summer is a major hurdle for achieving good reading skills by the end of third grade.

  • The summer slide is cumulative.  Some estimate that by the end of high school the summer slide can account for up to a four year lag in reading achievement, and it can have an effect on high school graduation rates.  According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, “one in six children who are not reading proficiently in 3rd grade do not graduate from high school on time, a rate four times greater than that for proficient readers.”

So how can you combat the summer slide?

  • Sign your child up for your local library’s summer reading program, and make sure your child completes the reading.

  • Go to the library regularly and let your child select books she will enjoy.

  • Help your child to read a chapter book a week, or a picture book each night.

  • Encourage your child to read the newspaper, television guides, magazines and online articles.

  • Reward your child with a trip to the book store to select her very own book.

  • Read to your child every evening, and let him read to you.  Your reading will teach fluency and pronunciation, and establish the notion that reading for pleasure is fun.

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How can I increase the impact of books when I read to my young son?

Posted on May 7, 2014 | Leave a comment
  • Have you considered pairing two books about the same subject, one facts, one fiction?
  • Or have you considered following a book with a related film?
  • Or have you considered reading a book about the making of a work of art (a cathedral, for example), and then visiting a cathedral with your child?
  • Have you considered reading about the creation of a piece of music and then listening to the actual piece with your child?

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The example above pairs a picture book, sheet music (on page 78), a youtube piano tutorial, and a youtube video of an orchestra playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Click on these underlined links to see more details or to view the videos.

All too often, we read nursery rhymes, fairy tales and other fiction to our children without considering related nonfiction books, films, music, and paintings. Boys, in particular, might prefer additional factual information.

When my daughter was a third grader, she read Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Florence Atwater. I found some National Geographic Magazine articles on penguins, and together we read them, deepening her understanding of penguins. For a school assignment, she wrote her own penguin book, dedicating it to National Geographic. She could also have read Penguins and Antarctica by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce, a nonfiction companion book to Eve of the Emperor Penguin, part of the Magic Tree House fiction series by Mary Pope Osborne. A documentary film about penguins, March of the Penguins, would have told her about the brutal lives of penguins on Antarctica. The animated Happy Feet, though less factual, would have offered another perspective.

Is there a new baby coming into the family? Big Brother Dustin by Alden R. Carter follows a child with Down Syndrome as he anticipates becoming a big brother. A funny companion book might be Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business by Barbara Park, a novel about a kindergartener’s belief that her newborn brother is really a monkey. Many child-oriented nonfiction books are available about pregnancy and birth.

When you read two different types of books on the same subject, often you investigate the subject from two different vantages. Little children need to learn that there are many ways of looking at the same information and that they all might be good, or that one might be real and the other entertaining.

Sometimes the child makes connections between the two books, but sometimes the adult needs to point out similarities and differences to obtain the most impact. For example, you could explain what the words “fiction” and “nonfiction” mean, and how Clifford is a pretend dog while a book about dog breeds shows pictures of real dogs. “Real” and “make believe” are concepts a child needs to learn.

Some children prefer fiction while others prefer nonfiction. By pairing them, the child is exposed to both genres. But of course the main reason for pairing is to deepen meaning for the child. Your child will gain the most impact if you discuss the books with him. –Mrs. K

When I was a child, my favorite book was Black Beauty.  Unfortunately, I never ventured to the nonfiction section of our library.  Was I unaware of it or just stubborn, refusing to step out of my comfort zone?  I certainly would have enjoyed learning more about horses.  My favorite TV horse was a dappled horse ridden by Little Joe on the TV show, Bonanza.  The nonfiction books would have given me opportunities to look at pictures or to read the captions, even if most of the content was too advanced for me. –Mrs. A

How about you? Have you found pairing books or books with other medium to be a good way for your child to learn more? Let us know.

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Posted in how to make learning fun, methods of teaching reading, reading comprehension, reading readiness.

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Should I call vowels “long” and “short”? If I don’t, what do I call them?

Posted on April 30, 2014 | Leave a comment

When a vowel sounds like its name, we have traditionally called it a long vowel. When the vowel can be said with the mouth only partly opened, we have traditionally called it a short vowel.
Long and short sounds of a and e
long, short i, o, u
Most Americans learned this way of naming vowel sounds, but today some experts recommend tossing out this old-fashioned naming system for several reasons.

    • First, calling a vowel sound either long or short does not accurately describe the vowel sound since both kinds of sounds take about the same amount of time to say.
    • Second, if the amount of time to pronounce these vowels is about the same, then what does long and short measure? Some experts say it is the length of the opening of the mouth. True, the mouth does open a bit more for long i’s and o’s, but not for the other long vowels.
    • Third, there is a whole other group of vowel sounds which is neither long nor short (ou and oi, for example). Reading specialists call these diphthongs, but that term is usually not used with little children. These vowel sounds are usually called by the sound they make.

