Raising a Reader

By Bonnie D. Schwartz

With so many discussions and theories on reading and how children learn to read, it can be very confusing for parents to know the best way to get their kids to read. In Raising a Reader, Bonnie Schwartz lays out simple, researched and practice proven approaches that a parent can do to promote literacy in the home and encourage children to explore the great adventures to be found in books. The first step in fostering literacy and good reading strategies in the home is to learn a little bit about how language is acquired and how this affects the development of reading. The purpose of this book is to expose parents to these processes and build a knowledge base of basic games, activities, and strategies parents can easily use at home to foster reading development.

Chapter 1 Acknowledgments Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 1. The Basics Chapter 4 2. Laying the Foundations: Ten Building Blocks to a Good Reading Foundation Chapter 5 3. Tools and Strategies: Activities, Literature, and Music and Movement Chapter 6 4. The Framework: Developing Decoding Chapter 7 5. The Reading-Writing Relationship: Learning about reading Through Writing Experiences Chapter 8 6. Building Comprehension Strategies Chapter 9 7. How to Assess the Progress: Five Basic Assessment Tools to Monitor Your Child's Reading Development Chapter 10 8. Continuous Progress: Strategies to Ensure Continued Reading Success Chapter 11 Appendix A: One Hundred Fantastic Children's Literature Books Chapter 12 Appendix B: One Hundred Great Children's Authors Chapter 13 Appendix C: What Do Effective Readers Do? Chapter 14 Glossary Chapter 15 Bibliography Chapter 16 About the Author