Entering the story world.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim (In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful).
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Today I'll be sharing with you about how to entertain your child who will be turning two years old. Now is the right time to introduce stories to her. It's quite an easy task only that you need a lot of patience. Before you took her to the wonderful world of stories, you need to remember a few important things. Let's see...

There are two important things to remember about reading stories.

1. the experience should be enjoyable for your child, and
   
2. the child needs help with her story memory.
   

To ensure enjoyment, don't interrupt stories as you read them. Don't try to explain everything and define words as you go. Children love the flow of it - the modulated storyteller voice, even if they don't understand most of the words. If you're asked to read a favourite story over and over, take advantage of this. Read a story through in a normal way. Then go back and pick out a character or place or event that's important to the story. Turn back to the page where the important character first appears and look at the picture. Talk about what this character looks like, what he's wearing. If it's an animal, tell your child what it is. Talk about where the character is - what place is it? Where did he come from? Why did he go to this place? Where is he going next?

After spending a few minutes on this, read the story again (if it's short) in the usual way. Next time, focus on something else, an event, like why all the puppies fell out of the boat. What made that happen? So on and on.

See, it's not difficult at all to start reading story to your child. You just need 10 to 20 minutes for this. Insya-Allah your child will be looking forward for more reading and stories soon.

Wassalam.

Ref: Growing a Reader from Birth, McGuinsess, D. (2004). London: W. W. Norton & Company.

Read Aloud Strategies

Getting started

• Make read aloud time a happy time! Gather the students in front of you on a rug or in a corner of the classroom. If necessary, establish rules for appropriate behavior during read aloud time: keep hands to oneself, wait for the teacher to call on you, etc. Wait for all the students to get quiet and calm--it's no fun trying to talk over many voices.


• Make sure that you are reading from a variety of genres: fiction and non-fiction, chapter books, picture books, series (i.e. Henry and Mudge, Arthur)


• Preview the book before you share it with your students. Are there any unfamiliar concepts that will need a quick review before reading? Give the students a very brief introduction to the story.


• Share author and illustrator information with the students. If possible, link to other books you have read by those same people.

During the reading

• Remember to read with expression--really ham it up! The kids will love it. Change your voice for different characters, and vary the speed as well: fast for exciting parts, slow for scary or quiet parts.


• Save the "teaching" for later. Don't interrupt the story to ask lots of questions ("What color is her dress?" "How did they get to grandma's house?"). Focus on the flow of the story. Your students need to hear fluent, phrased, expressive reading. This will break down if you stop too many times. Too many interruptions can also lead to a breakdown in meaning for some students.


• Don't forget to share the pictures! Establish a routine for this to cut down on "I can't see!"

After the reading

• Now it's time to get into the story! Briefly check on student comprehension, remembering to focus on higher-order questioning. (Not "Did Little Red Riding Hood listen to her mother?" but "Do you think Little Red Riding Hood will listen to her mother next time? Why or why not?").


• Make links to other stories your students have read. Have they read other stories with similar themes or situations? How was this story the same or different? How does this story compare to others by the same author?


• Show the students how to return to the text. Do you need to go back to the book to answer a question? Model for the students how this is done. This will help them during their independent reading.


• Don't put the book away! Leave it out for students to explore on their own, and don't be shy about reading it again with the whole class. Young children love to hear their favorite stories repeated, and they benefit from hearing the same book many times.

Read Aloud Resources

• The Read Aloud Handbook: 4th edition, Jim Trelease (Penguin, 1995)


• Best Books for Children: Preschool Through Grade 6, 6th edition, John Thomas Gillespie, editor (R.R. Bowker, 1998)


• Children's Books from Other Countries, Carl Tomlinson, editor (Scarecrow Press, 1998)


• Guided Reading: Good First Teaching for All Children, Irene C. Fountas & Gay Su Pinnell (Heinemann, 1996) v


• http://cuip.uchicago.edu/wit/2000/teams/onceupon/readaloudstrategies.html

10 Read Aloud Commandments by Mem Fox

Assalamualaikum everyone.

Today's sharing is taken from Mem Fox's website about the 10 commandments in read aloud. Here they are.

