How to Teach Children to Read, With Alvin Irby
This week, educator, activist and comedian Alvin Irby joined us on how to teach kids to read. It all boils down to developing their “reading identity”, Alvin says. Hear Alvin speaks with Jordan and Lifehacker Senior Health Editor (and parent) Beth Skorecki about how to get your kids interested in books and the different approaches parents and teachers can use to get their kids to read.
Alvin – the founder of the non-profit project of teaching literacy Barbershop Books and author of children’s books Gross Greg.
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Highlights from this week’s series
From an interview with Alvin Irby:
How he got started on the path to literacy:
I think one of the key events was the kind of impact of institutional racism and, in particular, the way it manifested itself in the form of strictness in different types of courses in high school … I was in a regular English class, in 10th grade where we read stories and made spelling lists … And I remember how boring it was for me … So I go to my consultant, she translates me into English before AP. I get into this class at the very beginning of the new semester. She gives out stacks of books with lists and lists of novels and talks about how we managed to read two novels and write two book reports. And I just remember asking when you say two novels, do you mean like everyone else? … And I just remember thinking to myself, if this is what should be in 10th grade, English, then like, why not? • Is another regular English class doing the same? … I had no language to describe what I experienced, what I saw. But I knew that reading was at the center of injustice and varying expectations about how much reading, or quality or rigor, was associated with that reading.
On the importance of developing your child’s reading skills:
[I] If a child identifies himself as a reader, if you give children a positive experience or culturally based reading programs, then, you know, they begin to kind of want to do it not because of some external reward, but because it is just who they are and what they do. And so I believe that creating family routines such as going to the library is key to allowing the family to spend time reading at home. You know, when I was teaching in the first grade of kindergarten, I realized that in the end many children just want to grow up. So, whatever they see in the lives of adults, they come to the conclusion what it means to be part of their family or their community.
How many parents are wrong about reading aloud times:
I think that many adults and parents alike underestimate the power of reading long books aloud. I think that many adults reading aloud are just used to: “Okay, I’m going to read a picture book, I’ll start it and then finish it. And when I’m done, everything will be ready. ” But I think that, you know, as kids get older, and especially if they don’t kind of develop their own reading endurance, I think that reading to kids can be really helpful and read the type of content they want. …
For more of Alvin’s great advice on how to get kids to read, we highly recommend listening to the entire episode.
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