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Saturday, September 29, 2018

How Do I Develop the Skill of Book Reading?

Reading skills is needed not only to learn a language but to learn about new subjects. As avid lovers of literature, often teachers find themselves wanting to impart every bit of knowledge and information about a well-loved book to their students. Developing reading skills especially in English is an almost guaranteed way to help you retain content of the book. Unfortunately, the tendency to focus on the content of a book is the real enemy to the goal of developing reading skills. This is why students are asked to present reports on book reading so that they can be assessed effectively on how far they read the book and what information they were able to absorb by reading the book. In this way the teachers or instructors can help students to develop their book reading skills. 

In this post, I am talking about a teacher and student scenario because that’s something we could all relate with in order to build our book reading skill. Here are few ideas you can incorporate book reading skills in your curriculum or daily life. 

Teach Close Reading Skills 

Guide students in annotation by directing them to do more than underlying or highlighting. Encourage students to have a conversation with the book by jotting down notes on the text while reading. This will keep them engaged with the book and also increase comprehension. 
Annotations can include asking questions, defining new words, making personal connections to the text, citing current events, coding recurring words and themes, summarizing the paragraphs, categorizing information, highlighting heading and subheadings, chunking, drawing pictures and numbering and ordering. There is an endless list of possibilities to create annotations. The important point is to have students form their own process while approaching a text- because everyone has different approach and perspectives. As a teacher, don’t be afraid to give your students specific annotation guidelines such as “annotate the writer’s characterization techniques” or “find examples of so and so” to help them focus. 
  
Annotations help the students to identify which strategies work best for them while trying to process and understand information. Watch this clip "Girls Read Comic" from “The Big Bang Theory” that has a great way to introduce the concept of reading closely and its significance. 

Set Reading Goals  

Although writing goals are used regularly in the classroom, students do not assess their personal reading skills on a regular basis. So, start the year by having your students to write a reader’s biography to gain insight into their reading habits, their struggles and successes. This will serve as a foundation for you to set reading goals for your students. Evaluating reading skills of students is important on a regular basis so that you can help them create new goals based on their needs and goals.   

Appeal to the Senses  

While reading book is the work of the mind, incorporating the senses provide extra reinforcement for students who are still developing their skills. Reading aloud and verbalizing questions you would mentally ask while reading books is beneficial to students. Therefore, a teacher modeling this skill of asking questions help the students to understand what type of questions to ask and the frequency of questions while book reading. It is worth mentioning to encourage students to read with a pen or pencil in hand.  

Vary the Text Length 

While approaching a particular difficult text, break it up and offer it in shorter segments, otherwise your students will become discouraged with lengthy texts which needs intense concentration. Give them smaller segments so that the students can digest chunks in pieces, acquire the academic vocabulary and build their book reading skills with confidence.  

Assess Content and Skills  

Students should be able to demonstrate their book reading skills in assessment, be it formal or informal, formative or summative. Comprehension questions are a good way to check for basic understanding but teachers should move to the harder level of asking how and why questions to their students. You can choose activities which require the students to dig deeper into the book such as writing a formal easy, facilitating a discussion, making a meme for a character, or presenting a timeline of a character in the form of an infographic, etc.  

Offer Opportunities for Choice Reading


Put it in this way, the best way to improve book reading skill is to read books, and students are more likely to read it when they a choice in reading their favorite book. Introduce them with variety of choices between reading the fiction and non-fiction books by introducing them to what they can expect from these genres. Encourage students to take books for personal reading by asking them about their interests and providing your recommendations. Don’t make reading skill as a forced upon skillset development but for pleasure so that students start reading books by their own.  

So, incorporating the above tactics will help you to develop your book reading skill development. Taking time to discuss about the book will not only make you gain in reading but also have an understanding to become better readers.  

Now that you know how to develop book reading skills, I’ll discuss about the benefits of book reading in my upcoming posts. I hope with that you will have enough reasons to indulge yourself in the wonderland of books. 

Until then, this is your book-nerdy friend Nyasa signing off.

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Do’s and Don'ts of Reading Books with Children

Reading books is important because it helps to expand the mind and develop imagination. In today’s society, reading ability is one of the vital skills in being able to function well. So, it is undeniable that a child’s reading skills are important for their success in school, at work and in life. That is why reading books with children at a very early age ensures their success.




In this post, I’ll be discussing about the do’s and don’ts of reading books with children.



List of Do’s While Reading Books with Your Child 
  • Start reading books to children as soon as possible.
  • Before you start reading a book, always say the name of the book, introduce the author and illustrator, no matter how many times you have to read the book.
  • Read and re-read books which are predictable and contain repetition.
  • Choose Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and songs which stimulate language and listening.
  • Set a time every day aside for book reading.
  • To encourage children’s involvement in book reading, have them turn the pages for you.
  • Use plenty of expressions while reading books, it helps to build imagination for your children.
  • Keep them involved as you read books by occasionally asking them about what they think is going to happen next?
  • Lead your child by example. Let them see you reading and they will soon start to copy us.
  • Regulate the amount of time spent watching television and using smartphones.
  • Read books to your child, like you mean it. Change your pitch and volume to show different characters or create a mood.
  • Reluctant readers often find it difficult to sit still, so try giving a pencil and paper to your children during the read-aloud experience to keep their hands busy.
  • Occasionally read books that are above your children’s intellectual levels. This is a great way to challenge their minds and expose them to new experiences.
  • Incorporate the following six simple and powerful early literacy practices into your everyday activities so that it helps your child to learn early literacy skills: 

