Reading and Writing Tips




Reading
- Encourage your children to read a wide
variety of genres. Ask them to read signs while in the car, labels at
the supermarket, maps while traveling, magazines, newspapers, comic books,
poetry, cookbooks, nonfiction books, chapter books, etc.
- Seek out books that cater to your child's
interests.
- Ask your child questions about what they
read (who, what, where, when, why, etc.).
- Have your child make predictions about
what they think will happen next.
- Encourage your children to read to
others...siblings, neighbors, family, and friends.
- Let your children see you reading.
- Set aside a quiet reading time each day.
Make it part of their routine.
- Order a subscription to a magazine that
would interest your child.
- Take your child to the library at least
twice a month.
- Talk to your students about new words they
see while reading.
- Expose your child to many different
activities outside of school in order to give them background knowledge.
If a student can relate to a story or text, they will understand it better.
Take them to the zoo, to the beach, on picnics, to the pumpkin patch,
shopping, on the train, encourage them to watch the news, etc.
- Buy blank books and help your child create
their own book. Have them read it to anyone who will listen.
- Play games that include language, such as
Scrabble, Leap Pad, Monopoly, Clue, Life, Risk, etc.
Writing
- Buy your child a variety of writing
supplies: pens, pencils, gel pens, markers, colored paper, stationary,
blank note cards and journals.
- Write your child notes and ask them to
reply.
- Have your child write thank you notes when
they receive gifts.
- Encourage your child to write letters to
family that live out of town.
- Write a story together.
- Often, students don't write because they
don't know what to write about. Give them prompts to lead them into
writing such as "My favorite vacation ever was...", "My earliest memory
was...", or "If I could plan the next road trip...".
- Let children create the grocery list.
- Buy your child a dictionary, thesaurus,
and rhyming dictionary to use with their writing. Encourage them to come
up with unique words, use synonyms and antonyms, and literary devices, such as
alliteration, personification, and metaphors in their writing.
- Use graphic organizers to help arrange
thoughts before writing. Click
here to find some great ones.
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Kunkel's Home Page