Creating a Love of Reading!! A Bit of Our Story

I have always enjoyed reading. As a kid I remember looking forward to trips to the library- especially during library book sales and summer reading programs! That love of reading has stayed with me as an adult and I expected my daughter to share in that passion. When she was a toddler she enjoyed story time every night. She would climb in my lap with a book and listen intently until she fell asleep. This was perfect! Then it came time to learn to read. She was an early reader and I was thrilled! Then, one day, she decided that she no longer wants to read… anything… EVER! She was about 6 years old and in the middle of first grade. She stopped reading, or would pretend to read the directions, skim through, or even skip that portion of the worksheet. Getting her to read was like pulling teeth. I started a reading program- read ___ books and get a prize from the box. Then it turned into- read ___ books and we’ll go to Chuck-E-Cheese!

About a year later I decided that the incentives I was using weren’t working and I got the feeling that she really wasn’t comprehending the stories she read (and Chuck-E-Cheese was getting to be expensive). So now what? She was going to be finishing 2^nd grade and starting 3^rd. This is when there is the transition from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn. I had her reading vocabulary tested, along with her other academic levels, and the results showed that she had an exceptionally high reading vocabulary and was age appropriate or slightly higher for all other areas. The problem was that she hurried through everything and really did not have the desire to read (as opposed to having dyslexia, ADD, or any other diagnosis that could impact ability to read). This shoed that it was her attitude towards reading needed to be changed.

After a few trails that really didn’t work I finally found an approach that worked well for her. In history we had been studying the Jamestown Settlement. I took a trip to the library and found the My America series by Patricia Hermes. These series are written as daily diary entries by children living through a specific event in American history. I began reading the books ahead and creating reading guides. One reading guide for every ten or so pages. These guides are interactive and incorporate several elements of reading comprehension. We have fill-in-the-blank, short answer, paragraph writing, empathetic writing, and art projects.

She has begun to love reading! Now, she nearly always has a book with her and actually asks if she can go curl up and read! Her school work has imporved as well, especially with math word problems! These study guides have really improved her overall attitude toward reading and school work!

I am going to attach some of the reading guides we have used so you can have an example. Over the next few weeks I am going to be posting methods for creating your own guides and catering them to your own reader. Also I encourage you to post things that have/have not worked for you and any reading guides that you have written and would like to share with others!