Title One Newsletter
April 2019
How to Improve Your Child's Reading Ability With Dyad Reading
Dyad reading is cooperative reading, a lead reader and an assisted reader sit side by side and read aloud from a shared text in unison. Below are ideas to use Dyad reading with your child
1. Let the child pick the book. They should pick something interesting to them, regardless of whether or not it seems too hard. A scientific study showed that all students who participated in dyad reading of a book made gains. Those who participated with a book that was 2-4 grade levels above their reading level made even bigger gains than those with a book at their level.
2. Sit together. I often hold my kids on my lap, but sitting side-by-side works, too. You’ll need a free hand to point with, so I don’t recommend lying back so far that you have to hold the book up and open.
3. Tell the child to read along with you. Read the title out loud together and practice it a few times, so that they know you want them to read along with you. Maybe the first time, you’re reading it and they’re listening to you and repeating the words. The second time through, their repeating gets a little faster. The third time through, they’re taking the lead. This is the same pattern you’ll follow as you read the whole book, though you don’t need to read it all in one go, and you don’t need to repeat a sentence unless you want to.
4. Take the lead and set the pace. You should read slightly ahead of your child, as you are the lead reader. If there’s a tricky passage, or the child is getting distracted, you can go back and reread. If there’s a simple passage or a word they know, you can let them lead for a while. Then take the lead back seamlessly when they hit a snag. As long as you’re both saying the words, seeing the words, and hearing the words, you’re doing it right.
5. Read smoothly. Read expressively, pausing at commas and periods. If you need to slow down a bit so that your child can keep up, take care that your reading is still natural. Don’t. Chop. Each. Word. Show them how a good reader reads. Enjoy it!
One benefit of dyad reading that I love is that it takes the pressure off the child. No sounding out, no prompting them to try and remember a word. Because you’re leading and they’re following, reading becomes a learning process and not a test. It becomes fun again.
It’s important to note that dyad reading isn’t a perfect method for all purposes. If you want to test a child’s reading level, dyad reading is not the way to go. If your child doesn’t know how to sound words out, you’ll want to turn to phonics and decoding rather than dyad reading. But if you want to grow the number of sight words your child can recognize (and you’ve grown tired of drilling flashcards), dyad reading can be super effective. If you want to increase your child’s reading fluency, dyad reading allows her to observe and practice at the same time.
Building Math Skills With Everyday Activities
1. Bake something together
You can’t help but use math when you’re baking. Doubling recipes requires multiplying, halving a recipe requires dividing, and measuring a ½ cup or a ¼ teaspoon gets you working with easy fractions. At a more basic level, kids love counting out chocolate chips. (And so do the parents; we speak from experience!)
Ask your child: How many chocolate chips do you think it will take to fill one cup? How many for 1/2 cup? Count together and see how close you came to the right answer!
2. Measure, count, and record
Most kids love stopwatches, and watching the seconds tick by gives them opportunities to practice counting. Measure distances and heights. Count jumping jacks, push-ups, or consecutive kicks of a soccer ball.
Ask your child: How far can you throw a ball? Take a guess, then throw the ball as far as you can and measure the distance.
How many jumping jacks can you do in a minute? Try it!
How many times can you jump rope or bounce a ball without missing? Count and see.
3. Build something together
Big or small, any project that involves measuring includes counting, adding, and multiplying. It doesn’t matter whether you’re making a clubhouse out of shoeboxes or building a genuine tree house. Legos and other building toys are wonderful tools for incorporating both numbers and spatial thinking into playtime.
Ask your child: How high can you build that stack of Legos?
How many Legos do you need to stack to reach as high as the coffee table?
Can you make a square? A rectangle? Other shapes? Talk about the shapes of whatever your child has created.
4. Plan dinner or a party
Whether you’re planning a party or just getting ready for a family dinner, there are plenty of math concepts involved. Have your child help set the table and count out the plates, napkins, and silverware. For a party, have your child help with the shopping. You know you’re going to have to do some math since all of those plates, balloons, and party favors are packaged in different quantities!
Ask your child: How many plates, napkins, and forks do you need for dinner?
If you’re inviting 10 guests to a party, and the plates come 8 to a pack, how many packs are you going to need? How many are going to be left over?
If you’re not planning a party in the near future, get creative. Why not host a tea party for your child’s favorite stuffed animals?
5. Mix in math to your bedtime reading
Most families read to their children at night. Why not add a math problem to the mix? Here’s one to try.
Melt in Your Mouth
No matter how much you love your favorite snack (apples, marshmallows, pound cake), it probably tastes even better dipped in something warm and gooey. That’s what you do when you eat fondue. You fill the fondue pot with cheese or chocolate, put it over a hot flame, and then dip pieces of food into the yummy meltedness using long skinny fondue forks.
It all started with cheese fondue in a Swiss recipe in 1699, but since then we’ve added meat fondue (where you carefully cook chunks of steak in hot oil) and, of course, chocolate fondue. But you have to pay attention while dipping: Some say that if you drop your apple slice in the pot, you have to kiss the person to your left.
Ask your 3 or 4-year old: If you dip 2 apple slices and 3 banana slices into your fondue, how many pieces did you dip?
Ask your older child: If there are 2 people sharing cheese fondue and everyone wants 3 apple slices, how many apple slices do you need to serve?
There are plenty of other ways to keep kids thinking about math—board games, stickers, and stargazing, to name a few. The important thing is just to encourage your child to see the numbers all around us and to keep things fun. This is how we’ll raise a next generation that thinks math is cool!
Four Vocabulary Building Tips
Describe the word.
Provide a description of the new word. For example, maybe you’re teaching your child the new word merchant, which is common in upper elementary social studies textbooks. You can talk with your child about the local merchants in your town. What kinds of stores are in your town? What do they sell?
Say it your way.
Once you’ve described a new word, ask him to come up with his own way to describe it. For example, after explaining how fortunate you are to have such a nice family, your son might explain how fortunate he is to have the latest video game.
Act it out.
By acting out a word, your child better understands it. This may be particularly helpful if your child has lots of energy and loves to run around. The new word frolic can come alive through jumping around like a puppy, a goat or a lamb. Why not bring it outdoors as well?
Quick draw.
Get some pencils and paper. Without using words, draw a quick sketch of the new word. You might decide to represent the new word reluctant by drawing a person standing at the edge of swimming pool with only one toe in the water. Your child, who is reluctant to eat vegetables, might draw of a big bowl of broccoli.