How Parents and
Grandparents Can Help their Reluctant Reader be a
Joyful Reader
14 Low Tech, Common
Sense, Old School Tips & Career Suggestions
by
Willette Coleman ©2019
 | |||
| The author shares techniques she has used and personal anecdotes that reveal much about reluctant readers |
4
of 14 “CAN DO” Suggestions
Part 1
addressed multiple reasons - from authors’ poorly written text and lack of
clarity, to boredom - that could be in play that cause tweens and teens who can read, dislike reading. These factors
also may be the underlying cause many reluctant readers embrace the “reading ain’t cool” falsehood. Parents and grandparents can counter that worthless
message and help reluctant readers see that “reading is profoundly cool,” by using some of the following 4 low tech, common sense, old school tips
& career suggestions.
8. Bedtime stories. Reluctant readers can play a major role in this activity by
reading to a younger sibling(s). This
realization is the basis for Reach Incorporated, an
outstanding program in Washington,
DC that prepares teens to read to
younger students. Reluctant readers tasked with reading bedtime
stories to a younger sister or brother will feel a sense of compassion and
power; gain confidence, and increase her or his “background knowledge.” (“Background knowledge” is clarified in Part 1 in the opening narrative.) This responsibility also takes some pressure
off busy parents conflicted with time-management issues from working long hours,
or two, even three jobs. Indeed, various
studies show that “demanding schedules”
are among the reasons parents and grandparents skip the bedtime reading ritual.
“The tradition
of parents reading bedtime stories to their kids is heading for an unhappy
ending - with only two in ten saying they always do it,” reported thesun.co.uk. These embarrassingly low numbers are fairly
accurate. It’s a pleasant surprise when
more than two students out of 20 – from elementary to college – tell me their
parents, grandparents or older sibling read to them at bedtime. The average bedtime story reading time is “13 minutes” a Novotel
survey found. And, a father shared in
his post, Seven
things I learned reading a bedtime story every night of 2018, that 10 minutes have remarkable benefits for
both the child and for him. E-devices also
are among the reasons for this abysmal failure of family educational
engagement, according to Rise
in Technology Sees a Decline in Bedtime Reading. The
report, Bedtime
Stories Ditched in Favour of Screen Time, says “over half of parents let their children watch TV before nodding off and
a quarter give them a phone or tablet to play on.” In How
Screens Impact Young Children, Dr. Diana Shepherd, in the Department of
Child Development at California
State University
said, “…obesity and sleep disturbance
have been linked to increased screen time and early exposure to screens.” This NBC news video
demonstrations The Impact of Electronics
on a Child's Brain.
Despite
invasive technology and busy schedules, reading bedtime stories or reading to
children anywhere, as noted in Part 1, Suggestion 1,
is attainable as another parent shared in 10
Ways To Make Reading With Your Child Magical. And, reluctant readers can help, even create
individual, personal bedtime stories with younger siblings at Wonderbly.com.
·
Parents and grandparents can tell their reluctant reader to be patient with the younger sibling(s) and
never say, “You’re too slow,” or “You’re dumb.” That kind of language is intimidating and
demeaning, and causes a child to withdraw and dislike reading; even dislike his
or herself.
I’ve experienced, first hand, the kind of pain a child carries
from such put-down messages. A precocious
second grader I tutored struggled mightily with reading. I’ll call him Sweet Challenge, as I do all
primary school children. Routinely, Sweet
Challenge called himself “dumb.” I overruled his self-lacerating, poisoning
mantra and told him “I think you’re smart.” “I’m
DUMB!!!” he retorted. Determined to
be the fierce Williams sisters in this self-image battle, Sweet Challenge and I
smacked the “dumb/smart” ball back and forth over an invisible tennis net, daily. I even sang “I think you’re smart” in my best operatic voice. He didn’t buy it. A few days in, I asked if someone had told
him he was dumb. For a nanosecond, a
shadow of sheer torture covered his little face like a veil. He didn’t answer. Then, after about nine tutoring sessions and
self-image matches, Sweet Challenge shared, with a tinge of stress in his
voice, that his grandmother said he was dumb.
Surprised, disappointed, even a little shocked, I affirmed, “Well, I think you’re smart.” He volleyed back: “I’m dumb!!!” But, that time,
with juuuuuust a little less force; the “dumb” ball didn’t quite make it over
the net. Venice and Serena were a point ahead. On the last day of eight weeks of tutoring,
twice a week, I gave Sweet Challenge a hug, gifted him a book and said “You’re smart.” He looked directly into my eyes and
said: “I’m smart.” Yesssss! The Williams sisters won the match! I told him to say that out loud three times a
day and to say it even louder when someone said he was dumb; no matter who said
it. And, to always remember that his
tutor thinks he’s smart.
