Power of Pictures

“A Talent For Quiet” – Guardian Angel Publishing on BeThereBedtimeStories.com

I was recently co-teaching in a middle school classroom where the teacher reminded his students that looking at pictures is not a bad thing. I thought it very insightful of him to anticipate that his students might feel this way. They may think that lingering over pictures is babyish or considered “cheating” because it is easy to do. In fact, it is a very powerful reading strategy that comes very naturally to most of us as we are visual creatures.

It would be a huge lost opportunity if students don’t take in the visuals that are on a page before reading the text. Kids seem to go to pictures more easily the younger they are, and then, as they get older, they seem to want to prove that they can just rely on the actual text. So whatever age your young reader is, encourage them to take full advantage of all that photos, pictures or visuals have to add to the page.  

 

“What If…” – Illumination Arts Publishing on BeThereBedtimeStories.com

As promised: Fix-up Strategies

Fix-up strategies are used during reading. When you begin to lose understanding of what you are reading, you do certain things to make sure that you understand before you continue reading.

Some fix-up strategies are:

Re-reading portions of text

Reading ahead

Sounding out words that are confusing

One of the easiest and powerful things you can do while you are reading to your child is to think aloud while you are working through a fix-up strategy. You are simply modeling what it means to be a reader and show there are no secrets when it comes to reading. You are unlocking the mystery behind reading for your child and this will make it more accessible for them. One example of a fix-up strategy might be:

 You have been reading a story aloud and you begin to become confused as to who is speaking. You stop reading and go back to where the dialogue begins to re-read. You might say something like this: “Wait a minute, I am confused here about who is saying what. I am going to go back and re-read so I can get it straight.”

It is important to let our children know that they will be using these strategies even as adult readers. Simply put, let them in on what is going on inside of our brains in order to grow theirs!

Valuable Connections!

One of the easiest ways to make more of your reading time is to use the reading strategy of Making Connections. This is a strategy used in many classrooms across the country and it is very simple to do. Basically there are three types of connections a child could make while reading any book; text to self, text to text, or text to world.  It is easy to make these connections! The following are examples I have made with my girls while reading some books from the Be There Bedtime Bookstore.

Text to Self connection:  In the book Blackberry Banquet by Terry Pierce, there are many animals enjoying the tasty treat of blackberries. One of my daughters LOVES blackberries, a passion she does not share with myself. I said “Wow, these animals sure love those blackberries just like you do! Do you remember how much you love to eat blackberries in the summer?”

Text to Text Connection:  In the book Penelope and the Humongous Burp by Sheri Radford, I compared two characters from two different books when I said to my daughters, “Penelope reminds me of Junie B. Jones. She is a hilarious character, isn’t she!”

Text to World Connection:  In the book A Day in the Salt Marsh by Kevin Kurtz, the crabs running in the sand reminded me a a recent vacation we took. I said, “Seeing those fiddler crabs reminds me of when we saw that crab crawling across the beach in Galveston last year! Do you remember that?”

Making connections helps readers to comprehend text more fully. The reward lies in the fact that soon your young reader will be making their own connections naturally and easily. This will make reading more engaging and entertaining for them. If your young reader is making connections, their reading comprehension will be stronger for it!  

I have no doubt that you have already made connections many times before with your child. Now you know how valuable it is for their reading comprehension! Model this powerful reading strategy often for your young reader and be on the lookout for them doing it back for you!