Dear Parents, Do you READ to your children?

First of all I would like to thank those parents who have given me the 'thumbs up' in creating the blog. At this moment I will make general updates of things related to the class and school, as well as posting articles which parents might want to read.

I would like to share an article which I have read recently regarding reading to our children:

The sad thing is this: tragically, research in United States during 1999 indicates that better educated parents read more to their children that their lesser educated counterparts. Its particularly tragic because reading to children in an integral part of progress towards literacy.

Reading to children has two kinds of benefits: social benefits and educational benefits.

Socially, parents reading to their children helps to create and strengthen the bond between them because children realise that, for that time, they are the entire focus of their parents' attention. That attention can be a great self-esteem booster for children too.

For the young ones, being cuddled up to Mum or Dad and the end of the day for a bedtime story, and drifting off in the process can be just the right way to start a good night's sleep.

Educationally, the benefits are ENORMOUS. Reading to young children enthuses them about books and reading from a very early age. Books become part of their lives. Well, that's great for beginners but why should you read to after they can read for themselves?

One teacher I spoke too, who had obviously thought about this a lot, said that reading aloud to children exposes them to words they may not be familiar with, improves their pronunciation, helps their comprehension - especially when they can ask questions - helps with fluency and improves expression.

The question is not really whether we can afford the time to read to our children but whether we an afford NOT TO.

Article extracted from Literacy Circular, Issue 4, Oct 2006


Hence we all must make a change from today onwards - spend at least ten minutes reading to our child everyday. I am sure we can find that time.

Regards,

Mr Md Faizal

Reading With Your Child

Reading With Your Child

Be supportive
Remember how you "taught" your child to speak, and do likewise with reading.Extend, bridge, encourage your child's attempts.Praise approximations.Let your child's interests guide you.

Be positive
Prompt for success and expect it.Focus on what your child does correctly.Praise any attempt that shows good reasoning, even if the outcome is incorrect.

Be meaning-oriented
Give a verbal framework for a story in introducing a book.Read to and with your child.Read predictable books, poetry, and folktales.Read and reread books.Encourage research reading.

Be a good model
Occasionally point to the words as you read aloud.Monitor your own reading and self-correct.Reread to clarify a word or idea.Stop to discuss an interesting or surprising word or idea.Stop to anticipate an upcoming word or event.Model the joy and usefulness of reading.

Be strategic
Prompt for strategies ("What would make sense? Would would sound right? What would you expect to see...? Does that look right? Sound right? Make sense?")Resist the temptation to tell your child when he is correct. Ask "Are you right? How did you know?"Resist the temptation to supply a word immediately when you child hesitates.Allow your child time to figure things out for himself.

Be helpful
Help your child know what works for him.Ask questions to clarify his thinking. ("How did you know that? What made you think...?")Encourage your child to read books that are at a comfortable level for him. Reading does not improve when the books are at frustration level.

Be relevant
Make reading and writing relevant and useful.Play games that involve reading.Have your child help read maps, cookbooks, information from the Internet, etc.Make lists, write letters, design cards, etc.

Above all, be subtle, be supportive, be sensitive!

Taken from http://pages.us.edu/reading/suggest.htm

PALM - Play and Learn Mathematics

The school's PALM programme ( Play And Learn Mathematics ) was officially launched today, and all the pupils spent about one period playing mathematics games from the mathematics bag given to all classes. The students indeed had fun playing a variety of games which test their IQ and logical reasoning. Although I have started getting the pupils to play the games last week when they had finished their school work, this week is the start of the PALM programme.
The PALM programme is once a fortnight and we hope that this activity will spark the students' interest in mathematics.

HELLO WORLD!...I mean.. STUDENTS...AND PARENTS!

Dear students ( and parents)

I have created this blog for you and your parents to have a peek into what is going on in our class! I will post pictures of events that is happening in our school as well as any other information which your parents might want to read/see.

For the parents - I hope this will be a good avenue for us to communicate ( I have already started a mailing list for parents who wish to get more information about their child/school) and have updates on issues relating to your child.

If I have the time.... IF I have the time - I will also post articles which I have read relating to reading, writing as well as parenting.

Do support me in making this avenue of communication a success.

Regards,

Mr Md Faizal
Form Teacher 2G