Sunday, July 23, 2006
Passion for reading can grow with PAL
* Partnership with younger students provides needed stability.
A love of reading should begin in childhood, and if children have someone to instill a love of books in them at an early age, it will hopefully carry with them into adulthood.
Stories and friendships that spark the imagination, that open up a world of possibilities of what could be, give a child hope.
PAL ñ Pupil Assistance in Learning ñ is a program that relies on volunteers to mentor children in Chemung County. Our mentors are matched in a one-to-one partnership with a child in need of a positive, attentive adult. Reading together is just one of the many activities enjoyed by PAL participants. Other activities include arts and crafts, outings to the park, or helping with homework. Each PAL match chooses how they spend their time together, incorporating their own interests. Many PAL matches spend much of their time together simply talking and listening.
The PAL Program also holds monthly group activities. These parties are planned so that every child feels included. Halloween, Christmas, swimming, and bowling parties, movie day and board game night are all great fun.
After an application and interview process with PAL staff, PAL mentors commit to a year of consistent ñ weekly ñ contact with their PAL student. The contact can take place during the school day, in the evening or on weekends, as long as it is consistent.
This summer, PAL kids, with the encouragement and support of their PAL mentors, are participating in reading programs through the Star-Gazette and Applebeeís restaurant, and those kids who read at least 10 books will celebrate with our PAL-readers Party, complete with ice cream, cake, books and gummy bookworms.
People often tell me theyíre not sure what they have to offer as a mentor. It does not take any special skills to be a mentor. It takes the time and a desire to share your life and the things you enjoy with a child. Share the gift of reading. Share the excitement of choosing a book from the library. Share the stories and pictures that tap into the limitless imagination of a youngster.
For more information on how you can become a PAL mentor and make a positive difference in the life of a child, call the PAL office at 607/735-3093 or e-mail Adele Ayres, program coordinator, at aayres@elmiracityschools.com.
Adele Ayres is coordinator of the PAL Mentoring Program in Elmira and a member of the Family Reading Partnership of Chemung Valley. Her comments are part of a monthly series of articles about literacy.
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Sunday, June 18, 2006
Summertime, and the reading is easy
* Book discussion groups can be a warm-weather diversion.
We often think of reading as a solitary experience. We find ourselves quiet, alone with our thoughts as we read the authorís work. However, sharing your thoughts, reactions and responses to a book in a discussion with friends and family can make reading a social event.
As summer approaches, family reunions, picnics, outings and team events are added to the calendar. It is also a great time to consider organizing a book club/discussion. All you have to do is identify the group, pick a book, set a date and time, and make it happen. Here are some tips.
* The group: Anyone interested in reading and discussing a book can be a member; mothers and daughters, best friends, fathers and sons, ìthe cousins,î co-workers, teammates or neighbors can be a starting point. The group should be small. This gives all group members opportunities to share their thoughts. A good rule of thumb is eight to 10 participants, but a good discussion can be had with just two or three.
* The book: The process for choosing a book does not need to be complicated. Titles can be suggested by the group, and winners can be drawn from a hat. Picking a theme or book type (mysteries, science fiction, etc.) is another way. Parents may want to suggest a book they read growing up and have the children pick a favorite for parents to read. Just make sure that the book appeals to everyone and can be easily read if you are including children in the elementary grades.
* The format: Flexible, easy, unstructured are the ways to go. A good starting point would be to have each person share his or her thoughts, reactions, special passages, favorite or not so favorite characters, etc. in a round-robin fashion (with the option to pass). After that, the discussion can take any direction. Reserve about an hour for your group, but donít be surprised if you find you need more time; adjust as you go along.
Remember to keep it fun.
* Place and time: Allow enough time for each person to finish reading the book. Consider the length of the book and the type of fiction or nonfiction you have selected when deciding your time frame. Pick a time and place that is convenient for all, and you are ready.
Participating in a shared reading and book discussion will take you on a path to authors, titles and book choices you might never have considered. The exchange of thoughts and reactions to the book with others will give you a better appreciation for the authorís work and for the people you share it with. This benefit is well worth the time and effort to start or join a group.
For more tips and ideas, contact the Family Reading Partnership of Chemung Valley, 607/735-3593 or go online to www.familyreading.org
Ellen Hicks is a retired principal from the Elmira school district and a member of the Family Reading Partnership of Chemung Valley. Her comments are part of a monthly series of articles about literacy.
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Sunday, May 21, 2006
Passing on a love for reading
I remember as a child cuddling next to my grandmother while she read book after book to me -- sometimes the same one over and over again. Even before I started school, there were trips to the library that began a lifetime love of reading.
Books were an important part of my home, and when I had children, some of these same books were passed on to them. We made reading before naps and bedtime a daily ritual, and when they learned to read themselves, I listened to them and allowed them to stay up "just a little longer" if they were reading.
Whether it involves your own child, grandchild or that special person, books and magazine subscriptions tailored to the recipient make wonderful gifts. Inscribing a special message and signing and dating it can make it a special keepsake for the future. As children get older, sharing and discussing a book you enjoy with them helps bond you intellectually. Help them to discover different types of literature and realize just like you, they will go through phases and discover different interests and authors.
