The Clever Classroom Weblog

How important are home readers?

Do they help children develop a range of appropriate skills and strategies for reading?

How do teachers plan for individuals taking home readers?

Each child develops a range of reading habits that inherently aide their reading acquisition during the formal years at school. Therefore books in general are vital to their growth and development, especially home readers. Most of these skills and strategies are developed in early childhood and extended as they move through the grades. Should these skills and strategies be part of the teachings of busy parents?

There's already a lot of pressure for parents to help their children with homework and other extra curricula activities not to mention allowing them time to be 'children.' Should parents be responsible for the explicit teaching of reading with the use of weekly or daily home-readers? Or should students be using this time to practise their developing reading competencies?

Perhaps children should read at their instructional level in the classroom and at a 'practise level' at home. Here skills such as fluency, intonation and expression can confidently be revisited each day/week. Strategies taught in class can also be revised as they confidently read aloud to themselves, their family members or even in a mirror or perhaps to their favourite toy.

Teachers have the inevitably difficult task of programming and the delivery appropriate reading programs for each student. Each member of the class holds a different bag of tricks in their developing collection of skills and strategies. So giving children time to practise what they are developing with appropriate home readers should assist this outcome. How do teachers plan for home readers in their class? What approach works for young readers and their developing reading skills?

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