Writing is such an important literacy skill because it gives us a way to express ourselves.  As a teacher, parents often ask me for advice on how to help their child in writing.  In this blog, I will share a few ways that parents can support their child’s writing development in fun ways.   Make Lists...Read More

Have you ever heard of a “wordless picture book”?  Wordless picture books are books without words or very few words, but they are a great way to build critical literacy, listening vocabulary, and comprehension skills.  They also help increase a child’s awareness of how stories are structured. As the school librarian in my district, I...Read More

Raising a middle schooler comes with a whole slew of challenges including how to help them with their studies in school. Let’s face it, the content that kids are learning is different and HOW they are learning it is different from when WE were their age.  How are parents supposed to know how to help...Read More

My husband and I love watching stand-up comedy.  One of our favorite comedians is Nate Bargatze.  In one of his specials, he talks about having to help his third-grade daughter with her math homework.  In the segment, he jokes this math is SO different that parents have to watch a 40-minute Youtube video to teach...Read More

As our school’s librarian, I hear book requests from kids ALL THE TIME.  The one genre that kids seem to really enjoy is nonfiction.  Kids LOVE to read about real people, animals, places, and events.  Nonfiction texts present real information in captivating and interesting ways.  However, kids spend WAY more time reading fiction books than...Read More

Once children learn to decode and read the words on the page, the next step in this process is comprehension.  If readers can read the words on the page, but do not understand what they are reading, they are not really reading.  Comprehension is the goal of reading.  It is the thinking process that readers...Read More

Vocabulary plays an essential role in the reading process and is critical to reading comprehension. Kids indirectly learn the meaning of most words through everyday experiences with oral and written language.   In last week’s blog, I shared a few ideas to help you increase your child’s vocabulary at home.  Remember that vocabulary development can become...Read More

Building vocabulary is crucial for helping children understand the words they are reading and make sense of the text.  Learning new words begins when children are just young babies and continues throughout life.  Together, along with a formal education, parents’ involvement in developing a child’s vocabulary is critical.  As much as 95% of the words...Read More

Research has proven that reading affects writing and writing affects reading.  But, simply UNDERSTANDING that reading and writing are connected is not enough.  To  help our kids develop these two critical literacy skills,  parents (and teachers) must APPLY this knowledge when working with them.  In this blog, I am going to share a few ideas...Read More

As a classroom teacher, I taught many children that could add, subtract, multiply and divide with ease.  But, the minute you place a word problem in front of them…they FREEZE.  “This isn’t MATH!  This is READING!  I don’t like READING!”  Ahhhhh…when it was time to teach the word problem chapters in the math textbook, I...Read More