Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Raising a Reader, Naturally
    Raising a Reader, Naturally
    Raising a Reader, Naturally
    Ebook133 pages3 hours

    Raising a Reader, Naturally

    By Deborah J Reis

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Most of us barely remember how we learned to read. We were very little and the process, understandably, was gradual. So now that you are faced with raising your own reader, how and where do you begin? Raising a Reader, Naturally, guides you through the process, right from birth, in a natural, pleasant and reassuring way. It guides you through the "how," and helps you understand the "why." Raising a Reader, Naturally, also explains how a child mentally processes information as together you undertake this important journey. While reading to your child is important, it is not enough. There is much more to consider, to understand.

    Today myriads of studies and researchers remind us of what parents of early readers have always practiced -- always known. Early and successful readers are not born. They are lovingly nurtured and guided right from the moment of birth. Young readers are a product of senior partners who understand that is just as important to nurture their child intellectually as it is to change their diapers, teach them to kick a ball or feed them those icky green beans. It is the senior partner who makes all the difference -- it has little to do with the family genes. Early and successful readers can sprout anywhere and everywhere -- basically it is all up to you.

    As a teacher, reading specialist and consultant to what at this point amounts to literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of students, teachers, parents and volunteer tutors, I am always amazed at how much can be accomplished when somebody cares. While this book begins with raising a reader from birth, the same principles apply when assisting any new or reluctant reader at any age. It is a must read for any caregiver or tutor who is wondering "where to begin?"
    Raising a Reader, Naturally, is not an academic textbook, nor does it advocate any particular reading method, drills or prescribe exercises. It simple asks a knowledgeable parent or caregiver to be there, to raise a successful reader naturally -- through sensitivity, guidance and grace.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDeborah J Reis
    Release dateMay 28, 2015
    ISBN9781311337504
    Raising a Reader, Naturally
    Author

    Deborah J Reis

    Deborah J Reis is the mother of four excellent readers and seven grandchildren who also grew to become wonderful readers. While this is important, Deborah also spent her teaching career as a reading specialist in elementary schools, high schools, community colleges and at Northeastern Illinois University, as well as a reading and writing consultant to home-school parents and students. Most notably she has worked as a reading consultant to the Chicago Public Schools and as Reading Coordinator/Consultant to the Partners In Education tutoring program at Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church. Deborah J Reis earned her Master’s Degree in Education, Reading Specialist, from Eastern Washington University. Her blog, http://raisingareadernaturally.blogspot.com welcomes your questions, comments and suggestions. Deborah is now retired and lives and writes on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

    Related to Raising a Reader, Naturally

    Related ebooks

    Relationships For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Parenting In A Pandemic

      May 2, 2020

      Parenting In A Pandemic
      10 min read

    • Article

      Tots Gone wild

      Jan 4, 2020

      Tots Gone wild
      4 min read

    • Article

      Mexico Tells Early Learners: You Need To Play More.

      Jan 8, 2019

      Mexico’s experiment with prescribing songs and games for young children to improve their development is prompting discussion around the question “What is the role of play in education?”

      5 min read

    • Article

      Should You Try Again?

      May 26, 2020

      Researchers from the University of Oxford in the UK have found that while there are more health complications associated with delivering vaginally after a caesarean birth, the risk is generally very low. Overall, only 1,8 percent of women attempting

      2 min read

    • Article

      Financial Wellbeing

      Aug 25, 2021

      Financial Wellbeing
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Winning Formula

      Sep 10, 2019

      The Winning Formula
      4 min read

    • Article

      Make Eating Easy

      Sep 18, 2020

      Giving your toddler the nutrition she needs is not as hard as it might sound. Food gives us the energy needed to carry out daily tasks, and, for toddlers, the energy needed to grow. This growing process requires a lot of fuel, so you may be surprised

      5 min read

    • Article

      Where There’s Hope ...

      Sep 17, 2021

      Idon’t want to jinx it, but I’m feeling ever so slightly hopeful that things in general are getting a little better. As I write this, the third wave is in decline, my husband and I are halfway vaccinated, and most of my extended family and close frie

      2 min read

    • Article

      Are Our Kids SAFE ONLINE?

