Reading with Kids

Anyone who has been a parent for longer than 10 minutes has heard how important it is to read to your children.  I know there is tons of research out there in regards to exactly what the benefits of reading aloud to your child are.  For example, research has shown that children who are read to regularly have larger vocabularies and are more likely to become strong readers as they grow up.

For the past few months, I have been working with oldest kiddo's 2nd grade class.  Mostly I read aloud to one little girl and help her through story maps and that sort of thing.  I also work with some of the other students as they read stories and fill in worksheets about the stories.  Story maps vary a lot, but one constant is a spot for the kids to fill in the setting of the story they've read.  For the most part, the students are always able to identify characters, problems and solutions in the stories.  However, they have difficulty identifying the setting.  This got me to thinking.

I have read to my kiddos since they were babies.  I always ask them questions about what we're reading.  I'll ask them who the main character is or what the problem is in the story.  I'll read a few pages and then stop to ask them what they think is going to happen.  But I cannot remember having ever asked them questions about the setting of the stories we read.  I think it's something that I just take for granted.

Part of the reason I'm working with the kiddos is as part of my internship for school this semester.  So this issue with identifying setting is really perplexing me.  I definitely want to figure out more about it as I prepare to write my final paper about what I've observed.  Plus, as a future teacher, I just want to know more so I can better understand my students.

So here are my questions for you guys...

• Do you ask your kiddos questions about the stories you read with them?
• What sorts of questions do you ask them?
• Specifically, do you ever talk about setting of stories with your kiddos?

If you've got anything else, feel free to add it too :)