At
one point in our tutoring sessions, his scholarly third grade brother told me
he tried to read books to Sweet Challenge, but he wouldn’t pay attention. Not knowing the particulars of their home
life, although I knew they lived below the poverty line, I wondered if his not
paying attention was the reason his grandmother had called him “dumb.” Maybe she said, “If you don’t read, you’ll be dumb” and, as a seven-year-old, he
only heard the words “you” and “dumb.” Had
she offered any assistance, I wondered? Could she offer assistance? Throughout the years, I’ve spoken with
parents who didn’t know how to help
their children read, which is the reason for this post. Most distressing is that some of the parents
had low reading levels. According to the
National Literacy Directory, “1 out of every 6 adults in the U.S. lack basic
reading skills – that means 36 million people can't read a job application,
understand basic written instructions, or read the Internet.”
Nonetheless,
no one should EVER tell a child he or she is stupid, slow or dumb. Encouraging, supportive words work wonders in
building a child’s or reluctant reader’s reading and academic self esteem.
9. Books-on-tape/audio books. Parents and grandparents can listen to
books-on-tape/audio books while traveling in the car. This
is a trillion times better than blasting
hardcore, profane gangsta rap
from the radio in a car with babies and toddlers strapped in the back. Consequently, they repeat the foul
language they hear, including the demeaning n-word, to their classmates,
teachers, the public and their parents. Clearly, this could be a HUGE challenge for many
juveniles, as well as young parents, even young grandparents (some
30-somethings are grandparents) who have grown up embracing this genre’s profanity
as a standard form of communication (unlike older grandparents’ profane-free music). Still,
·
Books-on-tape/audio books
can be a fun alternative, if, for example, mysteries
appeal to your reluctant reader. Parents,
grandparents and their reluctant reader can view a selection of Young Adult
(YA) audio books at epicreads.com
and Firstbooks.org. An exciting selection of age-appropriate
reads is listed on Mystery
Diversity Books for Kids and Coretta Scott King’s book awards. For older youth – 17 and older – dynamic writer,
Toni Morrison’s honeyed voice guides listeners through her epically acclaimed, BELOVED,
in its audio book format.
10. Reading labels. When shopping for
groceries, female’s beauty and male’s grooming products -
·
Parents and grandparents can encourage their reluctant reader to read the labels on chips, candy, sodas,
crackers, cookies,etc. Some ingredients
in some processed foods and beauty/grooming products are difficult to pronounce
and aren’t in the standard dictionary, such as methylisothiazolinone
(a preservative in many lotions and cosmetics; also used in industrial
systems), so, parents and grandparents will need to look up such tongue
twisters on the Internet or in a chemistry dictionary. Hard-to-pronounce
words in foods and beauty products offer
parents and grandparents an opportunity
to have stimulating critical thinking
discussions about whether the ingredients
are unhealthy. Also, teens, especially
those considering a career in the medicine, could learn to read the side
effects of their own or family member’s medication which contain strings of
paragraphs with medical terminology. Pharmacists (another
career option) normally give patients prescription drugs’ information when they
fill a prescription. Alternative
or holistic
medicine is other career components of the health field. (In my next post, I’ll share the top
magic
secret sauce in teaching children, tweens and teens how to pronounce
difficult words.)
·
Add a pinch of math
(which we often forget is a language) to reading labels. Math expands a reluctant reader’s analytical, interpretation and communication
skills. Parents and grandparents can
challenge their reluctant reader to compute sodium (salt) intake in
processed food (e.g., frozen dinners, canned foods, etc.) and calculate how much sugar is in liquids
(e.g., fruit juices, sodas, cough syrup, etc.).
For example, if there are 28 grams of sugar in a Coke, and one teaspoon
of sugar equals 4 grams, how many teaspoons of sugar is in the Coke? This is another opportunity for a one-on-one discussion about the health risks of
consuming so much sugar or sodium
·
Encourage
your reluctant reader to add the price of each item in your shopping cart (without
using a calculator on their smartphone; dependency on calculators can cause
students to lose
the ability to do simple arithmetic, say some experts), then, compare their total to the total at the check out
register and on the receipt.
11. Parents and grandparents can subscribe to magazines that interest their
reluctant reader. Nothing takes the place of
the sensory processing involved in touching and turning book and magazine
pages, but, with most teens’ magazines
being online,
that visceral connection is diminishing in the 21st Century. Still, a few remain in public libraries or on
grocery store magazine racks and local libraries currently stack a sizeable
selection of magazines for children and tweens.
Magazines often contain revealing articles about tweens’ and teens’ favorite
celebrities, as well as personal essays or in-depth stories about bullying,
communication, team work, goal setting, decision making, relationships and so
on. (Overcoming Obstacles
is a great website that provides parents, grandparents and teachers with the
tools to address any of these concerns, which also may contribute to reluctant
readers’ disinterest in reading.)
Speaking of the library (incidentally, The Evil
Librarian, by Michelle Knudsen, is a good read), parents, grandparents and
reluctant readers can explore their
local library together.
·
Sign up for a
library card!
·
Make each visit an event
where you share some one-on-one, quality time among books (turn off cell
phones). Steer your reluctant reader
away from the computers. It’s
tempting. Or, you could strike a deal: Books for half an hour; computer for half an
hour. Suggest they play one of hundreds of online
educational games for middle and high school students.
