The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported, “that children who were read to frequently are 77% more likely to read or pretend to read and 60% more likely to count to 20 than those who were not.” (National Education Association) This statistic is one of many that demonstrates an emphasis on the importance of parents reading to children at a young age. Not only is there a significant change in children who have parents read to them but there is also a change when schools push more “fun” reading. I think that as a child the factors around you, such as your parents and school, are crucial to the way you view and experience reading and writing. When I was a child, my mom had an important influence on my reading skills but I also …show more content…
My love for reading was extremely strong when I was younger and one of my greatest accomplishments while in elementary school was becoming part of the “1000 AR Point Club”. This meant I got a certificate at an awards assembly and I also got my name put on a plaque hanging in the hallway. If it were not for my school offering rewards for reading and my mom who actively enjoyed reading with me, I never would have achieved that accomplishment. For as long as I can remember my mom has been an avid reader and writer. She graduated from college with a major in Journalism and a minor in English. From before I could comprehend what she was saying, my mom was reading to me. She started out reading simple, easy books to me every night, and as I grew older and could understand reading more fully, I began to read them on my own as well. I can still remember half of the lines from some of my favorite books as a kid because we read them so much. Having a mom who enjoyed to read affected my experience with reading quite a bit. My …show more content…
The more points we accumulated the more we were rewarded. Similar to the way Malcom X was rewarded while in prison because, “An inmate who was known to read a lot could check out more than the permitted maximum number of books” (Malcom X, 276) this was exactly the same method while in elementary school. The more we read and took quizzes the more we gained, not only academically, but from the school, teachers, and even parents. I believe that these AR points are what fueled my reading as a kid. I already had a passion for reading but because my school would give me homework where I simply had to choose a book I wanted to read and take a quiz on it, this only furthered my love for reading. Soon it was hard to find me anyplace without a book in hand, anywhere I went I was glued to my current choice of book. It is only because my school offered rewards for “fun” reading that I truly enjoyed reading and could do it
Struggling with reading came early on in Mikayla’s academic years. Her family was definitely an early influence in her reading ability. Her parents and grandparents were very involved in Mikayla’s reading development. Her father on his off nights would read bedtime stories to her and her sister until about third grade. After third grade, she was expected to read at least thirty minutes before bed every night. She also joined in on Grandpa’s morning rituals of reading the paper, she would read the funnies. According to Jongsu Wee, we learn our reading habits because it is embedded in our everyday life (Jongsu, 2009). Pamela, Mikayla’s mother, said that often Mikayla was very talkative about the books her parents would read to her. She was so excited about reading the next one that often times her mother would stop in the middle of reading to leave her in suspense. Her grandfather, Carl, was also a great influence in her reading. When she would stay at her grandparents’ house, Carl would often read her the funnies or a story in...
Instead of mom reading children’s books to me, I read them to her. And if I stumbled upon something I didn’t know or understand, mom helped me out! Soon enough I started reading to her without stuttering of not knowing how to say a word. I started being able to sound out words easier and my fluency became much better than before. First grade came around and I started reading bigger books such as Junie B. Jones and also the Magic Treehouse books. Books became easier to read as I aged and the books I read were getting bigger and bigger. In 5th and 6th grade I read The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire, and The Serpents Shadow, a trilogy called The Kane Chronicles written by Rick Riordan. I thought these three books were the greatest three books ever written! I even thought they were better than the hunger games! Especially with the series being based around Egyptian gods and theology, and also managed to tie in kids around my age that I could relate to. Those books made me love reading more than I ever have and I would read them again if I had the time to. Once 8th grade came out along I decided to read a “big boy” book: DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. I thought I was so cool because I was reading a book that my parents have read. It has been the best book I have yet to read so far because it sparked my interest from the first sentence, to the last, there was intense suspense throughout the whole book and I could nonstop
Throughout my childhood I was never very good at reading. It was something I always struggled with and I grew to not like reading because of this. As a child my mom and dad would read books to me before I went to bed and I always enjoyed looking at the pictures and listening. Then, as I got older my mom would have me begin to read with her out loud. I did not like this because I was not a good reader and I would get so frustrated. During this time I would struggle greatly with reading the pages fluently, I also would mix up some of the letters at times. I also struggled with comprehension, as I got older. My mom would make me read the Junie B. Jones books by myself and then I would have to tell her what happened. Most
As a child, I have always been fond of reading books. My mother would read to me every single night before I went to bed and sometimes throughout the day. It was the most exciting time of the day when she would open the cabinet, with what seemed to be hundreds of feet tall, of endless books to choose from. When she read to me, I wanted nothing more than to read just like her. Together, we worked on reading every chance we had. Eventually I got better at reading alone and could not put a book down. Instead of playing outside with my brothers during the Summer, I would stay inside in complete silence and just read. I remember going to the library with my mom on Saturdays, and staying the entire day. I looked forward to it each and every week.