    • Reading: Reading books together is the most effective way that helps children to become proficient readers. Your child’s interest in reading is a significant predictor of later reading achievement.
    • Talking: Talking, telling stories and stretching conversations with children help them to learn new information, vocabulary and other early literary skills.
    • Counting: This is a great way to teach your child to reason logically, solve the problems and make connections between mathematics and everyday life.
    • Singing: It develops listening skills in children and help them to pay attention to the rhythm and rhyme. Singing helps children to learn new words, it adds to their general knowledge and is plain fun!
    • Writing: We already know that writing and reading go together. Both reading and writing are ways to represent spoken words and to communicate information.
    • Playing: It is one of the primary ways young children learn about how the world works and learn language. It helps children understand that written words stand for real objects and experiences.
List of Don'ts While Reading Books with Your Child 
  • Don’t be fooled by awards. An award-winning book may not necessarily be a good read-aloud for your children. 
  • Don’t read stories that you yourself don’t like as your dislike will show off. 
  • Don’t get too comfortable while reading books to your children. A slouching or reclining position is the most apt way to bring on drowsiness. With less blood being pumped, less oxygen reaches the brain which causes drowsiness. 
  • Never use the book as a threat such as “If you don’t clean your room then no story for you tonight!”. This will foster a negative attitude about book reading on your children. So, refrain from making the book reading experience a negative one for your children. 
  • Don’t be unnerved by questions from very young children during the book reading session. Answer the question patiently if they pop up not for the purpose of distracting or postponing your bedtime. Though there is no time limit for reading a book however, understand that there is a time limit on a child’s inquisitiveness for it. So, foster your children’s curiosity with patient answers and then resume your reading. 
  • Don’t stop reading aloud to your children once they start reading by themselves, because reading and listening skills don’t begin to converge until about 8th grade. 
Now that we know about the do’s and don’ts of book reading with children, you can start with this activity to develop this skill at an early age. If you are still not convinced why you should start reading to your children then stay tuned to know the Significance of Reading Books to Your Children in my upcoming posts.
Let me know your thoughts on reading books with children in the comments below

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

How Reading Books Help to Reduce Stress?

Hello my dear friends, I hope you are all doing good today. In this post, I will be discussing about a great and interesting way to reduce stress quickly- reading books. Before beginning, I've few questions for you- Do you love books? Do you like to read? If the answer is yes then this post is meant for you. 


Few months ago, I was stressed out with my academics and personal life. But then one day, a reading group of which I am a member of started with the reading books activity. During that session one of the members read her favorite book "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. And believe me, I enjoyed the reading session. After this session, I was longing to know what happened next in the story of this book. My mind got cleared of all the things that were stressing me out before this reading session. It was then that I realized how reading helps to reduce the stress levels. In fact, I now pledged to incorporate reading books in my daily routine, so that my mind can break off from its routine worries and wander in the wonderful world of books. So, reading books help me live through my life when its psychologically hard and stressful. 

How Reading Books Reduces Stress?
  
We all know that reading is good for the brain. But does it help with relieving stress? Do you remember the study done by neuropsychologist David Lewis that I had mentioned in my previous post, wherein reading was found to be a powerful tool for stress relief in comparison to listening to music, taking a walk to relax or drinking tea? If not, let me remind you, it only takes six minutes of reading to reduce your stress levels by 68 percent. And I can’t agree more with the study done by Dr. David Lewis. Losing yourself in a book is the ultimate relaxation method, because reading can distract us from our everyday worries and anxiety and make us feel more relaxed. 

How Do I Read Books to Truly Achieve Stress Relief?  

Merely reading books, scanning through the pages won’t help to reduce stress level. This is why, I always find a quiet place to read books, because it is more enjoyable as well as relaxing. However, this is not always possible as in case of commuting when the bus is full of chatter and loud music. 

Reading is an activity that recharges your mind and body. It helps us explore new imaginary world that are quite different from our ordinary life. Reading also helps us become more creative and energetic. Basically, it helps us to find new ways to enjoy our life. You can dream while reading books, you can laugh and this results in reducing our stressors. This is why reading I enjoy a lot while reading books and I am no more anxious or stressed while doing so. 


For me, reading is dreaming and traveling to new realities, to live someone else’s life- the characters in the book. It helps me forget everything which is stressing me out and I can just live my life with new perspective. In some strange way, reading books is like a meditation to me. Because, while reading books, you usually only think and be in the reality that the book brings you to. Reading is a journey, a fun activity that I enjoy because it helps to release the stress even if it’s for a little while.  

The best part about reading is that it increases our empathy so that we can understand others better. This can make our life easier because we are here for each other to build this world together. We can truly connect with each other and then there can’t be stress.  

Can Reading Books Relieve Stress for Everyone? 

Though reading books reduces stress, but it won’t work for everyone. This is because if you don’t like reading and you don’t enjoy this activity, then reading books won’t work for you to relieve your stress. So, if you are forced to read a book and you take it as a chore then you can’t enjoy it and believe me it will make you more stressed. 

What Kind of Books You Should Read for Stress Relief?  

This is a good question, but the answer is simple- it simply depends on you. You are free to choose what kind of books you enjoy reading- a novel of any genre that lets you laugh and forget about all your anxiety, worries and stress. Some people enjoy horror novels because it helps them relieve stress by engaging them in a different world with different rule which let them go off their tension. 

For me, it is detective fiction novels, love stories and any books that could capture my imagination and interest in knowing what happens next in the book, that helps me forget about my stress and worries. It helps me escape my reality for a while and makes me feel relaxed. I’ll post about My Favorite Fantasy Novels and Books for Stress Relief in my future posts.   

Outline 

Now that you understand that reading is an important factor for our physical as well as mental well-being. I hope you will incorporate this habit in your daily life so that you can get rid of all your stress and worries.  

Let me know about what book you are going to read next. And don’t forget to share this new information with your friends and family.  

Until next time, this is Nyasa signing off.  

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