·
Take some time to admire
and point out book covers’ bold and beautiful lettering/artwork/designs.
·
Read the short
passages about the author and illustrator (artist) of books that interests your reluctant reader. That information, usually, is on books’
jackets’ inside back flap. Sometimes
“Author’s Notes” that give research details are after the end of the story,
such as in these teen books:
o
TRAPPED
Between the Lash and the Gun,
where, within the context of the present, a teenage gang member, on his way to
buy a gun, is suddenly trapped in the past during American slavery. Will he return to his century? What happens to him in a world 100 years
before he was born?
o
Zora
& Me follows Carrie and Zora as unexplained
events fuel Zora's imagination and love of storytelling that includes a man-gator. In this quick read, the authors re-imagine
writer and anthropologist, Zora
Neale Hurston, as a young teenager.
o
Jump
into the Sky is an adventure where a teen
travels across the U.S to live with his father.
The story is based on the true story of the outstanding courage of the first
Black paratroopers of the 555th parachute Infantry Battalion. Parents, grandparents and their reluctant
readers can learn the real facts/history
about this little known history at the triplenickle.com
association’s website.
As discussed in Part 1, 2. Read the same book at the same time, parents, grandparents and their reluctant reader can read these books together and have stimulating conversations about the content.
·
Emphasize careers
in writing and illustration. Here are
lists of writing
careers and illustration
careers.
·
Explore the copyright © page. Was the year the
book was published the same year your reluctant reader or her or his
sibling(s), parents or grandparents was born?
Seeing that information could inspire a connection to books and reading. The copyright
© page also tells readers if a book is a “first edition.”
 |
| This book by famed baseball player, Jackie Robinson, is valued at $3,500 on www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30143697051&cm_sp=collections-_-zT1oLEVlt2Dhe3W2zo2EU_item_1_12-_-bdp |
Here’s an opportunity
for parents and grandparents to help
reluctant readers learn about the enormous dollar value of “first edition”
books. A first edition Harry Potter,
for example, is currently worth $55,000. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their
Eyes Were Watching God is valued up to $6,000. Maya Angelou’s first edition I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings valued at $12,000,
Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin
in the Sun valued for $8,000. See also, thefirstedition.com, the
richest.com and biblio.com. Biblio.com directs beginners through the
world of identifying first editions, how to find out what a book is worth, and
more. See this list
of valuable books, some worth over $30 million dollars. Yes. $30,000,000.00!
·
Since tweens and teens generally
have their minds on money, parents and grandparents can encourage their
reluctant reader to read What
Can You Do With Money?
One thing they can do is consider a career in numismatics – “the study or collection of currency….” Using a magnifying glass, parents and
grandparents can take some time with
their reluctant reader and closely examine coins and bills. This inspection could reveal currency, like
books, worth big bucks, especially those that contain errors, like the 1969
penny, worth $24,000. Spotting currency errors is among the things numismatists do. Some valuable coins and bills are still in
circulation.
The U.S.
Treasury Department states that coins can be used “as a jumping-off point to teach science, social studies, math, and
more,” and the site offers free, complete lesson plans for grades K-12. Investigating the backs of quarters offers lessons in geography. For example, Rhode Island’s quarter has the engraved image of Block Island on the back,
and West Virginia
features New
River Gorge. The Hawaiian quarter displays
the engraved phrase Ua
Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono and an image of King Kamehameha, Hawaii’s first ruler.
Examination also shows reluctant readers the year each state became an official part of the United States. Hawaii, for example, joined in 1959, Rhode Island in 1790, West Virginia in 1863, and so on. Inspecting these beautifully designed works of art could appeal to reluctant readers’ sense of aesthetics.
With regard to design, parents, grandparents and their reluctant reader would be intrigued to learn that an African American created the portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt that's on a coin we use every day - the dime.
Examination also shows reluctant readers the year each state became an official part of the United States. Hawaii, for example, joined in 1959, Rhode Island in 1790, West Virginia in 1863, and so on. Inspecting these beautifully designed works of art could appeal to reluctant readers’ sense of aesthetics.
With regard to design, parents, grandparents and their reluctant reader would be intrigued to learn that an African American created the portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt that's on a coin we use every day - the dime.
And, the activity could stimulate middle school, high school,
and introductory college level students’ curiosity in and raise their awareness
of careers
in economics and finance.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York
provides resources for parents, grandparents and teachers to educate/inform middle
and high school students about basic economic principles. USmint.gov is another good
resource. Financial literacy could be
the spark that motivates reluctant readers to read the
New York Fed’s Educational Comic Book Series.
Suggestions 12, 13 and 14 in PART 3.
If you have some old-school, common sense tips that parents and grandparents can use to help a reluctant reader become joyful readers, please share.
Suggestions 12, 13 and 14 in PART 3.
If you have some old-school, common sense tips that parents and grandparents can use to help a reluctant reader become joyful readers, please share.
Magic, Miracles & Blessings,
Willette
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