There were many people throughout my childhood that help me to read, and write. However, my teachers, mom, and dad were all responsible for teaching me “how” to read and write. For example, in pre-kindergarten, I learned my alphabet, colors, shapes, numbers, and to follow instructions. Once I learned the above items, I returned home with homework. My mom and dad would help me with my homework, and structure activities around my learning. My mom and dad would encourage me to read because they believed it was very important. In addition, my mom would often read to me before I go to bed reinforce my learning. The readings before I go to be very instrumental in my learning.
Reading and writing has never been my strong suit, but it has been something I’ve learned how to cope with. My grandma would try to read me books and I would try to stay focused on the words but it was always a struggle. If it was a book with pictures I could always follow just a little better but it was still hard for me to comprehend the message. Some of the books she would read to me when I was around 2 years old were Fraggle Rock by Jim Henson and Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne. I seemed to like Winnie the Pooh better than Fraggle Rock. Fraggle Rock is a book series that has been passed down from my mother and a thing I plan to read to my children and the next generation. When it had come time for me to start trying to read the books I never could, I could look at pictures and make stuff up from the pictures but that was it.
I suppose, for quite a few years, I was a big disappointment to my mother as far as reading went. It wasn’t that I couldn’t read, it was that I never wanted to, and compared to my older brother, who read a book everyday, I was quite a let down. It might not have been such a dilemma to any other parent, but to my mother who’d taught and encouraged kids to read for many years, it certainly was.
My literacy skills began to develop much like Deborah Brandt suggests in her article of “Sponsors of literacy” My first memories of learning to write are still quite vivid. I remember holding a big fat crayon in my hand as my mother showed me how to write my name. She would draw a large line on the page and I would copy her movements. We started with capital letters and moved on to lower case letters. My memories of learning to read are similar. I remember my mother reading me picture books with large print that somehow turned in to reading sentences. Most of my early memories of learning to read and write include sitting with my mother, older sister and brothers. I had never really thought about the influence your family has on your reading
Children who are read to early age by their parent or at daycares do have advantages over other children at school who were not read to at an early age because of various reasons. Reading to kids at an early age improves their attention span. They are used to sitting down to listen to stories being read to them and they grow the story gets longer and they are more engaged and listen longer. This set of kids transition to class easily and are willing to sit down and listen to what their teacher have to say. Children who are read to at an early age try to copy what they are seeing and they want to learn to read themselves even if they start with pretend reading.