It is not only those active ways of reading to and supplying books to children that encourage the pleasures of reading. There are also those passive messages we give by making reading an important part of our own lives.
I have always had a bookcase filled with books in our home, and our children always had a bookcase in their rooms. My own reading habits are silently displayed through my nightly bedtime reading or those lazy summer moments spent curled up in the hammock with a good book.
Remember that actions speak louder than words. If you want the next generation to be readers, remember to make reading an active part of your life and pass it on. - TERESA FLETCHER
I remember at night as a child staying up late with Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael and Leonardo. I felt safe in their presence. I was not afraid of the evil foot clan and its colleagues, Bebop and Rocksteady, because they had my back.
And when the Ninja Turtles were out protecting the sewers from the foot clan, Optimus Prime and the Auto Bots would watch me as I slept. Now my heroes at night have evolved.
Coleridge, Milton and Stoker keep me safe at night from vampires, fallen angels and other crude individuals. My reading interests have evolved over the years, and my love of reading is something that I will continue to develop and pass on. - ROBERT SCOGGAN
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Sunday, April 23, 2006
Reading help for adults just a phone call away
Have you ever wanted to help your child with a homework problem but struggled? Or how about trying to read a story to your grandchild and fumbling over the words? Maybe you know someone who wants to get a job but is too embarrassed to fill out an application on-site because he can't read well enough.
Reading is a skill that many of us take for granted, but for those who have difficulty making sense of the written word, everyday reading can be a frustrating experience. Many adults have learned to compensate for a reading disability. Others pretend not to care, or they hide their discomfort. Help is available in our surrounding communities for adults who want to develop their reading skills.
Schuyler-Chemung-Tioga BOCES operates free Adult Learning Centers throughout its seven component school districts. Adults, 18 years of age or older, can enroll to practice and increase individual reading skills. These learning centers can be found in schools, One-Stop Centers, the Economic Opportunity Program and community agencies. The classes are small and individualized. Interested adults participate in an information session and take an assessment of their current reading skill level. From there, they are referred to a convenient location that meets their family and work schedule. Depending on skill level, if someone needed an individual tutor, a referral to Literacy Volunteers of America at EOP may be appropriate.
Taking the first step by making the call to find out about local programs is the hardest. Once adults ask for help, our area is rich in educational resources. Adults can study to improve reading skills and work on math and writing skills in adult learning centers. People without a high school diploma also can prepare for the GED test. If a person is 21 or older, SCT BOCES offers home-study options, such as the External Diploma Program, where adults can earn a local high school diploma.
There are no guarantees, but with hard work and determination, a person can achieve success. That achievement brings satisfaction and an open door to the future. That future can include higher education, training, a job, pride in helping a child with homework, and most of all, self-fulfillment. So take a look around and talk to family and friends. Encourage and support anyone who may want to take advantage of learning to read better. The help is there for the asking. Just call:
‰ SCT BOCES Adult Literacy Programs , 607/739-7684 or 800/724-5756.
‰ Literacy Volunteers of America at the EOP main office in Elmira, 607/734-6174.
Kate Buckley is an adult literacy specialist at the Schuyler-Chemung-Tioga BOCES and a member of the Family Reading Partnership of Chemung Valley. Her comments are part of a monthly series of articles about literacy.
This series
Kate Buckley, an adult literacy specialist at the Schuyler-Chemung-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services, writes today about helping adults improve their reading skills. This series of monthly columns is written by members of the Family Reading Partnership of Chemung Valley.
Online
Hear Kate Buckley read her column and learn more about the Star-Gazette's Need to Read program by going online. Go to www.stargazette.com and click on the Need to Read logo on the home page.
Under Literacy Columns find the link to Buckleyís column and click on it.
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Sunday, March 19, 2006
Literacy: It's a part of human nature
Words, spoken and read, must be an exercise lasting a lifetime.
About a dozen years ago or so, a British research team filmed infants in the presence of conversing adults. After analyzing the results frame by frame, they concluded that the seemingly erratic movements of the babies' arms and legs were actually synchronized with the rhythms of the speech they were hearing.
Apparently, we are born already wired for language, predisposed to learning quickly how to speak and listen. Playing with sounds and words, singing and talking to infants reap rapid and rich rewards in lifelong literacy, the phenomenal and uniquely human power to comprehend and communicate ideas, feelings and information through words.
If this is true, it is doubly sad that many children, by the time they start school, have lost this innate potential for language because it has not been nurtured during the earliest years of their lives. Instinctive though it may be, language facility is not self- sustaining or even self-starting.
Like any other muscle, the language muscle will waste away if it is not exercised. So how do we compensate for language deficiency in a child of 6 or 7, or even more challenging, a child of 11 or 12?
As with anything else we do willingly, there has to be a reward, something in the activity that we value or enjoy. Reading is no different. If a child does not know or believe that he will have such an experience when he reads, he will not do it readily or well, and certainly not frequently.
