Raising an Active Reader by Samantha Cleaver

A ask questions

B build vocabulary

C connect to the child's world

There are many ways to read a book to and with a young or even an older child. Above all the experience, should be an enjoyable one. In the school setting books are sometimes "killed" by over analysis and through dreaded worksheets which are often meaningless or busy work or simply require no deep thinking. There is a wonderful movement in some schools now, especially in the US, to simply read a picture book every day.  No complex discussion questions and no worksheets. Just reading a wonderful picture book, and there are tens of thousands of these, for the sheer joy of a shared reading experience. One aspect of this program that I really like is that the book covers of all the books that are read over a year are put up for display in the classroom. This is a wonderful way for children to make connections between books, between authors, between book themes and between the books they read and their own lives. 

In my school library I read thousands of picture books - every day of every week - for over 30 years. I also watched colleagues attempting to read my favourites with our library groups as my library qualified for extra staffing. Sadly I often despaired listening to others sharing books with classes when I had also read these same books many many times. The extra teacher either didn't scaffold the text prior to reading, or they spent way to long dissecting the book and then had to rush the reading, or they launched into a book without having read it for themselves first and then stumbled over the pace needed for reading. With picture books, even the way you turn pages can be important. 

We talk about teaching for success and one of the things I liked to do with a picture book to assist the students to enjoy the story - to achieve success perhaps - was to scaffold the story briefly prior to reading. Not to dissect it or give to much away but just help the children, again briefly, to develop a field of knowledge if needed, to help with unfamiliar words/vocabulary or signpost things to notice in the story. Some of this comes very naturally through exploring, prior to reading, the features of a book such as the cover, title, end papers, title page and sometimes the blurb (not always because sometimes the blurb can spoil a story). 

Raising an Active Reader: The case for reading aloud to engage elementary school youngsters is the full title of this book and I will pull out one word from this title - active. Synonyms for active might be words engaged through actively participation by making the reading a shared experience. 

Here are a few text quotes from this book:

"It should always be an enjoyable experience to share a book with your child."

" .. kids today need to understand and relate to lots of different issues that they may never experience firsthand ... One solution to a lack of empathy is reading, and meeting many different characters and experiencing lots of different situations in books."

"Reading aloud for fifteen minutes a few times a week is a way to take small steps toward the big goal of raising children who are critical thinkers, strong readers, and who love books."

"There is an emotional quality to reading; we read a story and we feel the sadness of a scene. We ache for a character's loss. We are sickened by the description of an injustice. We feel happy when a character succeeds. In this way, books build empathy by teaching children about the world they live in; that includes experiences that are like their own and experiences that are far from anything they will ever experience."

"When kids are able to think critically as they read, when they ask questions, think about and learn new words, and make connections they are becoming strong readers."

"When your child starts interrupting you to ask about new words, that's great. It means that they're developing word consciousness, or an awareness of and interest in words."  (I would add to this it also means they are following the story, they are interested in what is happening - and yes - your child is engaged).

Here in Australia this is a very expensive book costing over $42 but if you can find a copy in a library or perhaps access an ebook version from a library I do recommend reading Chapter 4 "Ask Questions"and Chapter 5 "Build Vocabulary".  These two chapters have some excellent practical advice relevant to parents and teachers. 

Here is the publisher blurb from Rowman and Littlefield: Parents and teachers know that reading aloud to children is important, and many parents of young children read aloud to them daily. However, when children start to read on their own, parents often stop reading aloud. But, the early elementary school years, when children are learning how to read on their own, is a perfect time to build vocabulary and comprehension skills through read aloud and Active Reading. Raising an Active Reader makes clear the process of learning to read, how Active Reading fits into raising strong readers, and the behaviours that adults can do to encourage strong language, comprehension, and vocabulary in children in grades K-3. This book extends on the ABCs of Active Reading (Ask Questions, Build Vocabulary, and make Connections) as they apply to older children and picture books, chapter books, and novels. Raising an Active Reader provides parents and teachers with the knowledge and skills to engage elementary school-aged children (grades K-3) in Active Reading with examples, clear explanations, and ideas for making one-on-one or small group read aloud sessions a powerful way to build children’s early literacy and language skills, all while creating a lifelong love of reading. 

One final thing - I was excited to read that one of the author's favourite books to read with her own children is Strictly No Elephants.

I would like to be able to wholeheartedly recommend Raising an Active Reader. The author of this book makes some really good points and gives practical examples of active reading but sadly this book is not very accessible. It is printed with a small font and with very text dense pages. I found the format made it hard to read. If intended audience is parents, this book looks a little too much like an academic text.

Here is Samantha Cleaver's previous book which is part one of her discussion. In this first book the focus is children aged 2-5 while her second book, as discussed in this post, focuses on children from Grade 3 and up.