Get in on the ground floor: early literacy development at your Read-Aloud

Reading research demonstrates that literacy learning starts at birth. Crucial components of reading skills are built long before a child starts school, mostly by adults talking with young children, reading to them and providing them with lots of experiences.

Fortunately, very young children are champs at absorbing these important concepts and skills they’ll need later on. They just need a grown-up to show them. If I child doesn’t learn these concepts and skills before school starts, he’s going to be playing catch-up for a while. And even as kids are catching their stride as independent readers, practicing these early literacy skills strengthens their abilities. 

Here are the cornerstones of early literacy development and some ways to incorporate them into your Read-Aloud or a reading experience with a child in your life. 

Comprehension

Understanding what you read requires a large vocabulary, lots of experiences in the world and the abilities to both predict what will happen next and to connect what you are reading with your life experiences. 

 
Every new word a child learns and every experience a child has are money in the bank that he can draw on to help him understand as he reads or listens to a new text. The bigger the vocabulary and the more life experiences, the bigger the “account” from which to draw. 

To develop comprehension skills at your Read-Aloud, choose books with unusual words and take the time to talk with the kids about what those words mean. Choose books with a repetitive or predictable structure and pause while you are reading to let the kids practice predicting what will happen next. Some books, such as Who Hops? by Katie Davis, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? by Bill Martin Jr. and many books by Jan Brett include hints and questions to help kids guess what will come next. Encourage the kids to make connections between the book and their own experiences. Model these skills by saying things like “I wonder what that word means.” or “Gee—what will happen next. Maybe…” or “Oh, this reminds me of the time when I …”

Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness means being aware that letters have sounds associated with them and words are a combination of those sounds. Children’s books are the perfect tools for helping kids become aware of letter and word sounds because so many of them have great rhyme, alliteration and rhythm. 

Rhyme and alliteration help kids learn about the sounds that letters make. Rhythm helps kids recognize words, syllables and the sounds they make. Nursery rhymes are also a great way to teach these skills since they include rhyme and often incorporate hand motions that illustrate the text.

"Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they are four years old, they’re usually among the best readers by the time they are eight."  -- Mem Fox, Reading Magic.

Why? Because nursery rhymes have great rhyme, rhythm and alliteration.

To build phonological awareness at your Read-Aloud, choose books with rhyme, rhythm and alliteration (words all starting with the same sound.) Encourage the kids to finish rhymes when you pause, clap out rhythms and name other words that rhyme or start with the same sound.  Try pairing a book with an associated nursery rhyme. Teach younger kids the words and help them sing along.

Alphabetic Principle

Letters are just symbols. They are shapes that have sounds associated with them. Developing this concept requires helping kids recognize letters, name them and learn the sounds that are associated with them.

Read ABC books and books with alliteration with the kids. Encourage the kids to point out letters they recognize and to make the different sounds letters make. A recent story on NPR tells of a study that found that asking kids to identify letters on a page in a story helped their reading skills even several years later.

Concepts about print

Simply put, it’s understanding how books work. Any book will do. 

Help the child identify parts of the book (cover, spine, title page, author and illustrator), orient the books for reading (right side up), understand the direction of text (in English, we read left to right) and distinguish words from pictures. 

Reading research has identified the four concepts above as the cornerstones of early literacy development.  I’d add one more:  delight in books and reading.  Developing positive feelings about books and reading are also essential to becoming a life-long reader. So be sure to keep your Read-Alouds fun. You’ll be helping create readers from the bottom up!


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Norm-proofing your Read-Aloud: gender in children's books

It's important to remember that even when it seems like kids are squirmy and fidgeting, they are absorbing on a subconscious level the things that are going on around them. Unfortunately this doesn't mean that they can learn the multiplication tables by osmosis; it does mean, however, that we have to be careful about the social messages we send with the words, actions, and texts we share with them.


Luckily we've reached a day and age where we recognize sexism in many of its most blatant forms. Most people of any gender can tell you why it's important that books about careers show both boys and girls as both teachers and doctors, presidents and stay-at-home parents. The bad news is that sometimes the progress that we have made makes it harder to see where we still need to make progress.


There are a few methods of combating stereotypically restrictive "gender norms" in books. One familiar method involves celebrating young women as the strong protagonists of their own stories. The shelves are full of stories where girls save (or outsmart!) boys, retellings of fairy-tales that cast princesses as their own savior, Hermione-esque girls who know that looks are not nearly as important as intellect.

