I am featured as Darlene Foster’s guest blogger, writing about the importance of reading chapter books. Thank you, Darlene!
I follow the blog of pre-school teacher Jennie Fitkzee at A Teacher’s Reflections. Jennie is an amazing teacher who truly loves her job and shares her 30-year teaching experiences with her readers. In some of her posts, she talks about the importance of reading out loud and of reading chapter books to children who cannot yet read. Here is some of what she has to say.
Jennie and her students with a favourite chapter book
The Importance of Reading Chapter Books by Jennie
In order to read, and more importantly to want to read, it all starts with parents and family reading aloud to children, every day. The statistics on reading aloud and its link to academic success in all areas is profound. If reading is a pleasurable experience, then school work is by far easier. Every child begins school wanting to learn to read. In other words, we’ve…
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A Teacher's Reflections 
So good to see you featured, Jennie. We all need to spread the word about just how great you are! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
So pleased to have Jennie as my guest!
🙂
That is so kind, Pete. Thank you!
You deserve it all! 🙂
😊
I second beetleypete’s comment! Here-here!
Thank you, Laura! 😊
Love this.
Thank you!
A fabulous post, Jennie
Thank you, Robbie!
It’s funny but it is not only the children who benefit from being read out loud to every day. Of the many illiterate adults I tutored over the years as a volunteer for the READ project and other similar projects, I found that all my adults LOVED to be read to out loud. So of course they had to read themselves out loud to me too, but they really enjoyed it when after their reading session, I would have them pick a book and I would read from it to them. I have read out loud as a volunteer too to adults who had cancer and were getting their chemo (sometimes it is called infusion and they have to sit with the needle in a vein for quite a while at the hospital) or other life-threatening illnesses, and I have never found a single adult who did not enjoy being read to. I know that when I was a teenager, I still loved for my Grandma to read out loud to me. Thank you so much for this.
So true Anne. I remember that at one Christmas dinner, our boss read to us from Stuart McLean’s, The Vinyl Cafe. We were all mesmerized. What a wonderful gift after working so hard all year. The best gift ever! I also recently read about how important it is to read to your children well into their teenage and young adult years. I so wish I had done that.
I love that story, Darlene!
I suspect many of us do, Jennie. Thank you kindly for this good response.
You are welcome, Anne.
Thank you, Anne. You are absolutely right, adults love being read aloud to. It’s like a book on tape with a face and emotions. I want to read at our Senior Center. Your stories are wonderful!
When I first heard my granddaughter use the phrase “chapter books,” I had no idea what she meant. I thought they had invented some new kind of book for kids. To my astonishment it simply meant books with chapters. Since that is the only kind of book I had read since I was four years old, I had never heard them called anything but “books!”
Thank you for that story, Elizabeth. Also, chapter books have very few illustrations, where picture books are predominantly illustrations.
Great to see you featured, Jennie! Have a beautiful weekend! Michael
Thank you, Michael! Happy weekend to you.
You too, Jennie! Best wishes, Michael
🙂