Parent Friendly Tips on How to Help Your Child Navigate Through a Chapter Book
Set a time in your busy schedule to read, at least 30 minutes every day if you can. It would be helpful to obtain another copy of the book that your child is currently reading. It’s a lot easier to discover what your child is thinking while he or she is reading if you are also familiar with what is happening in the book. This shared experience can be a powerful mentor in encouraging your child to view reading as worthwhile and important. It’s also a very fun activity to do together. Even if you don’t have a copy, you can still incorporate the following in discussions you have. It’s ok to ask your child to read orally to you parts of the book they found very interesting, exciting or intriguing or even problematic. This helps you to monitor their fluency and expression.
Chapter books in the 5th and 6th grade usually have greater complexity in theme, vocabulary, ideas, character changes, multiple plots, problems or obstacles to overcome and challenges. Here are some ways you can encourage deeper comprehension and thinking:
Sensory Imaging:
This is when readers use their senses while reading.
Imagine what it looked like….
Imagine what it felt like…
(You can do this with sounds, smells and tastes)
Determining Importance:
Readers prioritize as the read. It’s related to main idea and identifying themes. What are the most important ideas you are thinking about as you read? What is interesting without being important? What kind of message is the author sending?
Metacognition:
Isn’t that a wonderful word? Just saying this word makes a person feel smarter. All it means is to be aware of your thinking. Some questions you can ask are:
When I read this part, I was thinking….
After reading these two chapters I noticed…
I wonder why or how…
Questioning:
When readers question before, during and after they read, they attend more closely to what they’ve read.
Before reading
What do you think will happen...
Why do you suppose…
During reading
What do you think…
I wonder why…
How come…
After reading
What would have happened if….
I wonder why the author chose this ending….
How did some of the characters change…..
(Some of the most interesting questions your child or you come up with aren’t always answered in the book.)
Schema
This includes activating prior or background knowledge, making connections, author schema. When readers fit what they know or have experienced they are using schema.
Prior Knowledge:
What happened in this chapter that is similar to what you have experienced….
I’ve been there so I can understand better…
Making Connections:
Has this ever happened to you in your life…
How is this similar to something you’ve read in another book, or have seen in a movie….
How did this remind you of an event happening in our world…
Author Schema:
What do you know about the author that might help you anticipate what happens next in the story…
Encourage your child ask questions about unfamiliar topics, words, places… and don’t be afraid to use the internet or reference materials to do some exploring. It’s even fun to visit the author’s website to find out more about his or her life and other books the author has written.
Inferring
This is often referred to as reading between the lines. Inferring happens when readers can take what they know and what is written to arrive at an understanding of what is being told.
This can include why a character takes a certain action or how a character feels in a situation.
How and why questions help with making inferences.
Synthesizing
This is when you child puts all the story “ingredients” (everything mentioned above and more) together to make a book truly their own through a masterful retelling. You can even do this chapter by chapter.
PS Need some help finding a good book to read? The following websites may help:
www.ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ (click on Links left side gray bar)
http://www.ccsf.edu/library/instruct/eslintermed.pdf
Jen Robinson’s Book Page:
Wendy Pfundtner
Reading Interventionist/Coach