1. Spend at least ten wildly happy minutes every single day reading aloud.

2. Read at least three stories a day: it may be the same story three times. Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read.

3. Read aloud with animation. Listen to your own voice and don’t be dull, or flat, or boring. Hang loose and be loud, have fun and laugh a lot.

4. Read with joy and enjoyment: real enjoyment for yourself and great joy for the listeners.

5. Read the stories that the kids love, over and over and over again, and always read in the same ‘tune’ for each book: i.e. with the same intonations on each page, each time.

6. Let children hear lots of language by talking to them constantly about the pictures, or anything else connected to the book; or sing any old song that you can remember; or say nursery rhymes in a bouncy way; or be noisy together doing clapping games.

7. Look for rhyme, rhythm or repetition in books for young children, and make sure the books are really short.

8. Play games with the things that you and the child can see on the page, such as letting kids finish rhymes, and finding the letters that start the child’s name and yours, remembering that it’s never work, it’s always a fabulous game.

9. Never ever teach reading, or get tense around books.

10. Please read aloud every day, mums and dads, because you just love being with your child, not because it’s the right thing to do.

Hopefully this info will help you more in practicing reading aloud with your kids. All the best and thank you Mrs. Mem Fox.

Original source: Mem Fox

I want a Kindle-2 too

This is an email that I got from Amazon.

Dear Amazon Associate:

We’re excited to introduce Amazon Kindle 2 , the next generation wireless reading device. With a sleek and thin design that makes Kindle 2 as thin as a typical magazine and lighter than a paperpack, the new Kindle has seven times more storage and now holds over 1,500 books. It has a longer battery life and faster page turns. An advanced display provides even crisper images and clearer text for an improved book-like reading experience. And Kindle 2 even reads to you, with “Read to Me”, our new Text to Speech feature.

With Kindle 2 we kept everything readers love about the original Kindle—the convenience of reading what you want, when you want it, the immediacy of getting a book wirelessly delivered in less than 60 seconds, and Kindle’s ability to “disappear” in your hands so you can get lost in the author’s words. We’re also excited to announce that the Kindle Store has over 230,000 ebooks available.

Kindle2

New Features & Enhancements

Slim & Lightweight : Just over 1/3 inch and 10.2 ounces

Books in under 60 seconds : Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Improved Display : Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for crisp images and text; even reads well in bright sunlight

Longer Battery Life : 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging

More Storage : Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books

Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns

Read-to-Me : Text-to-Speech feature means Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud.

No Wireless Bills : No monthly wireless bills, data plans, or commitments. Amazon pays for Kindle’s wireless connectivity so you won’t see a monthly wireless bill.

Large Selection : Over 230,000 books, plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines and blogs available

Low Book Prices : New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise

Just Want to Wish...

Dapatkan Mesej Bergambar di Sini

How Can Something as Simple as Reading to a Child Can be So Effective?

Salam everyone. Today's sharing:

We read to children for all the same reasons we talk with children; to reassure, to entertain, to bond, to inform or explain, to arouse curiosity and to inspire. But in reading aloud, we also:

• Condition the child's brain to associate reading with pleasure
• Create background knowledge
• Build vocabulary
• Provide a reading role model

Let's look at how we create lifetime readers. There are two basics reading "facts of life" that are ignored in many education circles, yet without these two principles working in tandem, little else will work in education reform.

Reading Fact 1: Human Being Are Pleasure-Centered

Human will voluntarily do things, which brings them pleasure. Pleasure is like the glue that holds our attention - but only to what we like. Every time we read to a child, we're sending "pleasure" message (glue) to the child's brain. However, there're also the "unpleasures" associated with reading - boring, threatening and without meaning. If the child seldom experiences the "pleasures" of reading and meets only the "unpleasures", then the natural reaction will be withdrawal.


Reading Fact 2: Reading Is An Accrued Skill

Reading is like riding a bicycle, or driving a car; in order to get better at it you must do it. And the more you read, the better you get at it.

From: Jim Trelease, The Read-Aloud Handbook 5th. Edition

This Holiday, Be With Your Children

School holidays and festive season. Take some time to be with your love ones.

Don't let your child fill their time just like this:



But, together, you can do this instead.

Eid Mubarak! Happy holidays !