I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend! Our thoughts are with all of those that are being affected by Gustav.
This week’s Literacy Lowdown offers some cool resources that you’ll be sure to use again and again. Have fun browsing…
Book Hooked: Do you remember that first book that really got your interest? The one that made you love reading? Well, go share it with the world over First Book! They’re running a voting contest to find out what the top 50 books are that made people love reading as kids. At the end of the voting (Sept 15th), the state that wins will receive 50,000 of those books to give to children in need. What a great cause…spread the word!
Cool Tool: What’s my number one tip for parents and teachers? Read aloud to your kids!. There are so many great things that come from reading books aloud…so keep on reading to them! Here’s a really cool (and totally free) resource that allows you to upload different types of text (word docs, PDFs, websites, etc.) and then have the computer read it to your child. Read The Words can be so useful! You can also use this as a teaching tool for writing. When I was in the classroom, I would always make my kids read their writing aloud to me so they could hear what it sounded like. About 90% of the time they would catch their own mistakes and make it better without me saying a word (just because they could hear that it didn’t sound right or make sense). This would be a great tool for older kids to use for that purpose.
The Classics: While on the topic of reading books aloud…here’s a great free resource for getting classic audio books. You can download the MP3s and even listen to them on your iPod. What an awesome way to expose your kids to the classics!
Comprehension Tips: As I’ve mentioned before, I’m in the process of adding to our Comprehension section. Stay tuned for the upcoming Comprehnsion Strategies and Skills series of posts! In the meantime, Collen Felz shares some great tips on encouraging reading comprehension that go along with the suggestions I’ll soon be sharing with you.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Just a word of confirmation for “reading aloud” to your kids.
The boys loved it when I would read aloud before bedtime or even during our daily school time. We went through the Chronicles of Narnia series, or the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Any books that took them into a fantasy world or life. We did this for many many years. Now both boys are avid readers. It seems so trivial to say, but when I was reading to them, it was not to get them hooked on reading. It was more for the wonderful experience it provided. The fact that they now love to read is just one of the great side affects.
Thanks for sharing Rob! That’s a perfect example of why this simple tip is my favorite to share with parents.
It’s so great when the simple act of reading together leads to a life-long love of reading for pleasure!