This week Rockdale Intermediate School Principal Kathy Pelzel has some tips on improving your child’s reading skills:
• Kids who read often and widely get better at it. At Rockdale Intermediate students are required to read every night for at least 20 minutes. Parents are encouraged to read with their children and discuss what they are reading.
• Reading exercises our brains. It allows our kids to use their imaginations as they are reading. This is much better for our kids than watching TV. Reading is time well spent.
• Reading improves concentration. This is something that comes with age. The more you read the longer you are able to focus your attention on what you are reading.
• Reading teaches children about the world around them. Reading allows our students to experience life outside of Rockdale.
They can visit Mount Rushmore by reading “Hanging Off Jefferson’s Nose: Growing Up On Mount Rushmore” by Tina Nichols Coury or venture to the bottom of the ocean by reading “Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California’s Farallon Islands.” by Katherine Roy.
• Reading improves a child’s vocabulary and leads to more highly-developed language skills. Students learn much more from reading than just content. They expand their vocabulary and learn to form sentences. Reading improves a student’s ability to write.
Taking time out of our busy schedules to read with our children is clearly an investment in their future that can be enjoyable for the entire family.
Rockdale Intermediate School is committed to improving reading for all students by providing reading materials that are of high interest for our students.
Students at RIS are required to read nightly and to log their progress. Parents can support their students by not only ensuring they meet this requirement but by also talking to them about what they are reading.
Parent involvement in reading is a huge indicator of individual student success.
The substantial relationship between parent involvement for the school and reading comprehension levels of fourth-grade classrooms is obvious. Where parent involvement is low, the classroom average (reading score) is 46 points below the national average.
Where involvement is high, classrooms score 28 points above the national average. That’s a gap of 74 points.”
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