Cimorene would
make Betty Friedan proud...

...Bella is another story.

Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted or Patricia C. Wrede's Dealing with Dragons are both "princess" stories with girls who take control of their own destiny, and Annie Barrows' Ivy and Bean are certainly a force to be reckoned with. These are definitely books to point our girls towards as they get older and start to read on their own--but a female protagonist does not necessarily equal a positive message about gender! After all, this is the Twilight generation, and Bella Swan simply doesn't hold up under critical scrutiny. So be aware of what you're giving out, and remember that the lessons taught to us by media in any form are the hardest to unlearn.

There are books that show boys in non-traditional roles as well--check out Sport in Harriet the Spy and as the star of the sequel, Sport. In Leonardo the Terrible Monster author Mo Willems champions sensitivity and friendship over fierceness, and in Max by Rachel Isadora a young boy learns to have a great time practicing ballet!

For younger children, the important thing to look for in books are characters who are not defined by their gender--that is, characters who are vibrant and distinctive and creative and also just happen to be boys or girls. This is the case in many picture books these days. It doesn't matter if Anna Dewdney's Little Llama is a boy llama or a girl llama; the important thing is that Little Llama can't sleep!


When choosing books for a Read-Aloud, be wary of any book where gender is a defining characteristic of a character.

When it comes to the give-away book box, directing girls to only books about girls and boys only books about boys needlessly limits their options. Of course, if a little girl only wants to read books about female fairies and a little boy only wants to read books about male truck drivers, then it's better for them to read only those things than not at all--but TRC is all about forming healthy reading habits, so why not try to help kids form healthy attitudes about gender too by encouraging broader book choices?  We’ll provide books with interesting, caring and independent characters and you can do the rest!

Post by The Reading Connection intern Anna McCormally.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Use it or lose it! Tackling summer reading loss

Summer is officially here. We've had our Memorial Day cookouts and the temperature and humidity are ramping up. Kids are getting excited about school getting out and educators across the country are worried about how much kids' abilities will deteriorate over the summer.

Summer reading loss is a real and cumulative problem.   

Available research indicates that the reading achievement of poor children, as a group, typically declines during the summer vacation period, while the reading achievement of children from more economically advantaged families holds steady or increases modestly.            

(Richard Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen, Phi Delta Kappan, September, 2003.)

Moreover, researchers have found that these losses are cumulative over time. So if two kids are at the same reading level at the beginning of second grade, by the time they reach the end of sixth grade, the poor child can be nearly three years behind. Studies show that there is little or no difference between the children’s achievement while school is in session. It is what happens over the summer that sets poor kids back.  

This video from Education Nation demonstrates the contrast between the summer experiences of underprivileged children versus those of their more affluent peers:

What factors cause this phenomenon? Poor kids face a triple threat over the summer in relation to their more affluent peers. They experience the following: 

Lack of access to books.
Poor kids have fewer books in their homes and less access to public libraries than middle-- and upper -- income kids. If you don't have any books, you can't practice your reading skills.

Lack of encouragement and motivation to read during the summer.
Poor kids are less likely to be involved in programs sponsored by libraries, book stores and communities that encourage and reward reading for fun over the summer. If reading isn't fun, kids are less likely to do it on their own.



Lack of resources and opportunities to build background knowledge. 
Poor kids' families have fewer resources to send their kids to summer camps or enrichment programs or to take family outings and trips than more affluent kids. 
  

Why do real-world experiences matter?

Real-world experiences build both vocabulary and background knowledge. These two factors influence reading comprehension. The more background knowledge a child has, the better he will understand what he's read, even if his vocabulary is inadequate.

Summer reading programs have been trying to address the first two problems for years, with varying success. Some schools send books home with kids over the summer to provide book access. Libraries and bookstores conduct summer reading programs and challenges to motivate kids to read.

TRC's We Are Readers summer reading initiative works to address all three. 

Access to books:  We continue our Read-Aloud program during the summer with all of our partner agencies, including the weekly opportunity for kids to choose books to keep. We also continue our Book Club program, which provides children's books to families through the mail.