      Dec 20, 2022

      How often should you talk to teenage children about what they’re up to online? New research found that 23% of parents avoid talking to their kids about online safety* and shockingly, 74% would wait for a trigger such as a negative change in their chi

      3 min read

    • Article

      Give Them Presence

      Feb 14, 2020

      HOW do you raise healthy, happy kids who feel at home in the world? Read all the parenting bestsellers, spend hours ferrying them from one extramural to the next, buy them the latest educational toys and gadgets? None of the above. Child experts Dani

      2 min read

    • Article

      Raised In A Bubble

      Nov 19, 2021

      I’m worried about my toddler’s social milestones. Because of Covid, we decided not to send him to crèche or school. He was born just before the first lockdown and, looking back, I realise that he probably hasn’t even left our property more than 10 ti

      2 min read

    • Article

      12 Tips

      Jun 12, 2023

      12 Tips
      5 min read

    • Article

      We This

      Jul 16, 2021

      We This
      1 min read

    • Article

      Preschoolers Learn Math Skills With Blocks And Patterns

      Aug 27, 2018

      Patterning and spatial activities like playing with blocks are simple yet powerful activities through which preschoolers develop early math skills, according to new research. A 4-year-old lines up colorful blocks in a row: red-red-green-red-red-green

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Raising a Reader, Naturally

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Raising a Reader, Naturally - Deborah J Reis

      Raising a Reader, Naturally

      Through Sensitivity, Guidance & Grace

      By

      Deborah J Reis

      Copyright 2015

      Smashwords Edition

      ISBN 9781311337504

      Raising a Reader, Naturally

      By

      Deborah J Reis

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Chapter One -- New Partners in Literacy and Love

      Chapter Two -- Who’s Listening?

      Chapter Three -- Advanced Conversations

      Chapter Four -- Reading to Baby

      Chapter Five -- Early Books -- Stories and Lessons

      Chapter Six -- The Well-Connected Baby: How Baby Learns

      Chapter Seven -- A Little Partner’s Learning Pace

      Chapter Eight -- Reading for Meaning Comes First

      Chapter Nine -- Advanced Reading Comprehension: Baby Bats and Who Done It?

      Chapter Ten -- Learning Letter and Word Skills, Naturally

      Chapter Eleven -- Early and Creative Writing

      Chapter Twelve -- eBooks and Reading Software

      Chapter Thirteen -- The Big Library: Helping Partners Grow

      Chapter Fourteen -- Warning: First-grade Reading Instruction!

      About the Author

      Introduction

      A Fortunate Child

      If you had a mother or father, or grandparent, or care-giver that carried on conversations with you when you were still gooing and cooing then you were a most fortunate child. And if you had someone who held you close and read stories and poems to you even from your earliest hours or days, you were even more fortunate. And if this caring and loving partner played peek-a-boo and this-little-piggy with you, and helped you spell your name with building blocks, and pointed out street signs and the labels on your Cherrio’s box, then I’m sure you still remember the warm pride you felt when your first-grade classmates looked upon you with awe. At a very early age you were already recognized as an expert reader. And deservedly so. For you not only read early, but continued to become a life-long reader – a triumph, a reading success.

      Ahead of your class, in just your first four, five or six years, you had already become a literate human being, at least as far as early literacy goes. Then if before the glow of best reader in the class had a chance to fade, your father or mother, or grandparent, or favorite aunt or uncle insisted upon maintaining your regular run to the local library; insisted upon continuing to read with you and reinforce your school-learned lessons at home you no doubt continued on at the head of your class. And if your conversations with older siblings or tutors or other significant adults helped you continue to make connections to new ideas and words and subject matter, then it is easy to understand the pride you felt in your achievements and academic success.

      By adulthood, or college-age, whichever came first, you had, of course, become a first-class reader. You had reached that stage in your reading where you could read fluently and could comprehend what you read with relative ease. Of course, you did not yet have the technical or specialized vocabulary or knowledge your chosen occupation or career would require, but you had the skills to decode new words and the resources to comprehend what you were reading. Even when you felt overwhelmed with the intensity of college-level or work-related reading, your lifetime of reading experience and acquired reading skills and strategies helped you succeed. And if the going became too tough, you knew the value of finding a partner who could share your frustration and between the two of you shared the reading load.

      As a most fortunate individual, right from the very beginning, you were blessed with a natural road to reading success. No one waited until you were in first grade to introduce you to the alphabet song or impress upon you the structure and meaning of language. No one pretended there wasn’t time to play games with you, or read Yertle the Turtle to you, or to help you write your third-birthday-party grocery list. An expert you were guided through the language and reading process essentially from birth. And you did not do it alone.

