How To Develop and Support Successful Motivated Readers

How to Develop and Support
Successful Motivated Readers
Cultivating School Readiness ▪

Advancing Student Achievement ▪
Increasing Access and Equity
Nov. 2-4, 2014
Anne E. Cunningham, Professor

University of California, Berkeley
Strengthening Family-School
Partnerships
“The school of the future will have as one
of its important duties the instruction of
parents in the means of assisting the
child’s natural learning in the home.”

Huey (1908) The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading,
New York: Macmillan
Why is family involvement important for literacy
development?
 Supports the link between the home literacy

environment and children’s acquisition of
literacy skills
 Helps bridge the gap between home and
school for the child
Why is family
involvement important?
 Evidence that family involvement leads to:

 improved student achievement
 better school attendance
 reduced dropout rates
Flaxman & Inger, 1991
Importance of
Family Involvement
 When families, communities and schools form
partnerships to enable children’s learning,
everyone benefits
 schools work better
 families become closer,
 community resources thrive
 Helps children function in a school setting where
shared goals and values develop
 students improve academically.
Research in
Family Involvement
 Schools in more economically fragile

communities make more contacts with families
about problems unless they work at developing
balanced programs that include contacts about
positive accomplishments;
Research in
Family Involvement
 Just about all families
 careabout their children
 want them to succeed, and
 are eager to obtain better information from schools
and communities
Epstein, J. L., Croates, L., Salinas, K. C., Sanders. M. G., & Simon, B. S. (1997). School,
family, and community partnerships: Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
Research in
Family Involvement
 Just
about all students at all levels
 want their families to be more
knowledgeable partners about schooling
 and are willing to take active roles in
assisting communications between home
and school.
Epstein, J. L., Croates, L., Salinas, K. C., Sanders. M. G., & Simon, B. S. (1997).
School, family, and community partnerships: Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
 “All children, regardless
of socioeconomic status,
racial, or cultural
background of the
family benefit from
home literacy
environments that foster
their language and
literacy skill
development.”
Karen Mapp, 2014
Importance of partnership in understanding
children’s academic competencies
 Home–school partnerships can have a positive
effect on literacy if families and teachers together
develop ways of communicating and building
meaningful curricula that extend the insular
classroom community.
 “The key elements of reciprocity and respect . . .
must be locally interpreted and jointly constructed
by parents and teachers.” Baker et al. (1996)
How we engage parents
 Co-partnership
 Relationships, building trustful relationships
 Honor and respect the knowledge that families
bring to school improvement.
 Linked to learning
Karen Mapp (2014)

Family’s contribution to children’s acquisition
of language and literacy
 Unfulfilled expectations: Home and school

influences on literacy, Snow, Barnes, Chandler,
Goodman, and Hemphill (1991)
 Seminal study and characterization of the

relationship and the family’s contribution to
children’s acquisition of language and literacy for
2nd, 4th, & 6th grade students across two years.
Parent–School Partnership model
 Parents who actively support schools’ efforts to
teach their children are more successful in
promoting their children’s language and literacy
achievements.
Snow et al. (1991)
Family as Educator
 Significantly related to
 child language and literacy outcomes
 book-related knowledge
 receptive language skills
 expressive language skills
Bennett, Weigel, & Martin (2002). Children’s acquisition of early literacy skills: examining
family contributions Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 17, 3, 295-317.
Snow, Barnes, Chandler, Goodman, and Hemphill (1991)
Conversations
By talking with your children and reading books aloud
with them, you help them understand word meaning,
sentence structure, and social language.
In turn, this greater understanding of language helps

prepare them to make sense of complicated stories by
using their prior knowledge to puzzle out tough new
words and confusing new phrases.
Cunningham, A. & Zibulsky, J. (2014) Book Smart: How to Develop and Support a Successful
Motivated Reader, Oxford University Press.
Conversations during meals
 Provide opportunities for the
family to bond, plan, connect,
and learn from one another.
 It’s a chance to share
information and news of the
day, as well as give extra
attention to your children
 Learn and practice important
language skills
 Learn new vocabulary
Roots of Reading
 When does literacy development

begin?
 What are the most important factors to
consider for families in supporting their
child’s literacy development?
 When and how much stimulation is
needed?
National Early Literacy Panel (NELP)
 GOALS OF THE PANEL
 Help young children develop foundational

skills they need to become good readers
 Equip parents to support children’s literacy

development
 Improve reading instruction for parents

and teachers
The Mega-Activity: SharedShared
Reading
book
reading is a
powerful
mechanism for
promoting
children’s literacy
development
Shared reading has a long-term relation to children’s reading for

pleasure;
Parent teaching has a long-term relation to children’s reading fluency.
What is “Shared Reading”?
 An interactive activity that involves the active participation of
both parent and child
 Parent-directed reading: you do the reading and ask your child questions
 Child-directed reading: your child tells you the story, either from memory,
by narrating the illustrations, or by sounding out words
 Joint book reading: you mix these two approaches
 Children build many more skills from being exposed to each of these
approaches than from just hearing books read to them
 Shared or interactive reading is a dialogue
between parent and child
 The child may become the storyteller
while the adult becomes the listener, the
questioner, and the audience
 Parent’s questions and comments help
build stronger language skills
Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1994; Griffin &
Morrison, 1997
Shared Reading
Shared reading has been consistently
linked to children’s early literacy,
primarily to vocabulary growth
Hargrave & Sénéchal, 2000; Sénéchal, 2006;Whitehurst
et al., 1994
 Children’s language skills change and