Motivation:  At our participating We Are Readers sites, we create a bulletin board system to track how much kids read for fun, and each site sets aside time every day for the kids to read whatever they want to (or be read to).  This year our theme is the Olympics, so kids will be adding flames to a torch for every ten minutes they read for fun. We also provide prizes for site staff to give kids when they catch kids reading for fun. Seeing the torch get bigger and accumulating prizes motivates the kids to read, read, read.

Real-world experiences:  TRC makes real-world experiences central to the We Are Readers program. We make the participating sites' summer events calendars and children's programming plans available to our volunteers so that they can plan Read-Alouds that correlate to the kids' experiences. For example, if a site takes the kids to Great Falls, TRC volunteers might do a Read-Aloud about hiking and camping. TRC also brings in special guests and creates opportunities for the kids to have new experiences, such as preparing the kinds of foods a visiting zookeeper feeds the pandas at the National Zoo.

What can you do to make this summer one with learning gains instead of losses?

Participate in a local reading program through your public library, bookstore or The Reading Connection. In one week in May, 123 kids read for 15,000 minutes in the Arlington Kids Read Read-A-Thon. Keep the momentum going by joining TRC's We Are Readers summer initiative through the Arlington Kids Read website. We'll post our Olympics theme tracking materials as well as outlines from some of our favorite summer time Read-Alouds for you to use with young readers starting at the end of June.

Make sure the kids in your life have lots of books available to them. Visit the library, swap books with friends and search your shelves for old favorites that have been buried behind more recent titles. Include newspapers and magazines in what you offer kids during the summer. Check out Reading Rockets' summer reading list for ideas.

Use great resources like James Patterson's ReadKiddoRead website. He provides easy steps to make reading the thing to do this summer as well as a great list of books. Reading Rockets also has a handy guide to make sure your kids have fun reading this summer.  Finally, Reading Rockets has created a new summer reading program called Start With a Book.

Finally, try something new with your kids this summer. Teach them to garden, cook or fix a bike. Explore your neighborhood or visit a museum. Listen to a new kind of music together. Gather family stories from your elders. Every new experience builds vocabulary and background knowledge, improving comprehension. And the more you understand what you are reading, the more fun it is to read!


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Get Moving!

Kids have lots of energy! No matter how much kids love it when you read to them, they often have trouble sitting through a Read-Aloud. Most of the time the kids at a Read-Aloud have spent all day being asked to sit still and listen at school and during their after school programs. Schools have recess, fine arts and PE to give the kids a chance to give their minds a break. Read-Alouds should have time built into them for the kids let loose a bit as well.

Start out your Read-Aloud with a game of Simon Says, a round of stretches or a one minute dance-around. This will give the kids a chance to clear their brains and use some of the energy they've been storing. This is especially important on a rainy or snowy day when the kids have been cooped up inside all day. A simple routine of reaching up to the sky, down to the ground, to the left and right can do wonders.

It is equally as important to let the kids move again when they get restless between books. Ask the kids to participate in the story, acting out what the characters are doing by stomping their feet like the dinosaurs or waving their arms like the monkeys in the book. 

If the crowd is on the younger end of the spectrum, try a song with movements such as Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes or I'm a Little Teapot. Check this blog post from last September with more song options.

One of our favorite sources of movement activities is a book from Responsive Classroom entitled Energizers! 88 Quick Movement Activities that Refresh and Refocus by Susan Lattanzi Roser. Many of these activities have accompanying videos online so you can see them in action.  Check out a few of the examples below and consider using one at your next Read-Aloud. Also be sure to check out the monthly Read-Aloud tips for theme-related movement activities.

A Tootie Ta

This song asks the kids to do certain actions and to combine them as the song continues. Hilarity will ensue, so be sure the adults do it too, so the kids know it's okay to be silly.

This group of pre-K kids will show you how it's done.

Lyrics: A tootie ta, a tootie ta, a tootie ta ta (x2)
Add one of the following at the end of each verse. This part is call and response.
Thumbs up, elbows back, feet apart, knees together, bottoms out, tongues out, eyes shut, turn around.

Go Bananas! 

Let the kids "go bananas!" and channel some of their energy! Don't worry if they mix up their lefts and rights--the point is to have fun!

