【Storyland讀寫工作室】是一個幫助兒童進(jìn)行閱讀與創(chuàng)意寫作的機(jī)構(gòu)，我們有一個夢想——為在中國生活的孩子們創(chuàng)造出全球化的閱讀和寫作浸染氛圍，令閱讀與寫作成為陪伴孩子終生的習(xí)慣與素養(yǎng)。熱情邀請您加入這場通向未來的創(chuàng)新之旅?；貜?fù)『前世今生』了解我們的前世與今生。
這是【Storyland讀寫工作室】的微信向大家推送的第二篇 #兒童中英文雙語閱讀與寫作# 的精華原創(chuàng)內(nèi)容。（微信號：iStoryland）
每周日我們將刊登【Storyland讀寫工作室】的閱讀長老——來自加拿大的兒童閱讀及寫作老師Keith Hilling的專欄文章。
Keith老師才華橫溢（有光頭為證），幽默與嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)并存（多一分則太多，少一分則太少），對亞洲孩子的英文閱讀和寫作有著多年的一線教學(xué)經(jīng)驗（我心目中最好的閱讀老師，沒有之一）。這些專欄是他應(yīng)邀為我們特別寫就的，請尊重他的勞動成果。
如需轉(zhuǎn)載，請務(wù)必告知，征求我們的同意并注明出處，我們很樂意分享。如未經(jīng)同意擅自轉(zhuǎn)載，我們必將追究法律責(zé)任。
………訂閱我們的微信………
進(jìn)入微信，在“添加朋友”，查找公眾號“Storyland Studio”，或搜索微信號“iStoryland”
…………………………………………
On Being a Good Reader
Being a good read can change a child’s —and even an adult’s —life. But what exactly is a good reader? And how does one become agood reader?
There are many skills that children need to acquire before they can fully love reading. As they are learning these skills,it’s our job as educators to share our passion for reading and give our students every possibility to find: ‘the book’.
At some point in every good reader’s life, they come across ‘the book’. One book that shows them the power of reading and the transformative power of ideas. Reading then turns into a lifelong habit …For me it was The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. After reading that book, I was awestruck by the ability of words on a page to take me to magical, far away places.
Of course, the side effect of ‘the book’and the lifelong causal chain of learning it starts is, for children, increased academic performance.
What do you need to be a good reader?
The easy answer —and the truest answer —is: read and read and read some more. Everyday. For the rest of youlife. It’s never too late to start, but when it comes to school performance, the early a child learns to bea good reader, the better their academic performance will be.
Being a good reader can be crucial to a child’s development. It’s math. Kids who have trouble reading, obviously, don’t like reading. So, they don’t read. And if they do read, they read to finish the pages, not for joy or to find the author’s meaning or to make connections to their own lives. So, they readvery little.
On the other hand, children who develop the joy and habit of reading continue to read; they are eager to read more and more challenging books, so they push their reading skills forward. It’s exponential. These children will continueto read more as their reading fluency and stamina increase because now their reading skills allow them to get more enjoyment out of what they read.
Studies show the higher their reading ability is in Grade 2 and 3, the higher their reading ability and their overall academic performance is by grade 8 and even by the end of grade 12.
Being a good reader by Grade 3 is important. Butit’s not hard to be agood reader. All it takes is a little dedication on the part of parents and educators: To teach children the necessary reading skills and to open their eyes to the amazing richness and joy that reading can bring. Books are fun.Once kids have the tools to love them, then, we as educators, can let the magic of reading do the majority of the teaching.
How To Become a Good Reader
Simply, in terms of acquired skills, children need to build up:
Reading Stamina:the amount they can read without getting tired. This is improved by reading everyday. Just like a runner training for a marathon.
Reading Fluency:the speed at which they can read and still understand. This is a crucial skill that helps promote the joy of reading. Again, this is improved by reading everyday. Just like a sprinter training for the olympics.
Comprehensions Skills: specific skills and strategies that help students understandincreasingly more difficult books. Here is where the educator plays an activepart in the formation of a good reader.
Specific Comprehension Skills that educatorsneed to teach:
-Preview and Summarize.Prediction (thinking about the story beforeyou read) starts deeper thinking and leads to improved comprehension. Summarize(retelling the story) reinforces their comprehension skills. Good readers willstop after every couple pages to check their understanding.
- Have Vocabulary Strategies. Able to decode new words. Also students are not discouraged of newor long words —thus they are able to acquire better vocabularies.
- Make pictures in their head. Those kids who can remember details and able to picture characters in their head make a deeper connection to the story. Reading is morepleasurable to them. At an early stage drawing pictures of the characters and setting can be a crucial element to having them become better readers.
- Make connections to whatthey read. In this part parents and good teachers are crucial. The more the students are engaged and discuss what they read, the more meaningful reading becomes as an every day tool to explore the world around them. They can then connect what they read to their own lives.
Acquiring these abilities is done by reading everyday and having quality instruction where students are taught the skills needed to be a good reader. These need to be internalized and used independent of adult or teacher’s supervision.
The Power of a Good Reader
Like anything in life, the more you like doing something, the better you are able to do it. Motivation has a direct relationship with success. So, by having kids reading for pleasure we are notjust turning them on to a lifelong hobby, but giving them a tool for future success.
But it's never too late to find that joy of reading —Right now I’m reading The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. It’s a fictional story. It’s a funny and satirical look at the powerof reading.
One day, a very old Queen of England finds amobile library (Yes, they have those in England). Having given up reading because of her busy everyday life, she nonetheless borrows a book feeling it would be impolite not to take one book. She picks one and starts reading and soon finds ‘the book’. This discovery starts a chain of events that leads to her changing her view of the world (and the fate of her country).
This story shows the real reason to be a good reader: The power to shape your own life and that of others for the better.
? Next week I will talk about the importance of reading aloud to kids —and the necessity of audiobooks.
------------------------------------------
「Storyland Studio」
我有一個夢想，
為在中國生活的孩子們創(chuàng)造出全球化的閱讀和寫作浸染氛圍，
令閱讀與寫作成為陪伴孩子終生的習(xí)慣與素養(yǎng)。
熱情邀請您加入這場通向未來的創(chuàng)新之旅。
（微信號：iStoryland）
如果您喜歡此文章，請分享給小伙伴們吧。
如需轉(zhuǎn)載，請務(wù)必告知，征求我們的同意并注明出處，我們很樂意分享。如未經(jīng)同意擅自轉(zhuǎn)載，我們必將追究法律責(zé)任。
下載小花生APP
關(guān)注小花生公眾號