grow to look like the input they receive
Reading Volume
 Is an important variable in reading development---
it is the key mechanism by which children practice
 Independent reading or shared reading
 Parents of elementary age students play a central
role fostering reading volume and engagement
outside of school
Parents influence book related activities and
thus reading volume
Reading volume is important because it has cognitive consequences

that contribute to children’s academic success. It builds:
 Reading fluency
 Vocabulary
 General knowledge
 Decontexualized reasoning
Cunningham, A.E. & Stanovich, K. (1998) What Reading Does for the Mind, American
Educator, (see also 2005, 2012)
 All factors to contribute to comprehending grade level text

Reading Volume
 Enhances children’s vocabulary
& is directly linked to their
reading comprehension in 3rd
-11th grade
 Promotes reading for pleasure &
is directly linked to their reading
for pleasure 4th grade
Cunningham & Stanovich, 2005, 2012;

Senecal, 2005
Reading aloud to older children
 Reading aloud to older children (7-14 yrs) even those who can
comfortably read to themselves — has benefits both academic and
emotional
 The first reason to read aloud to older kids is to consider the fact that
a child’s reading level doesn’t catch up to his listening level until
about the eighth grade
 Students can understand books that are too hard to decode
themselves if they are read aloud.
 Read in books two years ahead of student’s own reading ability
Cunningham, A.E. & Chen, Y. (2014). Matthew Effects: The Rich Get Richer in Literacy.
Encyclopedia of Language Development, Sage
Reading aloud to older children
 Readingaloud to children in more complicated
and dense text (that they could not read on their
own) exposes them
 to rare and unique vocabulary works only found in
print
 Phrases and technical language not commonly used
in everyday conversations
The relation between listening and
reading comprehension
T.R. Sticht Growth of comprehension
 Sticht and his colleagues
showed in 1970s that early
listening ability predicts
reading ability many years
later.
 Learning to listen at a high
level is closely connected to
learning to read
(comprehend) at a high level.
The Sleeper Effect
The new vocabulary words your child
learns as a preschooler and kindergartener
are money in the bank for 3rd grade
reading comprehension and beyond
Socio-emotional Factors in Supporting
a Motivated Reader
Developing a motivated and successful
reader
 Reading together provides parents with the opportunity
to model and develop their child’s
 persistence,
 curiosity
 perspective-taking, and
 empathy
 These are all components of your child’s character that affect academic
and occupational success. These are important traits that support
learning, and reading is a valued and universal activity that allows you to
develop them.
Developing a Love for Reading
Motivation
Mindset
Factors that Support
Sustained Motivation to Read
 Feelings of relatedness
 People who I value care about this behavior
 Feelings of competence
 I can successfully exhibit this behavior
 Feelings of autonomy
 Lead to internalization and ownership
 I personally see the meaning and worth of engaging
in this behavior
Reading Motivation
 Understanding that motivation to read falls on
a continuum--- can help parents
A Road, but Not a One Way Street…..
 Not one entry point
 Not all behaviors are initially intrinsically motivated
 Not one direction
 Behaviors can become more or less valued over time
 Children’s beliefs about reading can change over time

 Children who didn’t initially love reading can learn to do so
 But unfortunately, motivation for reading often decreases by late
elementary school
 Parents have the power to keep their children motivated!
Factors that Support
Sustained Motivation to Read
• Scaffold Your Child’s Motivation
• Provide support in order to move your child just one step
down further – don’t try to turn a child who really doesn’t
like reading into an avid reader overnight
• Be conscious of your child’s current beliefs
about reading
• Small changes go a long way
Strategies to Boost Reading Motivation
Identification as a reader
 Support your child’s identity as a reader
 Identification (definition)
 Engaging in a behavior that one sees as important
(thinking, “reading will help me learn!” or “I
enjoy reading and am a good reader!”
 Choice
 Consideryour child’s interests and allow
him or her, with your guidance, to select
reading materials related to those interests
(including materials such as magazines,
comic books, and online resources)
 Duration of Reading Sessions
 Consider how long your child currently
sustains interest in reading and try to stretch
that time day by day, but only by a little bit
more!
40
Growth Mindset
 A New three Rs:
 Responsibility
 Respect
 Resilience
Mangels, J. A.; Butterfield, B.; Lamb, J.; Good, C.; Dweck, C. (2006)
Why do beliefs about intelligence influence learning
success? Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 1 (2): 75–86.
Mindset
Fixed Mindset: Beliefs and Growth Mindset: Beliefs and
Behaviors Behaviors
External locus of control Internal locus of control

