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Parent Strategies to Support Reading and Writing 

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Parent Strategies to Support Reading and Writing 

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Parent Strategies for Improving Their Child’s Reading and Writing

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Check out our list of ideas to help parents increase their child’s understanding of reading and writing skills and to develop confidence in learning.

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50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

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Common Sense Media editors help you choose 50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12. Surefire selections for kids and tweens.

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Developing independent readers means nurturing the conditions for passion and independent thinking to flourish.

Maria Carluccio / The iSpot

When we limit independent reading to a small range of topics, genres, and reading levels, and routinely assign rote accountability tasks like daily reading logs, we inadvertently send a signal that reading isn't meant to be a joyful, inspiring, self-directed, and even revelatory activity.

"Independent reading is not about a number of minutes or the level of the book. It is not a program," write literacy experts and middle and high school teachers, Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst in Literacy Today. "It is about creating independent thinkers who think with compassion, logic, and curiosity, and without manipulation from others. They think-and from those thoughts, they become more than they were. They become independent."

Paired with regular guided reading instruction, independent reading should provide students with the opportunity to read widely, exploring high-interest and diverse texts across genres, bringing to the reading their own unique "perceptions, values, and thoughts," write Beers and Probst.

Yet nurturing stimulating, immersive independent reading in the classroom-a critical part of developing lifelong readers -requires a willingness to loosen the reins to allow for more organic and unstructured reading time, opting sometimes for low-stakes reflection exercises instead of graded assessments and accountability tasks, and making space for students to exercise some degree of choice and passion.

Here are a few ways to help promote what Beers and Probst describe as the sometimes messy, noisy process of independent reading in the classroom.

Expand Beyond Reading Levels

When students are encouraged to explore texts above and below their reading level, it can liberate them from strict ideas about what they should or should not be reading, freeing them to read more broadly. "In my library, I much prefer the message that all books belong to all readers," writes Julia Torres, a language arts teacher and librarian. "Often, without realizing it, when we lean too heavily on data pertaining to reading levels and achievement and share this information with students, it can lead to the development of prejudicial ideas about which books belong to which grades and readers."

Putting this idea into practice, Torres and her colleague Alexander Maughan created "vertically aligned stacks" in the reading app Sora. Each stack includes books from a variety of grade levels, genres, and topics. Students explore the stacks and curate their own selections that correspond to their writing units and motifs, an approach that gives them access to a much broader range of texts compared to being assigned a set list of books.

Make Accountability Social

Reflection exercises, like establishing accountability partners where pairs of students check in regularly to discuss their reading, can help kids process and demonstrate their understanding of a text in fun, engaging ways that don't feel like a test. Model book chats for students and supply them with a few conversation starters like: "What feelings did this book evoke for you," or "Which character do you most relate to?"

Or find ways "to leverage students' social media connectivity to help them see the relevance of their reading and to cultivate lifelong readers," suggests Lorraine Radice, a director of literacy for Long Beach Public Schools. Encourage students to blog, for example, writing in a relaxed, conversational way about events or ideas that they connect with in their reading. Ask students to record a vlog entry on their phones whenever they encounter something in their reading they'd like to comment on; they can upload recordings onto a Google slide or Flipgrid.

Consider Low-Stakes Assessments

If the goal is to get kids reading-widely and voraciously-then it's worth considering how to make reading feel less like a chore. Some traditional assessment and accountability tools, like mandatory daily reading logs and compulsory graded essays at the end of every book, can significantly decrease students' reading motivation, making reading a duty rather than a pleasure.

Yet some form of accountability is necessary so teachers know kids are reading and processing the material.

In Marilyn Pryle's high school classroom in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, where students get to join book clubs as part of Pryle's effort to build independent readers, she caps off each five-week book club cycle with two low-stakes assessments. For the first part of the assessment, students write a one-page review of the book they've read for Goodreads. For the second part, each group engages in an hour-long discussion of their book. This discussion can happen in one go, be broken into half-hour chunks, or even happen as short chats spread out through the five-week cycle as the students process their books. Students either submit typed minutes from the discussion or upload a recording. In the conversations, Pryle looks for "convincing evidence of a thoughtful, natural 60-minute conversation," and leaves "comments for improvements."

Cultivate Open Inquiry

Fostering reading independence "looks like a democracy-it's messy," write Beers and Probst. "The goal is for all voices to be heard, which means making sure some voices are not louder or easier to hear than others, and that the other voices aren't silenced."

