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Getting together with children in the evening to help them with homework can sometimes be a challenge.
This is probably one of the most overlooked factors that can really make a difference in a child's short
and long-term academic success.
Children benefit from a positive presence of a parent during times of learning. Being a teacher, I know
of the difficulties that those in my profession deal with concerning children. Some parents are very
involved in their children’s education, while some children are pretty much left to fend on their own
academically.
This is an issue because many children, particularly elementary and early middle school students, are
generally not yet mature to competently and successfully complete work without being followed up on.
As a professional in the area of teaching, this becomes apparent when you look at the work that some
children turn in.
One very powerful and important means of supporting learning, particularly with elementary aged children,
is for parents to read with their child.
Reading demonstrates, by modeling, that it is important. Practice, on a regular basis, allows your child
to develop fluency and comfort with new material. A side benefit is that it encourages communication on
a variety of subjects providing for some incidental learning to occur.
Students who are good readers are more likely to become better writers. This happens because as a child
reads various writing styles, they are likely to pick and adopt by subconscious influence elements of
those styles that they read.
Allow your son of daughter to pick up books that interest him or her. One rule that I often use with my
students is that I usually require them to pick up a fiction and a nonfiction book at the same time. The
fictional book allows them to really work on skills that are characteristic of good readers. This includes
but is not limited to being able to recognize and identify:
The Five Elements of Fiction
The main characters
The Plot
The Setting
The Main Problem of the Story
The Solution
Also, while reading fictional stories, good readers try to make predictions, confirm their predictions, and
then revise their predictions as they read.
Non-Fiction books further allow children to develop specific knowledge about specific subject matter areas.
I even encourage them to check out books on subject matters that they are not particularly interest in. This
allows them to develop knowledge and versatility about unfamiliar topics.
A Parent should share in the reading time with the child by not just listening, but reading to and with him/her.
At points in the story, the parent needs to strategically ask questions about sections read. Further, it would be
good to extend the understanding of things read to real life matters and situations by drawing comparisons to them.
Last but not least, have the child write a brief 5 or 6 sentence summary (a beginning, middle, and end) about the
book or story read. This is a great way to get him/her use to the idea that he/she needs to develop a comprehensive
understanding of the story that was read.
These things should help your son/daughter develop greater literacy strength through good practices and parental support.
*Note of Concern: Black children are enrolled in school at much younger age that their white counterparts. Black students,
however, had the lowest test scores in science, reading, and mathematics. They scored below threshold indicator of college
entrance exams on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT).
References:
Book: Breaking the Curse off Black America by Apostle Willie F. Wooten
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