Words	Actions
Bananas…Unite!	Arms above head, palm together
Peel Bananas, peel-peel bananas (x2)	Lower arms one at a time, then return to above head
Peel to the left	Lower left arm
Peel to the right	Lower right arm
Peel down the middle	Lower arms in front of body
And chomp! Take a bite	Clap arms like an alligator mouth
Chomp, chomp! Take a bite	Clap arms like an alligator mouth
Go bananas, go-go bananas! (x2)	Jump and spin around freely

Now here it is in action:

Dum Dum Dah Dah!

This follow-the-leader activity gives kids a chance to be the leader once they've gotten the hang of it. This can be useful for validating kids who might not often have the chance to lead a group.

The leader says "Dum dum dah dah" and demonstrates two different actions. Then, the group imitates him or her. Here are some examples:

Leader: Dum dum (clap hands) Dah dah (clap thighs)

Group: Dum dum (clap hands) Dah dah (clap thighs)

Leader: Dum dum (pats shoulders) Dah dah (pats head)

Group:Dum dum (pats shoulders) Dah dah (pats head) 

Possible movements include (but aren't limited to--make up your own, and have the kids make them up!) toe touches, straight knees/bent knees, lean left/lean right, snap fingers.

Over the course of the exercise, get quieter and quieter.  End with "Shhh shhh shhh shhh"  and make a "quiet" gesture, like fingers on lips. 

With all of these exercises, practice the words together first, and then add movements. Make sure that all of the kids have room to spread out and move around without bumping into each other! Have fun getting everyone's wiggles out and be sure to end the activity in a way that settles everyone down to listen to a book.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Kids in Charge

Looking for a way to get the kids at your Read-Aloud to really engage and buy into the entire evening? Give them opportunities to call the shots and make some decisions. Kids don't often get the chance to be in charge, so they are very proud of their choices when they have the opportunity to make them. Here's how kids can take charge of most aspects of a Read-Aloud in certain situations:

Theme Choice: Hold a vote at the end of your Read-Aloud to select the next theme. You can offer some choices to get things started and then let the kids add their own ideas. They might want to read about dragons or ghosts or something you'd never have considered. You can implement the selected theme the next time your team does a Read-Aloud, or you can work with the team that will be there first so the kids get more immediate satisfaction. 

Books: Depending on the group, allowing the kids to pick their small group books might work really well. This can be done in a variety of ways.

• Each adult picks a book and the kids divide themselves up by going with the volunteer reading the book they want to hear.
• Lay the book choices on a table and tell the kids to pair up, pick a book they want to hear, and then find a volunteer to read it to them.
• Assign children to groups based on their ages and let each group choose from three book options to hear read aloud.

Activities: Provide two options for activities and let the kids choose which one they like more. Open-ended crafts, such as drawing what they would want to be when they grow up or making a dinosaur out of pipe cleaners, allow kids to create something based on their own skills, regardless of their age or abilities. This way, each child can be proud of the product she produces.

Snacks: Use the same method as the theme choice and let the kids vote between two or three reasonable and healthy snacks. For more tips on snack ideas, click here.

Book Ownership: Getting excited about books is largely based on picking a book that you really want to read. For tips to help kids pick a great book for themselves, click here. To build even more pride in the book selection, have the child write his or her own name in the chosen book. 

Rules: Because kids (and adults) value the things they create, many programs have the kids work together to create group rules. TRC already has the Promises, but if the kids at your site are really rowdy, you might help them buy into the system if they help you develop rules for the day.

Lastly, if certain kids in the group need more attention, give them jobs such as setting up the activity or snack, turning the pages, passing out markers or putting out the carpet squares. If this works exceptionally well with a specific child, be sure to tell the other volunteer teams at your site so they can use the strategy with that child as well.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Dialogic Reading

How can a Read-Aloud be more than a Read-Aloud?

When it is a conversation. Reading books aloud to kids accomplishes several goals. It provides pleasure, builds vocabulary, and exposes children to plot structure, characters and the world around them. But can it do more? Why, yes!

If, instead of reading a book straight through to a group of silent children, you have a conversation with the kids about the book as you are reading it, you can accomplish so much more.

Here's an example. Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein is a powerhouse of a picture book: great illustrations, accurate portrayal of a bedtime scenario, wry humor and the perfect example of how NOT to read to a child. In the story, the little red chicken is driving her papa crazy. She interrupts him every time he tries to read her a fairy tale. And every time the little red chicken interrupts, her papa stops reading and scolds her, telling her to “try not to get so involved.”  