You can teach vowel sounds without ever using the terms long and short vowels, but eventually in school, the teacher, or a workbook, or a test probably will use those terms. If your child has not heard the terms before, she might be confused.

I recommend focusing on the sounds until the child knows them. Associate the sounds with letters only after you are sure your child can hear and pronounce the sounds correctly. Mention long and short vowels in passing, but don’t dwell on those terms. After all, it’s not what you call a vowel sound that is important in learning to read; it is being able to pronounce the vowel sound correctly.

When your child notices that the ten common vowel sounds are represented by only five letters, explain that hundreds of years ago, when people were first writing down our language, they ran out of letters to use, so they doubled up on some letters, using them to represent two different sounds. But quickly add that there are clues in the words which tell you which way to pronounce the sounds, so it’s usually not a problem.

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Posted in letter sounds, methods of teaching reading, reading readiness.

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What does it mean to be literate? Part 2: Details on American achievement on PISA reading tests

Posted on April 25, 2014 | Leave a comment

Results of the every-three-year PISA reading tests (Program for International Student Assessment) were announced on Dec. 3, showing that U.S. 15-year-olds again scored average compared to their peers in 64 other countries.

Eight percent of American students who took the test scored in the top ranges; 17 per cent scored at the baseline low range; most scored at the average range.  In the U.S., Massachusetts and Connecticut had more students scoring in the top ranges than did South Korea while Florida scored just a bit below the total U.S. average.  Massachusetts, Connecticut and Florida paid to have more of their students tested so that they could have a representative sample to use to compare their students.

Compare the U.S. scores with those of the best scoring countries:

US literacy rank among other high ranking countries.

What does all this mean?

    • Since the reading testing began in 2000, the U.S. has consistently scored in the average range in years in which comparisons can be made (2000, 2003, 2009 and 2012.

 

  • Despite the increase in testing of U.S. students, and despite publicizing the results of those tests, and despite shaking up public education with charter schools and other statewide initiatives, U.S. education is stagnating, according to Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Why the mediocre showing by U.S. students?  Various reasons are proposed, especially the effects of poverty.  Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, emphasized the corrosive effects of poverty. The U.S. has one of the highest child poverty rates in the world, double or triple the rate in PISA leading countries such as South Korea, Germany, Finland, Estonia and the Netherlands. Van Roekel called poverty “the main cause of our mediocre PISA performance.”

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Do I say “red new book” or do I say “new red book”? Is there some rule to teach my daughter?

Posted on April 17, 2014 | Leave a comment

Royal Order of Adjectives SignYou say “new red book,” and yes, there is a rule. It’s called the Royal Order of Adjectives—an imperious name for an ordering system. The list below begins with adjectives placed farthest away from the noun (Determiners) to those placed nearest to the noun (Specifiers).

Determiners: Which one (the, a, an, my, her, this, that, these, those). Most singular nouns in English are preceded by either an article, a possessive noun or adjective, or a demonstrative adjective. Plural nouns do not use “a” and “an” but may use the other determiners.

Subjective description: (slow, ugly, easy, delicious) These adjectives can be considered opinions of the speaker or writer.

Size: (large, small, three-inch-long, two-liter) The hyphens are used to create words that don’t exist in English. Notice that every adjective is singular (three-inch, not three-inches) even if the word it describes is plural.

Shape: (round, misshapen, skinny, elongated)

Age: (new, antique, fifty-year-old) Notice that the adjective “fifty-year-old” does not put an “s” on year because all adjectives are singular. “My fifty-year-old brother” but “My brother is fifty years old.”

Color: (red, striped, mottled)

Nationality: (American, Asian, Indian)

Material: (cardboard, polyester, paper, metal)

Specifier: (rocking [chair], player [piano], Apple [iPhone])

Related to this idea of ordering adjectives is the question of which ones need commas to separate them. The rule is that if the adjectives fall into the same category (both colors, for example), then use a comma. If the adjectives come from different categories, no comma is necessary.

 Correct: My successful tall, willowy Korean sister travels often.

Most Americans cannot explain the rule of ordering adjectives. If they have heard the adjectives ordered correctly as children, they use that same order. They go by what sounds right, but they cannot explain it. ESL students who have not heard adjectives ordered a particular way may not know there is an order, and may order the adjectives arbitrarily. It is important for teachers and parents to point out to ESL students that there is a correct order.

Even preschoolers can be told to say “a new red bike, with the color red right next to the bike” so that they become aware that there is a right way to order words. Little children often use size and color to describe an item, so it is important to point out that size comes first, then color.

Some Americans put commas between all adjectives preceding a noun, and others don’t use any commas. More and more the practice in the U.S. is not to use commas unless leaving them out leads to confusion.