Even an adult reader will read what interests and stimulates him. He also learns through experience that reading expands exponentially that circle of interest, but a young nonreader won't believe for a minute that this can happen. He most likely won't even care. He will have to be shown and will have to experience for himself that there is discovery and excitement in reading that relates directly to his own identity and interests.
A number of years ago, a high school senior student of mine resisted every effort to get him to work on a research paper that was a graduation requirement. Although he had had difficulty at every step of his educational life, reading and writing were especially low on his list of fun things to do. Weeks went by, but he refused to even begin the project.
Finally, a resource teacher, his guidance counselor and I corralled him and tried to pin him down. "You can pick any topic you want," I said. He seemed surprised, even though that had been part of the game plan all along.
"Can I write about conservation?" he wanted to know. "Of course you can," I replied. "I like the woods and animals and stuff like that," he mused. "That's fine," I said. "Go for it." And off he went to start researching his topic.
He found information in books and magazines, and on the Internet. He needed help all the way through, but he kept at it and completed the assignment, much to his satisfaction and his teachers' great relief.
For older children with language deficiencies, it is not enough to assign whole class reading projects. There must be a strategy and supplementary staff in place to help each child pursue his own initial areas of interest through the reading experience. The priority placed on such support in terms of time and resources must be ranked among the very highest in a child's educational program, for nothing else academic will work well for him without the ability to read.
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Sunday, February 19, 2006
A love affair with reading
Printed words stir emotions and keep our minds lively.
What binds us together? It is people who understand relationships and communication. I am convinced that communication of what goes on in the heart matters. Reading is the tool that binds all ideas and feelings together. It enhances the relationship we have with all things.
I always saw myself not as the head teacher but the head learner, someone who shared a joy of reading and learning. The key to success in reading is motivation. If there is no one to share the ideas, solutions and feeling alive in the printed page, then it is the dead words of the living.
Reading is alive in students, teachers, parents and all who worked at Beecher, Booth and Pine City elementary schools, where I was the principal. It was the element that made the difference in learning. It was the power pack that drove the learning.
Reading, writing, speaking and listening were not just the curriculum elements; they were the ways we connected with each other. They were the tools for being totally human and totally alive. Reading. What a wonderful life it can bring. All we do is drink from its streams of poetry, fiction, biography, nonfiction and so much more.
I have a second-grade student I am mentoring this year who loves to read riddles and jokes. He made me laugh as he read the jokes that touched him. We connected because he could share what was part of his heart, what was important to him.
February is the month of valentines. It is the month of the heart. Reading is one way we share our hearts with each other. Reading from the heart is for all ages. It is about sharing memories, concerns and ideas that make a difference in each other's lives. Won't you be a valentine to a friend and share what you are reading?
My favorite book that I read to students, my children and in sermons is "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. It is a book to treasure and remember. What book touches your heart? What book will you share?
Fun by the page
Here are some tips to encourage reading with family members:
* Have children read their favorite jokes or riddles to you. Laugh together.
* Read your favorite story of the heart in honor of Valentine's Day last week. "Chicken Soup for the Heart" is a good one.
* Speaking of hearts, poetry brings the heart alive. Share your favorite poem.
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Sunday, January 22, 2006
Keeping track of how children read
Parents can nurture skills with books and involvement
Learning to read involves being able to recognize as well as understand the words that are printed. The building blocks for reading start right in the home through the initial interactions between parents and children.
Begin by sharing the experience of books through reading aloud to your children. Have numerous books available that you read with your child and that your child can see you read as a part of your daily schedule. Children need to receive the message that reading is fun.
As the child matures, make sure you discuss the books, help your child learn some of the words in the book and understand the story presented. He or she should be able to anticipate what will come next in the story and possibly recite some parts.
Guidelines to assist in monitoring where children should be in their reading development can be found in Sally Shaywitz's book, "Overcoming Dyslexia." Here is a summary:
* Early preschool (ages 3-4): Can recite nursery rhymes, repeat and play with sounds, and identify 10 letters of the alphabet (often in his or her name).
* Late preschool (ages 4-5): Can recognize and name a growing number of letters and can count the number of syllables in a spoken word.
Beginning kindergarten (ages 5-5Ï): Can name a word that rhymes with a simple word like cat and can mostly recognize as well as name all upper- and lower-case letters.
* End of kindergarten: Can easily name upper- and lower-case letters, beginning to learn about letter-sound matches, beginning to decode simple words, and is developing a sight word vocabulary.
* First grade (ages 6-7): Reads aloud with accuracy and comprehension (first-grade text), knows sounds of common letter groups or word families, reads simple instructions, and links letters to sounds to decode unknown words.
Parents' working in partnership with the classroom teacher are keys to children moving forward in developing skills in reading.
Online
* Hear Shari Simmons read her column and learn more about the Star-Gazette's Need to Read program by going online. Go to www.stargazette.com and click on the Need to Read logo on the home page. Under Literacy Columns find the link to her column and click on it.
* For tips about helping children develop strong reading habits, go to www.nea.org/parents/readingmattershome.html
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