      Much research has been published that supports and gives its blessing to the fortunate life of an early reader. Just as we have long suspected, literacy begins at birth and continues throughout our lives, but most successfully, especially in the early years, through the support of partners or caring adults. Structured classroom reading instruction has its place -- mostly as a means of catch-up for less fortunate children. But early literacy is largely dependent upon someone from whom one can learn, who will be there for support, moral and otherwise, and who most of all is a willing and interested partner throughout a child’s early years.

      And so now, expert reader, it is your turn to hand off this privilege to the newest generation. But where do you begin? How will you know when it’s time to learn the alphabet? The sounds of the letters? To sound out words? Do no damage, the old axiom shouts. Yet there’s always that risk when taking a child down a prescribed and structured path to literacy. Such a path is often strewn with rules that barely or never apply -- or worse, there is little or no consideration given to individual differences and learning paces. It is much easier to start early and let the reading process evolve in a natural sort of way. It is far more pleasant to let the introduction of oral and written language become a natural part of a child’s day; to help your child understand the purpose and structure of print; to guide your little partner naturally through the appropriate skills as he or she learns to read and write. It is always a delight. All you need to do is dedicate yourself to the task at hand – then let this book be your guide.

      The Less Fortunate Child

      If perchance you were not a fortunate child with partners willing and able to guide you through the reading process, and you instead were forced to learn to read from structured first or second-grade lessons along with 25 other less fortunate children, do not despair. Even if you were left to struggle along behind your classmates this book is still for you. In fact, it is mostly for you. For it will show you how you can successfully guide your child along the path to literacy as well as to explain why you need to help. So if you were not an early reader yourself and feel you have missed something important in your own reading journey, dedicating yourself now to your child’s future success should help make it up to you.

      Sensitivity, Guidance and Grace

      Early readers can not be forced – they can only grow naturally under the loving tutelage of someone they know and trust. So as you take up this book, you will discover that your child’s learning-to-read journey is mostly a natural process, because essentially that’s what it should be. Of course learning to read entails mastery of certain skills and practices along the way. Successful reading partners, however, do not necessarily have to adhere to any child development time-lines or predetermined schedules – they simply progress at their own pace. They practice a continuous flow of learning and reading development. They start with the introduction of both oral and written language; move on to the gradual mastery of appropriate skills until the Hallelujah day when the little partner becomes a fluent and expert reader. It all follows a natural progression, always continuing to build upon what a little partner already knows and then expanding his or her skills as appropriate. There are no grade levels (or grades!) here – only sensitivity, guidance and grace.

      Neither does this book adhere to any particular reading method. No whole language, no exclusive concentration on phonics, but rather an approach that relies upon introducing skills and techniques when and as they are needed. In reality, if handled naturally under the care and tutelage of a senior partner, chances are the littlest partner will hardly notice that learning to read is really hard work. What’s more, there is very little you have to learn to help your little partner succeed. Mostly, you just have to be there.

      If it’s all so easy, you say, why then haven’t we thought of this before? The answer is we have. Shakespeare’s parents no doubt thought of this, as did Thomas Edison’s and Jane Austen’s. And they certainly did all right. The problem is that the 20th century came roaring up behind us and by the 21st Century we all became so busy we decided it was best to leave the whole learning-to-read business to the bedraggled first-grade teacher. It hasn’t, of course, worked out very well.

      So now our newest century cries out for expert readers and we find ourselves pretty much at a loss. Except we still know that it is relatively easy to start anew. For today as we face the consequences of a nation of poor readers, we (and the child development experts) have finally realized that learning to read should never begin with first-grade. We also know that the very best readers have always been guided, supported and assisted when they needed it and not when a standardized curriculum guide said so.

      As a parent, teacher, reading specialist and consultant to what at this point amounts to literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of students, parents and volunteer tutors, I am always amazed at how much can be accomplished even in a short period of time when somebody cares. And when it comes to reading, the sooner the better. Today myriads of studies and researchers remind us of what parents of early readers have always practiced – always known. Early readers are not born. They are lovingly nurtured and guided right from the moment of birth. Early readers are a product of senior partners who understand that it is just as important to nurture their child intellectually as it is to change their

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1