Try this quiz to see if you understand the Royal Order of Adjectives:

Adjective test

–Mrs. K

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Posted in English as a second language (ESL), English grammar, reading research

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What does it mean to be literate?

Posted on April 9, 2014 | Leave a comment

Definitions vary:

  • Reading, writing, speaking and listening (The Common Core State Standards Initiative)

  • Understanding, using, reflecting on and engaging with written texts, in order to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate in society (The Programme for International Student Assessment)
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 2010 report, Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 Results

Here’s a video on the PISA 2009 Results.

At its most basic, literacy means the ability to read. When and where did this ability begin?

  • Scientists believe symbols representing ideas first developed around 8,000 years ago in ancient Sumer, in what we call Iraq. The symbols were used by commercial and agricultural interests to keep track of the numbers of things—chickens and eggs, for example.

  • Egyptian hieroglyphics developed about 5,300 years ago; it was the first system to include some phonetic symbols, not just pictographs.

  • Written Chinese notations began around 3200 years ago.

  • Around 3500 years ago, in Canaan, in what is now Syria, a consonant system of notations was first used.

  • Later alphabets (Phoenician, Hebrew and Aramaic) using both consonants and vowels, are thought to be based on this Canaan alphabet.

  • Beginning around 2700 years ago, the Greek alphabet derived from these others.

  • Literacy was widespread among male citizens of ancient Rome, but with the fall of the Roman Empire, literacy retreated , becoming the practice of princes and priests. Over the centuries, as trade increased, so did the need for some literate citizens. The Industrial Revolution which produced cheap paper and books became a strong force for more widespread reading, but so did educational reform which required children to learn reading, writing and arithmetic.

Today in the U.S., the ability to read is not universal, even though some statistics show the U.S. has a 99% literacy rate.

  • One out of three fourth graders scored “below basic” on the 2009 National Assessment of Education Progress Reading Test, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

  • More than 67 percent of all U.S. fourth graders scored “below proficient” on this same test, meaning they are not reading at grade level.

  • If a child is not reading proficiently by fourth grade, that child has a 78% chance of never catching up.

–Mrs. K

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Posted in Common Core Standards, history of teaching reading, reading research

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My child keeps mixing up left and right. She’s only six, but still. What can I do to help her?

Posted on April 6, 2014 | Leave a comment

"Left? Right?" says boy, flailing arms, "I'm so confused!"For a child so young, make learning a game so she will want to continue.

  • Have her hold up her hands, fingers touching and thumbs sticking out, with palms facing away from her body. Ask which side makes a proper “L.” That is the left side. (My son used this method throughout elementary school.)Girl looking at how the thumb and forefinger of the left hand make an L shape.

  • Play Simon Says using left and right directions. “Simon says touch your right ear.”

  • Play a guessing game. “I see something on the left side of the room that is red.”

  • Create a wristband for the dominant or nondominant hand and mark it L or R.

  • Write L on left palm and R on right palm.

  • Have the child trace her hands (or if she can’t, you do it) and label one hand L and the other R. Cut out pictures for a simple wordless story, and have the child sequence them properly, left to right.

  • Let the child sit on your lap and type on your computer. Point out the way the letters always go, from left to right.

  • Your child might already play some electronic games on your phone or tablet. Show her how the Angry Bird’s shot arches from left to right.

  • Create a book mark with an L on one side and a R on the other side.

  • Create a series of dots and have the child connect them, left to right.

  • Using a doll or teddy bear, ask which is the doll’s left leg, or right arm, or left eye.

  • Play hopscotch, asking her to name the leg she is stepping on.

  • Give her a bracelet or watch to wear on special occasions on one of her wrists. Remind her which wrist she is putting it on.

Don’t get annoyed if this skill takes time. Gently offer her the correct choice and move on. Eventually we all figure it out. –Mrs. K

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Is reading from an electronic screen just as good as reading from a paper book for my child?

Posted on March 26, 2014 | Leave a comment

Have you seen the You Tube videoAngry child thinking a book is a tablet app. in which a one-year-old child swipes the family iPad screen to make it work? Then she does the same to a magazine but it doesn’t “work.” She pinches the magazine and swipes back and forth across the picture but the image on the page does not change. In frustration she presses hard with her index finger, still with no results, and then just to be sure, she presses her finger against her leg to see if her finger is working.

Even at one-year-old, children are using electronic devices to learn. It’s a given. Does it help? Does it harm? Most of the research comparing electronic reading with old-fashioned book reading uses older children or college students as subjects, so it is difficult to apply the results precisely to younger children. Even so, here is what some of the research shows.

