An experiment on nurturing a reading culture
in Tin Shui Wai families
Today I issued a homemade Reading Journal for Lisa and Alex. Inside is the Reading Journal Guide.
"Look at these books I bought from Taiwan. They have pictures, stories and a lot of knowledge. The words are repeated in sentences and can be easily learned and remembered."
"Look at these practice exercises. Your child cannot fill in the blanks correctly mainly because she knows few words and does not understand the meaning. Even if she can remember the grammar rules in Chinese, she cannot apply them in completing these exercises."
"Reading the books will provide her the language model, the input essential, prior to application."
"Even if she cannot say some of the words, the computer and mobile phone can help her work out the pronunciation."
"When you read to your child, your child will enjoy reading too. She will look forward to the reading time with her mom."
This is the first attempt to systematically develop among the mothers a habit to read aloud (in Chinese) and listen to children's reading at home.
I can foresee a long journey ahead, but with initial success shown in Alex's family, I am confident that Lisa's mum will follow suit. I need to better structure the tasks and help Lisa's family build an environment conducive to reading.
He is open and susceptible to advice. So is his mother. From September to now, he has completed more than 60 reading passages in the i-learner reading program, read at least one English book a week.
With the practices in dictation from the i-learner program, he overcame the persistent 'dictation' problem within two months since the first lesson he had here.
He can follow the teacher's teaching at school now and is capable of completing homework assignments independently.
He has good ears and good memory of the sounds and rhythm of native English speeches, using online resources designed for home school children.
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