But involved is exactly what we want from a child listening to a story. By interrupting with her own ideas, the little red chicken is exercising her imagination, analyzing the story, predicting what happens next and making connections to her life and experiences. Having a conversation with children about a book while you are reading it to them helps them develop these crucial skills for successful reading.

Many of the children we serve experience a "conversation gap." This means they don't have as many opportunities to have in-depth conversations with adults as more affluent children and they've spent less time learning to interact and analyze on a deeper level. Discussing books with the kids as you read them provides much needed practice at these important social and thinking skills and can build reading comprehension abilities.

The fancy name for these conversations is dialogic reading. It basically means having a conversation with a child about the book you are reading together, while you are reading it. It means asking questions about the story or illustrations and then exploring the child’s answer and the story together.

What kind of questions, you ask?

• Fill in the blank: In rhyming and repetitive books, pause at the end of a phrase and ask the child to finish it.
• Prediction: What does the child think will happen next?
• Who, What, When, Where, Why and How: The first four allow the child to identify elements of the story. Why and how are open-ended questions allowing her to provide her own insights and analyze the situation.
• Connection: Can the child connect this to another book or a life experience?

Reading a story to a child this way is more fun for the child and more fun for the reader. By asking questions--and listening and responding to answers--you actively involve the child in the story, and you gain insights into her thoughts and imagination while building her reading comprehension and motivation.

Reading Rockets has a great article covering in more detail the what, why and how of dialogic reading. And here's a video showing how it's done.

So the next time you read aloud to a group of TRC kids, plan on lots of interruptions, conversation and fun.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Say it again: the benefits of repetition

Anyone who has worked with young children has probably experienced firsthand the ability of kids to do the same thing over and over...and over...and over again. For hours. But while this may be frustrating for older minds that like to finish one thing and move on to the next, remind yourself that repetition is a valuable teaching tool for young kids. By repeating phrases or stories over and over again, kids learn about patterns and prediction, both of which are valuable skills when learning to read.

Rhyme and repetition, which stick naturally in a reader's brain, do something incredible: they empower the reader. For a child learning to read and to appreciate books, being able to guess what comes next is a wonderful feeling.

A classic example of this is the story of Chicken Little, who thought the sky was falling and ran around telling everyone he met. The phrase, "the sky is falling!" is repeated throughout the story--giving readers a chance to shout it out and a reason to build up the level of excitement over the course of the book! This story also gives a great example of how rhyming can function to make a story sillier and more entertaining: traditionally, the characters Chicken Little meets in the story have names like Henny Penny, Goosey Loosey, Ducky Lucky and Foxy Woxy. 

Many folktales share these characteristics along with their repetitive structures. Some other great examples of folktales with repetitive structures and refrains are The Little Red Hen, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs.


Another great use of structural repetition can be found in cumulative tales. These stories follow the structure of There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. On each consecutive page, another element is added to the story and the whole group is reviewed in the order they were added. Then, at the climax, one last addition joins the group which tips the balance and it all unravels. Luckily for the young reader, the group comes apart in the same order it got put together, so she'll know what's coming next, which is a great feeling.

Another great story with repeated phrases is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Think:

"And he was..."
"STILL HUNGRY!"
"Still hungry! How did he get so hungry?"


You can use repetition in activities, as well--one fun game is, "I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing..." where you go around in a circle and each child has to remember all the things that were added to the picnic basket and then add something of his or her own. This game can be played with food, but there are endless variations, and you can split the kids in to groups so that the circle doesn't get too big, making it a little easier for younger children. 


Rhyme often occurs side-by-side with repetition--and both are great tools for developing memory skills--but rhyming poetry or songs are just as fun on their own.  Prepare for a Read-Aloud that focuses on repetition or rhyme with a round of "Boom Chicka Boom":


I said a boom chicka boom (echo)
I said a boom chicka boom (echo)
I said a boom chicka rocka chicka rocka chicka boom (echo)
Uh huh (echo)
Oh yeah (echo)
One more time (echo)
___________ style (echo) 


Fill in the blank with the style the next round will be in: whispering, opera, with British accents--anything you want.  And you never know, by the end, the kids could be begging to do it all over again.

