By way of introduction I am the paternal grandfather of a fourteen-year-old boy. His grandmother and I have provided day care for him since he was born. In the early years of his education he was diagnosed with A.D.D. which makes it hard for him to concentrate. Reading has been his greatest challenge. His reading is slow and he doesn’t completely comprehend what he just read. To overcome this we read together. Reading together comes in three styles; reading independently with me at his side, shared reading aloud, and reading the assignment to him. Which of the three methods we use depends on his ability to concentrate at that time.
I may be getting ahead of myself a little here. Reading together sounds great; but how do I know what the reading assignment is? My grandson is completely unable to tell me what his assignments are, let alone tell me when they are due. This is where I appreciate his teacher’s involvement. Every week his eighth grade reading teacher sent out the lesson plan for the upcoming week to the entire class. We knew exactly what was to be read and exactly when it was due. With the lesson plan in hand he rarely missed an assignment deadline.
To do any reading together, I always read the assignment before he did. Therefore, I could develop open questions to be asked to confirm his understanding or to clarify anything he was unsure of. Since he is the master of the one word answers; which I find unacceptable, he would be compelled to answer questions in such a way as to indicate whether he fully understood what we had just read.
While we are reading aloud it is easy to know he is actually reading. Not so with independent reading. There I have learned to watch his eyes to see they are moving across the page. When his eyes stop I ask if he needs help with a word. Sometimes he has simply stopped reading and is “coasting.” Over time he has learned he cannot get away with coasting.
His favorite method of reading is being read to. It’s easiest and most familiar because he has been read to since he was a baby. This method works especially well when we have the book loaded onto both Kindles because he reads silently along with me as I read aloud. Again, it is necessary to keep an eye on his eyes. No coasting allowed.
There has been no need to share a book with my grandson because nearly all the books assigned are on Kindle or at the public library. Some books have study guides available. Study guides are helpful because they help to pull the entire book together in one quick and easy place. If a study guide is not available I just create one, chapter by chapter; entering the highlights of each chapter in bullet format. Significant quotes may also be included in this study guide along with page numbers for further study or review. Always included is a section named, “Meet the Characters.” Here the name of each character is entered and any interesting facts about the character are added as we read along. It’s a mini dossier of all the characters for review by my grandson. We review the study guide regularly through the course of the assignment.
The study guide helps my grandson meet his second greatest challenge; writing the book report. Without some kind of notes this task would be impossible for him to complete. The study guide with all its information about the story, quotes, page numbers, and characters makes it much easier for him to complete the book report.
A quick review of the critical factors for success yields three critical steps. First, know the reading assignment. Second, be right there with my grandson to assist him as he reads the assignment. Third, buy a study guide or create a study as the book is being read. And my involvement in my grandson’s reading assignments has caused some additional advantages. It caused me to read books, authors, and genre I would not have otherwise read. Thus, his reading class has been as educational for me as it has been for him. In many ways it has drawn us even closer together. And at the end of his eighth grade year he received an A in reading which positively reinforced what we have been doing all year.