To ensure that each student feels like they have a voice at the table, and that the classroom reflects the rich diversity of people, perspectives, histories, and values that exist across the U.S., it's important that students can browse and read from a rich selection of diverse texts that provides " mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors " for students to see themselves in the materials they read.

From there, cultivating the conditions for genuine reflection and open discussion, the authors suggest, involves intentionally guiding students to think deeply about how their reading is changing their thinking, rather than how many pages or minutes they've accumulated. Conversations, Beers and Probst write, might now turn to questions like: "What's in the book? What's in your head? What's in your heart? And now, what would you like to do?"

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How to Provide Less Structure for Independent Reading

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Developing independent readers means nurturing the conditions for passion and independent thinking to flourish. Maria Carluccio / The iSpot When we limit independent reading to a small range of topics, genres, and reading levels, and routinely assign rote accountability tasks like daily reading logs, we inadvertently send a signal that reading isn't meant to be a joyful, inspiring, self-directed, and even revelatory activity.

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The Case for Choosing a Physical Book Over a Digital Reader

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The Case for Choosing a Physical Book Over a Digital Reader

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The Case for Choosing a Physical Book Over a Digital Reader

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Physical books encourage a deeper reading of a text than digital devices do, some experts argue.

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Teach and learn with The Times: Resources for bringing the world into your classroom

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Current Reading Research to Support Comprehensive Reading Instruction Through All Curricula 

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Current Reading Research to Support Comprehensive Reading Instruction Through All Curricula 

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What to Pay Attention to in Graphic Novels

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What to Pay Attention to in Graphic Novels

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What to Pay Attention to Reading Graphic Novels

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Embracing Dyslexia: The Interviews - Maryanne Wolf, Ed.D.

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Parent Professional Learning Videos with Meghan Hargrave

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Supporting Young Writers with Punctuation

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Supporting Young Writers with Punctuation

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Quick overview of what to focus on with kindergarten writers for spelling and punctuation.

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Supporting Your Child in Writing Workshop - Grammar and Conventions

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Writers Explores Many Types of Writing Within a Genre

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TED-Ed lessons on all subjects. TED-Ed celebrates the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Discover hundreds of animated lessons, create customized lessons, and share your big ideas.

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Lists about: Fun Books for Elementary Schoolers, Boy Friendly Picture Books, Read In school Or For A Class and Liked it!, Chapter Books I read to First G...

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Photo Credits: Adam Van Spronsen/Shutterstock (bear); Kinzie Riehm/Image Source/Getty Images (4 children); Illustration by Allan Davey (Revolutionary War); Courtesy of Lily Hevesh/Hevesh5 (domino sculpture)

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Teaching Remotely for Grades K - 12 | Free Resources and Strategies

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Photo Credits: Adam Van Spronsen/Shutterstock (bear); Kinzie Riehm/Image Source/Getty Images (4 children); Illustration by Allan Davey (Revolutionary War); Courtesy of Lily Hevesh/Hevesh5 (domino sculpture)

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The Science of Reading Movement - The Never-Ending Debate 

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The Science of Reading Movement - The Never-Ending Debate 

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The Science of Reading Movement- The Never-Ending Debate (1)

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US News and World Report - Helping with Spelling 

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US News and World Report - Helping with Spelling 

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Some parents give up helping their children with spelling long before they get to spelling bee words like "psychagogic" (attractive) or "fewtrils" (things of little value). That may be especially true for parents who themselves can't get past "accommodate" without spell-check.

Yet education experts say there are ways to help with spelling, even for children who find it challenging, that can be more effective than rote memorization. Even in an age of commonly misspelled social media posts and texts, they say, spelling is still an important skill.

"Spelling, along with grammar and usage, seem to receive less attention from educators and others, which is distressing," says Louisa Moats, a consultant and literacy expert with a doctorate in reading and language. "Both writing quantity and quality is related to being able to spell."

Helping Children Decode Words

The English language is rife with confusing spellings, and many teachers and parents still urge children to simply memorize spelling lists. But Moats says there are ways to decode words that will allow students to apply concepts to many words rather than memorizing them one at a time.

"The key to teaching spelling well is demystifying the spelling system and being able to explain to kids why words are spelled the way they are," Moats says.

According to Moats, a study of the 20,000 most common words showed that 90% of them can be learned by following just four rules.