Post by The Reading Connection intern Anna McCormally.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Parts of a Book: The Importance of Book Mechanics

While Read-Alouds are about getting kids excited for the stories inside books and giving them information on all their favorite subjects, there's another part that we talk about less frequently: helping kids learn about books in general.

Children who grow up in families where books aren't an integral part of daily life may not be as familiar with the parts of a book as kids who use books every day. Helping kids at Read-Alouds get comfortable with the way books are organized is just as important as inspiring them to read on their own or teaching them how to sound out words. It's part of the mechanics of reading. 

In Read-Alouds, take time to emphasize the parts of a book.

How to hold a book
If you're not too familiar with books, you might not know how to hold one--it's important to be gentle and not pull too hard on the pages or bend the spine. This you can show by example, and when kids are picking out books to take home, gently correct a child who is being too rough with it. Hold the book, smooth the cover, and say, "This looks like a great book! What a beautiful cover. Remember to treat it nicely." Observers will learn from your example.

The cover and title page
When you first bring out a story, take a minute to show the cover to the audience. Ask what they can guess about the story from the front of the book. Who will the characters be? What does the title tell us? Point out where the author's name is and read it out loud. Despite the old saying about not judging a book by its cover, learning to discern what a book is about from its cover is an important skill.

What can we take from the cover of Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories? Well, we know it's by Dr. Seuss. Ask your audience what they know from experience about Dr. Seuss books. (There will probably be silly words and rhymes.) Point out the picture of the turtles all stacked up--take a minute to talk about what that is all about!

Turn to the title page--note how the title and author's names are printed again. This is true of every book!

Table of contents and chapter list

When you have a reader who is just moving up to longer books--or if you're going to read part of one to a group--take a minute to show off the table of contents or the chapter list. Some nonfiction books will have a table of contents that shows where different sections begin and end. Show the kids how to find which part you want to read, and the corresponding page number. 

Explain how not every book has to be read from the first page to the last page--the table of contents lets you skip around to what you want to read. If it's a nonfiction book and you're working one-on-one with a child, let him look through the table of contents and pick which section he wants you to read. 

Index

The first page of Shel Silverstein's Everything On It index.

Like the table of contents, knowing how to use an index is an important reading skill. Fast-forward a few years and the kids you're reading to will be asked to do a research project in school. The point of using an index is to give the kids practice finding relevant information inside books. You can give your readers a head start by helping them understand the concept of an index. It sounds like such a little thing, but the difference between knowing what an index is and how it's used and not knowing will make a big difference!

Note to your readers that the index is located at the end of the book, whereas the table of contents is at the front, and that the index works alphabetically (talk for a minute about what that means) while the table of contents lists things in the order they appear in the book.

Understanding how a book works is just as important as knowing how to read one. Don't devote an entire Read-Aloud to talking about how indexes work or what information is available on the title page--that's what school is for, and Read-Alouds are primarily about having fun with reading. But, you can integrate this kind of important information about book mechanics into every Read-Aloud you do. Even though it may not seem like it, doing so can help give readers a big advantage when it's time to use books in the rest of their lives. 

Post by The Reading Connection intern Anna McCormally.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Give-Away Book Cheat Sheet

Sometimes the kids at a Read-Aloud need your help to pick a great book to take home with them. If you're not regularly immersed in the world of kids' reading materials, you may need some help knowing how to help kids find books they'll like. Here's a primer to get you started.

Early Readers
These books are geared for kids who are getting their feet under them in reading on their own. Early readers are leveled, where level one is made up of very simple sentences and level four is basically a very short chapter book. They are almost always the same size, a tad larger than a normal novel, but very thin. Many titles are nonfiction or based on popular movies, such as Star Wars and Cars.

Graphic Novels 
Graphic novels are a great choice for "reluctant readers" who are intimidated by lots of words on a page. Graphic novels tell a story in comic book style. Among the graphic novel series that kids love these days are Babymouse (kids often consider it a series for girls), Lunch Lady (see below), Squish and Bone (more advanced).

Illustrated Chapter Books

• Geronimo (and Thea) Stilton books combine text, cartoon-like drawings and words in playful type.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are written to look like a diary and they mix in stick-figure drawings along with the text. There are now lots of spin-offs that have text written in a similar manner.
• Books in the Captain Underpants series are a mix of graphic novel and fiction writing and are fast-paced and silly.

