How Can Parents Help Children to Learn?

1. How Can Parents Help Children to Learn?

2. What is SIG? • Grant Funded by OSEP • Goal: Increased Literacy for Students Pre-K through High School • Professional Development • Family Involvement

3. Your workshop presenters are:

4. Supporting Children’s Learning • Why are parents important in education? • Important areas in Reading Research – the “five pillars” • How does reading develop and improve? • How/why students struggle with reading • Strategies for reading improvement

5. Why are Parents Important in Their Children's Education? • What does the research say about the effect of family involvement? • What is family involvement? • Parenting • Communicating • Volunteering • Learning at Home

6. Building Blocks of Reading Phonemic Awareness Reading Ability Vocabulary Phonics Comprehension Fluency Reading Readiness Listen Read Print Talk

7. Phonemic Awareness A Phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a spoken word. Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words. • cat – how many phonemes?/c/ /a/ /t/ • cake – how many phonemes? /c/ /a/ /k/ • manipulating sounds • Beginning sounds - bat /b/ …. • Ending sounds - bat /t/ • Rhyming /b/ /a/ /t/ … /c/ /a/ /t/ • Hearing syllables – clapping, etc.

8. Phonics Phonics is the predictable relationship between phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters). • Systematic and explicit instruction • Connecting sounds to symbols • Consonants and vowels • Combinations and patterns • Assists in decoding efforts to make reading less of a struggle

9. Fluency Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression. • Bridges word recognition and comprehension. • Different than speed reading. • Changes with stage of development, familiarity with words, amount of practice • Ways to improve fluency: • Modeling good reading • Repeated reading • Adult-child reading • Choral reading • Tape-assisted reading • Partner reading

10. Vocabulary Vocabulary: the words we use and understand in reading, listening, and writing. We have a harder time reading and understanding those words whose meaning we do not know. • oral – speaking and listening • reading – recognize in print • Sometimes taught directly through word learning strategies like dictionary, word lists and parts, context clues • However, most vocabulary is learned indirectly through everyday experiences • talking, listening, reading • repeated exposure to words – read, write, say

11. Comprehension Comprehension is understanding what we read. It’s the reason for reading. Good readers think when they read: • Purposeful – know why they are reading • Use background knowledge – decode, recall, compare • Active – think while reading Monitor comprehension and use strategies • Identify where the difficulty occurs • Identify what the difficulty is • Restates in own words • Look back through text • Look forward for info that helps resolve difficulty • Able to use graphic organizers • Able to ask and answer questions • Use prior knowledge, predict and summarize

12. Example of importance of background knowledge: What do you need to know to read this recipe and bake these brownies? • Recipe for Brownies • 6 tablespoons Cocoa • 1/4 cup butter • 1 cup sugar • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla • 1/4 teaspoon salt • 1/3 cup flour • 1 cup toasted pecans (optional) • 2 eggs • Pour batter into greased and floured pan. Bake at 350° for ½ hour.

13. Literacy for All If your child has a disability, does that mean he or she shouldn’t be working on reading and writing skills? Would you like to learn more about helping your child in those areas? Support and Training for Exceptional Parents (STEP) (800) 280-STEP and Family Voices of Tennessee 1-888-643-7811 are two Tennessee organizations whose staff help parents of children with special needs. Call them for more information.

14. Model Good Reading • Read aloud - example • Let them see you read • Show children how to define the purpose for reading and to ask questions during reading • Show how there’s always more information to read about a subject

15. Venn Diagram Similarities and Differences The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf The True Story of the Three Little Pigs Different Different Similar

16. Story Map Main Characters Setting Problem of the story A story event Another story event How the problem is solved The ending

17. KWL Chart

18. Parent’s Role in Reading • Provide support • Read and have your child read – get them thinking and talking • Help them find interesting sources of reading • Visit the library and other places – give them background knowledge • Don’t make reading time at home a chore: be positive - “Now we get to read” instead of “You have to get your reading done.” • Read, read, read…

19. Recap What can parents do to support their children's learning? When do children start the “learning to read” process? What are the five areas researchers say are most important for learning to read? What are some of the ways in which children struggle with reading? How can we help children in those areas?

20. Questions?? Please visit the SIG Website for more strategies and ways to help your child improve reading skills: http://sig.cls.utk.edu/

21. Toolkit Tools The following material can be downloaded at no cost from http://sig.cls.utk.edu/ • Toolkit Book: Families Helping Children Become Better Readers • PowerPoint Presentation • Facilitator’s Guide