My parents do not make us read because they were not born in the United States but Laos. Hence, my parents and grandparents had never influence me and my siblings to read, for example, my mother never pushes me and my siblings to read a book or having her read to us before. Stories like Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and The Beast, Pocahontas, and The Little Mermaid. These stories, I have never read them as a child but only saw the movies. As a child, I don’t have much literacy experiences with my own family because everyone was busy; my father was a full-time college student at a community college, my mother was a housewife whose English was very limited and two older siblings whose busy with school and work and doesn’t have the time to help me and the rest of my other siblings. My family influence had impacted my literacy experiences because I feel like I did not gain any good remarks when it came to school
Before knowing how to read, my mother and father would read to me a book from my endless number of “The Bearnstein Bears” books. Every book had a lesson. I think that having been read to every night and being explained some of the words and their techniques of why they are the way they are, helped plow my way in favor of learning to reading in school. When it came to reading “Look at Spot” and those other memorable 2-3 worded pages that made up a story, I was always ahead and frequently help my teacher with her work rather then practicing reading with the rest of my class. Now being read to before bed time became reading to me mother and father. My most sentimental memory of being read to be when my father went overseas to be in Desert Storm, he recording himself reading a countless number of books so he could still read to me even though he was a lot of miles away. It was one of few moments I can really remember about him in my childhood. He was always around when he could be but when he wasn’t there he was dreadfully far away. When I started to read for myself, the books would consist of Amelia Badelia, Peanut, Butter, and Jelly, and any book authored by Shell Silverstein. Eventually in school we were being assigned to read books for class and for Accelerated Reader. AR book are certain books that contain a test you take and the difficulty of the book corresponds with the number of point receives with each correct answer given. After, about, every six weeks there is an AR prize cart. This system works like Chucky Cheeses’ or Peter Piper Pizza. You could wait to “spend” your points until the end and receive a really expenditure and remarkable prize. It encouraged others and me to read more and to read the more difficult books.
Throughout my life, reading and writing were a positive thing because of the support from the people around. I was never really the confident or extroverted type of person back in the day. This then caused me to be anxious when I read or be doubtful of what I wrote. I can still remember breaking balls of sweats and tensing up whenever I had to read something aloud in elementary. It was a pretty big social problem for me but I can also recall many times where I was laughing and having fun while doing something with reading or writing with my mother. Although there have been many things that affected me so far in my literary journey, my mother has been the most supportive and impactful person to me by reading short stories, going to the library, and giving me writing prompts. One of the activities I liked to do before I fell asleep was to read.
Reading was never something I fussed about growing up. As a child, I loved genres of realistic fiction. I was hooked on The New Adventures of Mary Kate and Ashley, Goosebumps, The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes, Judy Moody, and especially, Zoobooks and Highlights magazines. My mother was always ready to help build my reading and writing skills. She took me to the library constantly to feed my passion for books and knowledge. I loved exploring the shelfs, organizing the books, and filling up my library cart. I tried keeping a diary in elementary school to keep track of my outings with my parents and grandparents to museums, zoos, movies, and libraries. This flash of writing enthusiasm was spun from books I read in the 4th and 5th grade that were
Reading has been a part of my life from the second I was born. All throughout my childhood, my parents read to me, and I loved it. I grew up going to the library and being read to constantly. Especially in the years before Kindergarten, reading was my favorite thing to do. I grew up loving fairy tales and thriving on the knowledge that I could have any book I wanted, to be read to me that night. Having no siblings, my only examples were my parents, and they read constantly. Without a family that supported my love of reading throughout my childhood, I wouldn’t appreciate it nearly as much as I have and do now.
Reading aloud helps a child’s memory, curiosity, and it builds their motivation (“Importance of Reading Aloud”). “Reading aloud introduces the language of books which differs from language heard in daily conversation, on television, and in movies. Book language is more descriptive and uses more formal grammatical structures”. Children learn many things while being read to. The more books that are read to children, the more their vocabulary expands. Reading to children can introduce them to different literature they might not find on their own (Koralek). Another essential skill that children need is the ability to listen, which they learn while being read to (“Importance of Reading Aloud”). Not only does reading give children the ability to listen, it gives them the ability to understand how stories work. “The more a child knows about and experience the joys of reading before kindergarten, the easier it will be to learn to read,” (“Why Reading to Children Is Important”). Reading is fun and the more it is done, the more children will enjoy it