Popular Chapter Book Series

• Judy Moody & Stink: Judy is a fun-loving and energetic third-grader. She and her brother, Stink, have all sorts of adventures. 
• Junie B. Jones: She has a tendency to get into sticky situations in both kindergarten and first grade.
• Magic Tree House: Jack and Annie travel through time on their adventures, landing in a different time period in each story.
• Goosebumps: Scary stories, popular with 9- to 11-year-olds.
• American Girl: Girls who lived in various times throughout American history share their stories.

When helping a child pick a book, some key tips include the following:

• Browse the selection before the children start picking books so you know what is available. 
• Put out a variety of titles from each book type, displaying the covers. The aim is to give the kids choices, but not to overwhelm them.
• If a child isn't finding anything she wants to read, ask what kind of topics she likes (sports, animals, fairies, science, fantasy, etc.) and use that as your guide.
• Use the book cover as your guide about subject matter.
• Read the description on the back of the book.
• Flip through the book to gauge text size and line spacing.
• Listen to what the kids get excited about so you'll know what's popular.
• Write down titles they're searching for and contact the TRC office to see if those books can be obtained.

If a child gets excited about a book, let him have it, no matter the difficulty level. Even if it's at a more advanced level than you assume they can currently read, they'll get to it eventually. Kids might also feel a special attachment to a book or series they read at a younger stage in their lives.

If you're excited about the book options, the kids will follow your lead. Remember that if a child asks for a specific book, write down the book title and the child's name and contact the TRC office to see if we have it or can get it. For more tips on helping kids pick books check out this blog post from last year.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

This ain't your ninth-grade English class: How to do poetry with kids!

April is National Poetry Month, providing TRC volunteers with a great excuse to delve into the world of children's poetry in their Read-Alouds. 

In addition to being different than the norm and therefore more likely to spark interest, children's poems have the plus of being short and often spaced widely on the page. The language used is usually repetitive, rhyming and unusually vivid. This (and the fact that there are poems written on nearly every subject you can imagine!) will appeal to all of the kids at your Read-Aloud.


Shel Silverstein's poetry is tried and true. Pick up a copy of A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends or Falling Up and don't forget Silverstein's posthumous collection, released in 2011, Everything On It. His poetry makes great use of off-kilter or made-up words, plays on word meanings and onomatopoeia.

Jack Prelutsky, the United States' first ever Children's Poet Laureate, is another favorite: try The New Kid on the Block or Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face. 

For an example of what you're in for, here's an excerpt from a poem of Prelutsky's entitled "As Soon as Fred Gets Out of Bed:"

"As soon as Fred gets out of bed,
his underwear goes on his head. His mother laughs, "Don't put it there, a head's no place for underwear!" But near his ears, above his brains, is where Fred's underwear remains."

For older kids at your Read-Aloud, try Jabberwocky by Christopher Myers. This urban sports spin on the Lewis Carroll classic will surely get the kids talking. Hip Hop Speaks to Children, edited by Nikki Giovanni, may appeal to an older crowd as well.  

Of course, Poetry Month lends itself as much to activities as it does to reading ideas. Before you start reading, ask the kids what they think a poem is--you'll be surprised at how many people can't answer this question! 

Lists of rhyming words created by the Sullivan
House kids and volunteers.

Talk about rhyming and make a group list of words that rhyme. Use a white board, chalk board or flip chart. Start with a simple word and write down all the words that rhyme with it. Pick a few lines from your favorite kid's poem and clap your hands as you say them out loud to give everybody an idea of what meter is without even mentioning the term!

After reading as many poems as you and your audience can handle, put them to work writing their own! Have the kids work individually or in pairs to write poems on a subject that everybody knows about like a favorite food or outdoor place. Here are some tips about writing poetry about gardens you could adapt for your Read-Aloud.

If the kids are younger, write a poem or a story in a group. Pick a subject and have each child add one word that you write on a big sheet of paper in front of everyone. Jack Prelutsky's website offers more ideas for poetry activities, including How to Write a Funny Poem.

If you usually read storybooks at your Read-Alouds, the switch to poetry could be welcome! Take this month as an opportunity to shake things up and get silly with the combination of children's poetry and children.

Post by The Reading Connection intern Anna McCormally.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.