Dr. Sharp has been our reading specialist since we all started our passionate journey back at Microsoft to create really fun video games where the byproduct was reading practice and creative thinking. Besides being a wonderful human being, she has a very deep knowledge and background on young children’s reading. Dr. Sharp is also an excellent author. We have learned so much from her that we wanted to share her thoughts with you. Dr. Sharp’s website is www.dianasharp.com.
Dear Dr. Sharp:
I’m a new first grade teacher, and parents often ask me what they should do to help their child with reading. I tell them “read to and with your child every day” but sometimes they say “I know that… what else?” What should I tell them?
Let’s Recruit Rachel – Kids will LOVE to Read!
Great question. Earlier this week I was in a waiting room and started thumbing through a copy of Every Day with Rachel Ray magazine. And I thought, “Wow, wouldn’t it be great if we had a Rachel Ray for reading!” I mean, I am one low-skilled cook, but one look at her magazine and I think, “Hey, this is simple, it’s only got five ingredients, takes less than 30 minutes, and looks like fun – I can do that!” There are so many great, easy literacy activities that parents could do with their kids at home, and if we just had a spokesperson like Rachel and a magazine to give out — man, oh, man, we might really have a chance to help all kids become great readers.
We could start a campaign to recruit Rachel. I mean, she’s already got perfect magazine title (Every Day….). Rachel, are you listening? Think Oprah and her book club….you could help make the readers that would read Oprah’s books!
Each Kid is Unique – so must be the topics and methods to motivate reading
In the meantime, tell parents to help you with the number-one underutilized tactic for getting first graders excited about reading:
Personalization. You can teach kids letters and sounds and decoding strategies all day long, but in the end, the kids have to be convinced that reading is in their own personal interest and will help them do –or get –or know what they want. Otherwise they won’t put their hearts and minds into the job, and they also won’t comprehend what they’re reading.
Educational researchers are finally starting to get this concept. John Guthrie and his team at the University of Maryland focus extensively on both reading skills and motivation in their program – and it’s working. http://www.cori.umd.edu/research/publications/
A recent study funded by the National Science Foundation found that young readers can understand difficult texts even if their fluency is low. How? They compensate by doing things like re-reading, looking back, figuring out hard words. But – surprise! – the researchers found that “…the willingness to compensate depends on children’s motivation to understand.” http://www.reading.org/Publish.aspx?page=/publications/journals/rt/v60/i6/abstracts/rt-60-6-walczyk.html&mode=redirect
Researcher Rosalie Fink found this principle in adults too — adults who had been once been labeled dyslexic overcame their problem mainly by pursuing a deeply passionate interest through their reading. http://www.reading.org/Publish.aspx?page=/publications/bbv/books/bk682/abstracts/bk682-2-fink.html&mode=redirect
Learning to Read IS HARD
Well, at first grade, when you’re just starting out learning to read, many, many texts are challenging. Many first grade kids, like older dyslexic readers, can find the whole thing overwhelming and bewildering. A high level of personal motivation to understand can make all the difference.
As a teacher who only sees the kids at school, you’re at a disadvantage. If you only knew that 
last night Johnny was fascinated by a show on Discovery channel about whales, then you could tell him, “I’ve got the perfect book for you! It’s about a whale – want to read it?” Or if you only knew that Cory’s mom just told him he was going to have a baby sister, you’d know just the book. Instead, without this knowledge you might give Johnny the book about the baby sister, and Cory the book about whales, because both books have the identical “reading level.” The kids will care little about what the text says, and the effectiveness of their reading time will be slashed.
If we can’t get Rachel Ray to help, we can at least try to channel her secret formula. Apparently there’s a Harvard case study of Rachel’s success where she says:
“I want to give the people what they want”
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/allyoucaneat/2009/01/29/rachael_ray_goes_to_harvard_an.html
Tell parents to help you find out what their kids want – to know, to do, or to be – so that you can give it to them…through their reading.
Video Games for Reading Practice Must Let Kids Explore, Discover, Create
You’ll see we lived this principle in designing ItzaBitza and ItzaZoo. We thought deeply about what kids want. We didn’t come up with a game that says, “Here, read this so you can get the answer right.” We came up with a game that says, “Here, read this so you can make your drawings come to life.” Kids see the difference – you will too.
