Crucial Areas In Reading Instruction

By Pamela Beers

The most crucial areas in reading today are parental involvement and the home environment in a child's literacy development. I can look at the importance of the home environment from the standpoint of both a parent and an educator. As a single parent, I can relate to the time constraints, financial responsibilities, and stress that raising three children can place on a person. It was often frustrating not being informed of my children's progress in school until a problem arose. The problem could have been averted had I been notified far enough in advance.

Communication is essential in curtailing areas of misconception that may become major problems at a later date. As an educator I would like to offer direction to help parents become involved in assisting their children to succeed through open communication so that perceptual differences do not become major problems.

I am very concerned because I hear many teachers complain that parents don't care. At the same time, parents expect the school system to solve the social and behavioral problems for which they should be responsible. It seems that teachers blame parents and parents blame teachers for what appears to be a lack of standards, accountability, and responsibility for todays children. Instead of pointing the finger at one another, it is time that both educators and parents become sincerely involved as a team to encourage and support early childhood literacy development. Many parents want to be actively involved in their child's literacy efforts, but they feel intimidated by the frightening monolith; called the school system. In many economically deprived families the power of knowledge in others makes them feel inadequate, while negative appraisals of their children by teachers, becomes a negative comment about their lives.

I had the opportunity to work with an urban male high school student. His mother refused to come to school for the parent teacher conference because she said that she felt uncomfortable. When I asked her why she felt uncomfortable she said school was "too big". She was reticent to discuss the issue further. I explained to her that I am a single parent and realized how stressful it can be at times. She related to the fact that we were both single parents, at which point she seemed open to suggestions as to how we could work together to help her son. She still did not want to come to school, but became comfortable having telephone discussions with me as to how we could improve her son's literacy. She said that no one ever asked for her input when it came to her son's education. I think an early childhood literacy program would have helped the family significantly because the mother sincerely cared about her son's education.

Some parents do not feel competent to deal with school work. This phenomenon may reflect parents insecurity in the school setting or fears about participation in their children's learning.

Some teachers have negative attitudes about parents and parent participation, sometimes claiming that parents are apathetic and come to school only to criticize. Teachers should not assume that parents are not willing to help with their children's education. Many parents are willing to help with their children's education but may have few ideas about how to provide this help.

There are several things parents can do at home to help in their child's literacy development. One of the areas where parents can help children to become literate, I call survival reading. For example, there are many situations at home to provide practice for interpreting product information. Learning to read labels and interpreting the information is a necessity. If there is a tube of preparation H and a tube of Crest toothpaste on the bathroom sink, it is obviously important to know the difference. It is equally important to note warnings on labels as well as being able to read nutritional information on cans and boxes of food. Children can help make out grocery lists, balance checkbooks, write messages on greeting cards, and read recipes.

We all need to be more positive in our communication with one another. Teachers need to talk with parents, and parents need to talk with teachers in a nonthreatening, nonconfrontational manner. Communication is the key to building a better understanding and support of literacy programs. I feel very strongly that a sound educational system needs parents, teachers, and community. Helping parents understand how children become readers and writers is one of the teachers and the school administrators most important missions.

Some parents are illiterate or low-literate. These parents can guide their children at home with skills such as cooking, critically watching television, going to the library and getting books on tape. If teachers have ascertained that these activities exist in the homes of some of their children, they could point out to the parents the value of increased attention to the print embedded in these activities.

Emergent literacy opportunities have nothing to do with socioeconomic status. It is family literacy practices mentioned above which determine young childrens experiences with print in the home. Parents need to be viewed as participants in their childrens learning, then teachers need to implement initiatives that bring schools and communities closer together.

I am currently working with a fourth grade student on an individual basis. One of the things that I am doing is providing three way communication with his home experiences, his regular classroom work and the work we do individually. Communication with the parents and allowing them to assess their childs growth and development has been both encouraging and beneficial to all parties. We all have a working partnership that is helping the student take responsibility for his own learning.

Copyright © 2006 by Pamela Beers. All rights reserved.

Pamela Beers has a master level degree in literacy and works with students K-12 and adults, either individually or in small groups. Pam's website provides writing opportunities for children and young adult writers who were previously afraid of writing anything. Pam's students have since become turned on by the writing process because of positive guidance in a nurturing environment.

Seeing their work in print and having it read globally inspires students to read more and write better. Pam's main objective is to get them comfortable during the writing portion of the N.Y. State ELA exam and to just have fun during their writing journey.

Visit http://www.pamelabeers.com (Youth Page), and check out the cool stories some of the students have written.

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