Sounds and symbols correspond. Because readers learn sounds and then spellings, it's important to know the sounds of letters or groups of letters (like "eigh" makes the sound in "neighbor.") They also need to know that some sounds have more than one way of being spelled but can fall into patterns. For example, the sound "eff," in addition to being spelled with an "f," can be spelled with a "ph" as in "phone" or with an "ough" as in "tough."

Conventions live on. Some words have unusual spellings because of very old conventions, such as how letters looked when they were handwritten centuries ago. Moats says, for instance, that English doesn't end words with a "v" or a "j" because they looked too much like "u" and "i" back in the days when everything was written by hand. This can help children decipher that words like "nerve" take an "e" at the end and "lodge" turns its "j" sound into a "dge."

Language of origin can help. "English is a layer cake of different languages consolidated into what we think of as Modern English," Moats says. Knowing that the word "gymnasium" comes from Greek can help a student figure out that the "i" sound is actually a "y," which is common in Greek.

Meaning matters. Spelling often helps preserve meaning. For instance, the double "k" in "bookkeeper" is pronounced as just one sound, but the two letters help readers understand that it is the words "book" and "keeper" fused together. Knowing that words have similar roots and meanings can also help decipher their spelling. For example, knowing that "heal" and "health" come from the same root can help a child spell it correctly rather than something like "hellth."

Help With Spelling 'Oddballs'

Of course, there are words that don't follow these rules - some call them "oddballs" - but there are suggestions to learn these as well. Moats says words like "yacht," "colonel" and "Wednesday" do have to be memorized, but that parents and teachers can help the unruly words stick in young minds if they encourage students to learn the etymology, or origin, of words.

Yacht, for example, derives from a Dutch term that meant "hunting ship," according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Colonel can conjure up a leader of a column of soldiers.

"We all remember best what we understand," Moats says. "So you want to create understanding whenever you can. That's always better than blind memorization."

Promoting Long-Term Memory

Education experts say that true improvement in spelling, as opposed to just getting ready for a test, involves moving words into long-term memory.

"Memorizing words for a test is different from applying spelling to reading or writing," Sarah Major, founder of Child1st, which provides resources for parents and teachers, wrote on her website.

"For those children who can memorize a list of words for a test but who cannot apply that knowledge beyond the test ... the information was not meaningful and wasn't stored in long-term memory," she says. "The goal of studying was passing a test, not learning to use the words in writing."

Jackson Best, a high school teacher and content specialist at 3P Learning, an education software company, says that memory games can help. Mnemonics, which are phrases or rhymes that help students memorize material, are one common strategy. For example, a student might learn to spell the word "rhythm" by learning the sentence "rhythm helps your two hips move." The first letter of each word spells "rhythm" correctly.

"Have some fun and see what your kids come up with," he wrote in an article on how to teach spelling. "It doesn't have to be word-based, and it doesn't have to be clever - long-term memory is the goal."

About 20% of kids have a real problem learning to spell, Moats says, and they can end up feeling "defeated, inadequate and frustrated." Parents can ask teachers for fewer words, different words or other accommodations to help them improve.

"Trust your gut and observe whether your kid has made a reasonable effort," she says. "If he's tearing his hair out and crying, stop and tell the teacher it's not working."

Spelling Resources for Parents

For parents looking for more help with spelling, there are many resources available. Here are some examples:

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How Parents and Teachers Can Help With Spelling

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Spelling can be a challenge, but experts say there is much you can do to help children improve.

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Helping Parents Understand Spelling Development

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Helping Parents Understand Spelling Development

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Helping Parents Understand Spelling Development

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Current Reading Research to Support Comprehensive Reading Instruction Through All Curricula 

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Current Reading Research to Support Comprehensive Reading Instruction Through All Curricula 

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Word Collecting - Reading with the Lens of Vocabulary Aquisiton

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Raising Readers: What Parents Can Do | NEA

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Learning to read takes practice. Loving to read takes enthusiasm. Read with your child often and create a sense of enjoyment, wonder, and a passion for reading.

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Parent Strategies for Improving Their Child’s Reading and Writing

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Check out our list of ideas to help parents increase their child’s understanding of reading and writing skills and to develop confidence in learning.

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Searching for book recommendations? Look no further! Welcome to our specially curated collections of books for any topic your family wants to explore.

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Discover how to support your child’s growth as a young reader and writer. Here you’ll find our Reading 101 for Families guide, bilingual parent tips, ideas for building your child’s knowledge about the world, Q&A with experts, guidance on how to help a child who struggles, and ways to connect with y…