Everyone is born with set Hard work and persistence pay
abilities and intelligence, and off; change is likely
change is unlikely
When faced with a difficult When faced with a difficult
task or adversity, will give up task or adversity, will
demonstrate persistence
Dweck, 2001
Mindset and Motivation
 Children with growth mindsets
 Have their own “natural wellspring” of intrinsic motivation
because they believe that putting in effort feels good and pays
off
 Children with fixed mindsets
 inclined to shy away from difficult tasks, making it more likely
that parents and teachers will need to provide extrinsic
motivators to coax them into expending effort
Mindset and Motivation
Praising
Be specific
Highlight effort
Praise Effort, Not Outcome
Fixed Praise Growth Oriented Praise
You are such a great You worked so hard to
reader! sound out those words!
Reading between the lines: You are Reading between the lines: You are
great because you were successful at great because you tried to hard.
this task.
Long-term message: If you are not Long-term message: Even when
successful at another reading task reading is difficult for you, trying hard
down the line, you will no longer be a can help you succeed.
great reader.
Ways to Praise
 “You are working so hard!”  Hug
 “You are trying so hard!”  High five
 “You did such a good job solving that  Thumbs up
last problem!”  Smile
 “You did such a good job sounding out  Wink
that word!”  Kiss
 “I can see you really understand  Backrub or shoulder squeeze
______.”  Ruffling hair
 “I can see you really enjoyed learning
about _______.”
 “You did a great job explaining
______.”
 “I can tell you worked so hard on
your project/essay/assignment.”
 NONVERBAL PRAISE
46
From To
 Can’t  Not Yet!
 Thiswill be as easy  Learning to read is

as abc hard fun.
 You really showed persistence,
 Good job effort, focus in reading that
story.
 What did you learn from that

 Wrong
error? What will you do next
time?
Mindset and Reading
 Collaborate with parents to share with
their children that:
 The process of reading acquisition takes

several years
 The majority of children require direct instruction to break the code
 Reading success requires effort, even for children who read easily, especially
once they are required to engage in higher-level comprehension processes
 Children who have growth mindsets are more likely to become successful,
motivated readers
As Dr. Seuss wrote….
“The more that you read, the
more things you will
know. The more you learn,
the more places you'll go”
(Seuss, 1978).
Developing a
Love for Reading
“Few children learn to
love books, by themselves.
Someone has to lure them
into the wonderful world of
the written word; someone
has to show them the way.”
Orville Prescott, A Father Reads to His Children
Thank you!
Anne E. Cunningham
Booksmartfamily.com
[email protected]
The strategies we discussed today are all in Book Smart: How

to Support and Develop a Motivated and Successful Reader
References
 Baker, L., Allen, J., Shockley, B., Pellegrini, A. D., Galda, L., & Stahl, S. (1996). Connecting
school and home: Constructing partnerships to foster reading development. In L. Baker, P.
Afflerbach, & D. Reinking (Eds.),
 Developing engaged readers in school and home communities (pp. 21–41). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum.
 Baker, L., Scher, D., & Mackler, K. (1997). Home and family influences on motivations to read.
Educational Psychologist, 32, 69–82.
 Reese, E., & Cox, A. (1999). Quality of adult book reading affects children’s emergent literacy.
Developmental Psychology, 35, 20–28.
 Scarborough, H. S. (1991). Early syntactic development of dyslexic children. Annals of Dyslexia,
41, 207–220.
 Senechal, M., LeFevre, J., Thomas, E. M., & Daley, K. E. (1998). Differential effects of home
literacy experiences on the development of oral and written language. Reading Research
Quarterly, 33, 96–116.
 Snow, C. E., Barnes, W. S., Chandler, J., Goodman, I. F., & Hemphill, L. (1991). Unfulfilled
expectations: Home and school influences on literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
 Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Predictors of success and failure
 Sonnenschein, S., Brody, G., & Munsterman, K. (1996). The influence of family beliefs and
practices on children’s early reading development. In L. Baker, P. Afflerbach, & D. Reinking
(Eds.), Developing engaged readers in school and home communities (pp. 3–20). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum.

How To Develop and Support Successful Motivated Readers

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

How To Develop and Support Successful Motivated Readers

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

How To Develop and Support Successful Motivated Readers

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

How to Develop and Support

Successful Motivated Readers

Cultivating School Readiness ▪

Anne E. Cunningham, Professor

 Supports the link between the home literacy

 Evidence that family involvement leads to:

 Schools in more economically fragile

Karen Mapp (2014)

 Unfulfilled expectations: Home and school

 Seminal study and characterization of the

In turn, this greater understanding of language helps

 When does literacy development

 Help young children develop foundational

 Equip parents to support children’s literacy

 Improve reading instruction for parents

Shared reading has a long-term relation to children’s reading for

 Children’s language skills change and

Reading volume is important because it has cognitive consequences

 All factors to contribute to comprehending grade level text

Cunningham & Stanovich, 2005, 2012;

 Children’s beliefs about reading can change over time

External locus of control Internal locus of control

 Can’t  Not Yet!

 Thiswill be as easy  Learning to read is

 What did you learn from that

 The process of reading acquisition takes

 The majority of children require direct instruction to break the code

The strategies we discussed today are all in Book Smart: How

You might also like