  • A book has a physical presence that an electronic device does not. The reader knows intuitively how big the book is, how hefty the book is, and how many pages have been turned or still need to be turned. A little child can figure this out quickly even before he can talk.
  • An ebook’s physical size, by contrast, is difficult to gauge. Is it 24 pages or 48 pages long? All ebooks books “weigh” the same. If you are at location 304-6 out of 4020, what does that mean? A bar across the bottom helps to show that 7% of the book has been read, but since you can’t “see” the turned pages, what does 7% mean? Most books for little children are not more than a couple dozen pages, but can children tell that? Do they have any sense that they are halfway done?
  • Old-fashioned books allow an intuitive navigation of the text. You read an idea on page 33 that reminds you of something you read a few pages earlier, on the top of a left-handed page.Indian girl on the floor reading a book. You can easily go back to just the left handed pages and reread the tops while holding your finger or a bookmark in the place where you left off. If a child suddenly notices a tiny frog on page ten, he can go back quickly to find out if there is a frog several pages back by flipping pages.
  • Ebooks also allow you to go back, but you need to check every page since there are no left and right-handed pages. Ebooks don’t allow for flipping back without skipping pages, or for scanning ahead. And if you forget how to go to the beginning of the book, or to chapter 2, you need to stop and go to the electronic device’s directions. Little children can’t do that. Ebooks do not allow for easy highlighting or jotting down notes, though this is not important for young children.
  • Research shows that reading from old-fashioned books leads to more serious and focused reading and more retention. Because of books’ easy navigability, older students approach handheld books seriously, and they absorb more.Boy on floor reading an ebook on his tablet.
  • Reading ebooks, on the other hand, is a more casual experience. Kids browse, scan through a document, look up keywords and tap a hyperlink before finishing a document. They often read information once without rereading it. Do little kids see this distinction between old-fashioned books and ebooks? It’s hard to say without more research.
  • Books with tiny type faces or books read in inappropriate lighting can strain eyesight and even lead to wearing glasses in young children.
  • Onscreen books’ typefaces can be increased in size, and most ebooks come with an internal light to create sharp contrast for easy reading—both real advantages. But the screens can also cause glare leading to headaches and blurred vision. Time in front of a screen needs to be monitored.

Nooks, iPads, smart phones, notepads and other electronic devices have been around for only a few years, so much more research will be done on them, including research on young children. Also, manufacturers are improving the technology to meet the shortcomings of past versions, so a newer version might be more kid-friendly than an older version. My Kindle purchased just four years ago seems like a reading machine compared to the latest Kindle Fire which downloads apps, plays games, lights up internally—and allows me to read books.

Unlike us, little children today are growing up using old-fashioned paper books and electronic screens at the same time, much like a bilingual child uses two languages interchangeably. An engaging storybook with a good story and excellent illustrations might be just as attractive as an online book if read and shared enthusiastically by Mom.

We shouldn’t fear the new technology but rather search out what it can do better than the old-fashioned book. Can it read a story aloud to a child? Can it allow the child to match rhymes with a swipe of his finger? Can it allow the child to email his voice reading a book to Grandma?

So should you encourage your child to read from a screen? Sometimes, especially if you are guiding him. Are onscreen materials just as good as old-fashioned books? Some are, some are not. Each offers real advantages.  –Mrs. K

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Posted in Book Apps for Early Readers, reading research, technology

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What are the Newbery and Caldecott awards?

Posted on March 20, 2014 | Leave a comment

The Newbery Medal and the Caldecott Medal are prizes given annually to honor two children’s or two young adults’ books published in the US during the past year.  The Newbery Medal honors an author, and the Caldecott Medal honors an illustrator.

Newbery and Caldecott MedalsThese two awards are considered the most prestigious awards in the U.S. for children’s literature.  They are awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association.

The Newbery award, named after an eighteenth-century British bookseller, goes “to the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published in English in the United States during the preceding year.” This award is the older of the two, having been given since 1922.

The Caldecott award, named after a British illustrator of the nineteenth century, goes to “to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published in English in the United States during the preceding year.”  This award has been given since 1938.

Both awards list runners-up, named Honor Books.  Once a book is honored with one of these awards, the publisher usually adds a picture of the medal to the book’s jacket to lure readers and buyers.  Most libraries with children’s sections carry recent Newbery and Caldecott winners, and sometimes they are even grouped apart from the other children’s books.

Some well-known past winners of the Newbery Medal include

  • 2004: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo
  • 2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
  • 1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
  • 1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
  • 1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
  • 1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
  • 1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper
  • 1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
  • 1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
  • 1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
  • 1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

Some well-known past winners of the Caldecott Medal include

  • 1990:  Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young
  • 1986:  The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburt
  • 1970:  Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
  • 1964:  Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
  • 1963:  The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Many Newbery and Caldecott winners are included in the exemplars of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.  On the other hand, some of the best loved children’s books (Dr. Seuss’ books, for example) were not Newbery and Caldecott medal winners but are included in the Common Core exemplars.

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Posted in Award Winning Books, Common Core Standards

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