Reading for Real 22/31 #sol17

“You read one and then I’ll read one to the baby.” “Ok,” I say assuming he was going to read the shortened two words per page baby version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Instead my preschooler pulls out Iggy Peck Architect. I tell him that we only have time to listen for one or two pages, but when we get there I want more and let him keep reading. He is so good! I’m so impressed by his confidence. I can’t help but think that Matt Glover and Kathy Collins would even be impressed. My kiddo is doing a combination of reading the pictures and remembering key vocabulary words and phrases and even some of the rhymes after having read the book with us so many times.

If you haven’t read “I am Reading” by Kathy Collins and Matt Glover than you must add it to your reading stack. It really opens your eyes to the little ways that a lot of adults dismiss children’s early reading skills as pretend reading or “reading.” Instead they explain a progression of the types of reading students do from simple labels based on the picture to descriptive book like language from the pictures to remembering key vocabulary and phrases that are actually in the book.

What I love about my own kiddo’s reading is how much he shifts back and forth along the progression and with his confidence. Depending on the type of book or his level of exposure to the book he goes from complete refusal to reading almost the whole book in its language. Sometimes I am good about remembering to compliment using precise language and then follow up with a next step, a nudge for him to try and others I just get sucked into a state of awe and purely listen to him read to me (and now the baby). Last night was a sit and listen in amazement. While I haven’t been excited with his preschool teacher this year, I am so thankful for the fact that she seems to instill identities of a reader in her students.