PIPPIN PUBLISHING

A LEG UP: ENHANCING YOUR CHILD’S READING AND WRITING

ISBN: 0-88751-120-1    View Graphical Site    Go Back


Descript:
Born to Learn, by Carole Rhodes and Lenore Ringler, traced your child's literacy from birth, through initial tentative baby steps, to the toddler and kindergarten years. A Leg Up: Enhancing Your Child's Reading and Writing, by the same authors, picks up the story as your child stands at the threshold of formal schooling, a baby and a pre-schooler no longer, face to face with the challenges of school  -  and no challenges are more daunting than reading and writing. Yet any parent can, by their own example, offer their child significant advantages,  by providing the sort of rich literacy environment that can truly support a young reader's journey through emergent literacy to becoming a fully mature and fluent reader and writer. The reading you enjoy together, as well as the formal and informal uses you make of literacy in the home and family environment, will go a very long way towards ensuring the reading and writing success your child can enjoy as grade follows grade.
 
Lenore and Carole will show you, in A Leg Up, just how this is done, by sharing their decades of experience as teachers, researchers and parents. They will give you a clear overview of each stage and every aspect of literacy, from determining the right amount of homework, to balancing the competing demands of print and other media, to reading and writing in the crucial content areas of science and social studies, to exploiting library and world-wide web resources, grappling successfully with reading problems as they arise, selecting the right school and locating the best print and software to enhance your child's learning.

Table of contents:

Foreword

Understanding Our Perspective
How This Book Came to Be
What We Know about Reading and Writing
Things to Do at Home
Away-from-Home Activities
Making the Most of Everyday Opportunities
Using This Book

The Emerging Reader and Writer: The Early Grades
Understanding the Emerging Reader and Writer
What Is My Role as a Parent?
A Focus on Reading and Writing
Things to Do at Home
Watching Television
Using the Computer
Using the Library
Taking Trips
Some Additional Ideas

The Developing Reader and Writer
Understanding the Developing Reader and Writer
The Changing Role of Parents
Home-School Communication
A Focus on Reading and Writing
Reading for Fun — Together and Independently
Family Opportunities for Using Language
Television and Movies
Homework Issues
Using the Computer
Using the Library

The Maturing Reader and Writer: The Middle Years
Understanding the Middle Grade Child
Parent Involvement
A Focus on Reading and Writing
Sparking Interest in Science and History
Television and Movies
Computers
Travel
Homework Problems
Tests and Other Stressors

A Child in Trouble
Understanding Your Child’s Reading Problem
Cooperating with Your Child’s Teacher
Additional Options
Extending Experience and Language
What Else Can I Do?
Some Real Situations

A Look at Schools
Recognizing a “Good” School
The Principal as an Educational Leader
The School Environment
Focus on the Classroom
A Word about Charter Schools
External Support for Public Schools
Non-Public Schools

Finding the Right Resources
Selecting Books
Books for the Emerging Reader
Books for the Developing Reader
Books for the Maturing Reader
Selecting Software
Using the Internet
Using Television and Videos

A Few Final Words

Afterword