1. How Can Parents Help Children to Learn?
Introduction to workshop facilitators and others helping to run the program.
Ice breaker activity
Introduce yourself to person on right and person on left.
Elicit responses from group members about a question like:
what was your favorite book when you were growing up?
What is the best thing that happened to you this week?
Who was the biggest help to you when you went to school? Why?
Of the books shown on this page, which one could tell the story of you right now?

2. What is SIG? Grant Funded by OSEP
Goal: Increased Literacy for Students Pre-K through High School
Professional Development
Family Involvement

3. Your workshop presenters are:

4. Supporting Children’s Learning
Why are parents important in education?
Important areas in Reading Research – the “five pillars”
How does reading develop and improve?
How/why students struggle with reading
Strategies for reading improvement

5. Why are Parents Important in Their Children's Education?
What does the research say about the effect of family involvement?
What is family involvement?
Parenting
Communicating
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Almost across the board, researchers have found that when parents are involved in their children’s education, students: Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Epstein, 1990; Clark, 1990; Comer & Haynes, 1992; Kellaghan et al, 1993)
Have higher grade point averages and higher scores on standardized tests
Are enrolled in more academically challenging courses
Pass more classes and earn more credits
Have better attendance
Have improved behavior at home and at school and better social skills
Are more likely to graduate from high school and attend post-secondary programs
Coleman (Equality of Educational Opportunity 1966) found that not every parent has an equal amount of resources to bring to their involvement in children’s education. Parents vary in the amount of time, money, energy, and education/knowledge they possess. But Coleman found that variations among family backgrounds made more difference in children’s achievement than variations between schools. Coleman explained, “Schools, of whatever quality, are more effective for children from strong family backgrounds than for children from weak ones. The resources devoted by the family to the child’s education interact with the resources provided by the school – and there is greater variation in the former resources than the latter” (Coleman, 1987). Coleman suggested that schools provide inputs into the socialization process of students that can be characterized as opportunities, demands, and rewards. A second set of inputs come from the child’s “closer, more intimate and more persisting environment and the environment that most affects them is, for nearly all children, the social environment of the household” (p.35). These inputs are attitudes, effort, and conception of self. Thus, if the family does not help the child develop good attitudes about school and self, the schools will not be as effective in doing their part.

6. Building Blocks of Reading
Phonemic
Awareness
Reading Ability
Vocabulary
Phonics
Comprehension
Fluency
Reading Readiness
Listen
Read
Print
Talk

7. Phonemic Awareness
A Phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a spoken word.
Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words.
cat – how many phonemes?/c/ /a/ /t/
cake – how many phonemes? /c/ /a/ /k/
manipulating sounds
Beginning sounds - bat /b/ ….
Ending sounds - bat /t/
Rhyming /b/ /a/ /t/ … /c/ /a/ /t/
Hearing syllables – clapping, etc.

8. Phonics
Phonics is the predictable relationship between phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters).
Systematic and explicit instruction
Connecting sounds to symbols
Consonants and vowels
Combinations and patterns
Assists in decoding efforts to make reading less of a struggle

9. Fluency
Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression.
Bridges word recognition and comprehension.
Different than speed reading.
Changes with stage of development, familiarity with words, amount of practice
Ways to improve fluency:
Modeling good reading
Repeated reading
Adult-child reading
Choral reading
Tape-assisted reading
Partner reading

10. Vocabulary
Vocabulary: the words we use and understand in reading, listening, and writing. We have a harder time reading and understanding those words whose meaning we do not know.
oral – speaking and listening
reading – recognize in print
Sometimes taught directly through word learning strategies like dictionary, word lists and parts, context clues
However, most vocabulary is learned indirectly through everyday experiences
talking, listening, reading
repeated exposure to words – read, write, say

11. Comprehension
Comprehension is understanding what we read. It’s the reason for reading.
Good readers think when they read:
Purposeful – know why they are reading
Use background knowledge – decode, recall, compare
Active – think while reading
Monitor comprehension and use strategies
Identify where the difficulty occurs
Identify what the difficulty is
Restates in own words
Look back through text
Look forward for info that helps resolve difficulty
Able to use graphic organizers
Able to ask and answer questions
Use prior knowledge, predict and summarize

12. Example of importance of background knowledge: What do you need to know to read this recipe and bake these brownies?
Recipe for Brownies
6 tablespoons Cocoa
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup flour
1 cup toasted pecans (optional)
2 eggs
Pour batter into greased and floured pan. Bake at 350° for ½ hour.

13. Literacy for All
If your child has a disability, does that mean he or she shouldn’t be working on reading and writing skills?
Would you like to learn more about helping your child in those areas?
Support and Training for Exceptional Parents (STEP)
(800) 280-STEP
and
Family Voices of Tennessee
are two Tennessee organizations whose staff help parents of children with special needs. Call them for more information.

14. Model Good Reading Read aloud - example Let them see you read
Show children how to define the purpose for reading and to ask questions during reading
Show how there’s always more information to read about a subject

15. Venn Diagram Similarities and Differences The Three Little Pigs and
the Big Bad Wolf
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
Different
Different
Similar

16. Story Map Main Setting Characters Problem of the story A story event
Another story event
How the problem is solved
The ending

17. KWL Chart K
What I know W
What I want to Know L
What I learned

18. Parent’s Role in Reading
Provide support
Read and have your child read – get them thinking and talking
Help them find interesting sources of reading
Visit the library and other places – give them background knowledge
Don’t make reading time at home a chore: be positive - “Now we get to read” instead of “You have to get your reading done.”
Read, read, read…

19. Recap What can parents do to support their children's learning?
When do children start the “learning to read” process?
What are the five areas researchers say are most important for learning to read?
What are some of the ways in which children struggle with reading?
How can we help children in those areas?
Ask parents these questions to see if they got the information you were hoping they’d get from the workshop.

20. Questions??
Please visit the SIG Website for more strategies and ways to help your child improve reading skills:

21. Toolkit Tools
The following material can be downloaded at no cost from
Toolkit Book: Families Helping Children Become Better Readers
PowerPoint Presentation
Facilitator’s Guide