In honor of Valentine's Day (happy Valentine's Day, book friend!), I thought now would be the perfect time to chat about the love of reading.
When we talk about getting our kids reading, that's what we all want, right? When I hear moms talk about their struggling readers, it's usually, "I just want my kid to love reading," or "she just doesn't love reading." Heck, I've said that too. And I get it; I really do. It makes sense! We want our kids to love reading the way we do. We want them to fall in love with reading.
Not to mention, we were taught to read based on the idea of reading as a warm, fuzzy feeling. Picking out books we want and reading them in a cozy book nook. But I want to tell you right here and now, and I know this is controversial, but our kids don't need to love reading; they need to know how to read. That doesn't mean they won't love reading, but it does mean that love comes later. Let me explain...
The idea of a love of reading comes from balanced literacy, an idealistic student-led way to reading. (That, by the way, fails most students.) This is found in both physical and homeschool curriculums and continues to be a problem. Which begs the question...
What is balanced literacy?
Balanced literacy became popular in the 1990's as a response to the "reading wars''. Yes, when we were learning to read. It was called "balanced" because it tried to balance a "whole language" (learning to read by recognizing words as whole parts aka memorizing) and "phonics." Before, there were two staunch camps of teaching kids how to read: 1) Whole language and 2) Phonics. Guided reading, independent reading, three-cueing, Fountas & Pinell (F & P), reading levels...These are all parts of balanced literacy. For balanced literacy, the goal of reading instruction is to get children to love reading. But here's the thing. Some children might learn to read using balanced literacy methods, but it fails many more.
So what can we do? We can teach our kids to read explicitly, sequentially, and systematically. We can teach our kids to read using structured literacy.
What is structured literacy?
If the science of reading (a vast decades long body of interdisciplinary research that tells us how the brain learns to read) is the what, then structured literacy is the how. How do we teach reading so ALL kids learn to read? We teach structured literacy! We explicitly teach our kids the skills rather than waiting for them to figure them out on their own. We teach our kids to read systematically and sequentially, meaning the organization of what we teach follows a logical order that builds upon itself (ie: a scope and sequence), with concepts and skills becoming more complex.
Here's the other thing. We can't love something that we don't know how to do. Learning to read always comes first, and learning to read always trumps the love of reading.
I like what Lacey Robinson, CEO of UnboundEd says about the love of reading in episode 4 of the podcast "Sold a Story, "Listen, I devour words. I love literature and books. But everybody doesn't have to love to read and write. But everybody has a right to learn to read and white. So that whole, 'I want them to love.' I don't want them to love. I want them to know how to do it. Love comes later." (Listen to episode to episode 4 of Sold A Story here.)
But what can you do if your child struggles with reading? Maybe you weren't taught to read and doubt your ability to teach your child...
I recommend checking out All About Reading by clicking here. This is the curriculum we use for reading in our homeschool. In fact, it's so easy to implement, that I originally purchased it as a reading supplement when my son was struggling to read in the public school. It is a multisensory, Orton-Gillingham (aka dyslexia friendly) reading curriculum that takes the struggle out of reading in short easy to understand/easy to teach lessons. (Plus there's a placement test...we started at level 2.)
Have more questions about the love of reading? You're invited to join me for a coffee chat on Friday at 9:00 am PST on Facebook LIVE by clicking here. Hope to see you there, and until next week, happy reading!