ST. PETERSBURG - Parents of children from two elementary schools got some tips Monday night on how they can help their children become better readers.
Reading coaches Paula Porter from Campbell Park Elementary and Lori McCarley from North Shore Elementary joined forces to present Families Building Better Readers, a two-hour training session at Campbell Park, 1051 Seventh Ave. S. About 110 families attended.
The workshop, a collaborative effort of the Florida Department of Education's Just Read, Florida! initiative, the Office of Family and Community Outreach and the College of Professional Studies at the University of West Florida, was originally developed for parents of third-grade students who scored low on the reading portion of the FCAT. Porter and McCarley decided to open Monday's workshop to parents of all elementary students.
"We have students that need that parental support at home to become better readers," McCarley said. "We truly felt the strategies that are being taught to the parents could be utilized at all grade levels."
Angela Martin, an educational consultant based at the University of West Florida, opened the workshop with an overview of the Families Building Better Readers program and explained its purpose: to provide parents with simple instructional activities they can do with their children to improve reading performance and to direct them to resources that will help improve their children's literacy throughout life.
Four breakout sessions followed. Three trainers from the Title I center in St. Petersburg, Marty Massimo, Pam Root and Cathy Foss, rotated with Martin among four parent groups. They presented seven hands-on lessons with titles such as "Practice Made Perfect," "Ready, Set, Read!" and "Word Mysteries." In "Word Mysteries," an activity to help children understand the relationship between the sounds of spoken language and the letters that represent those sounds in writing, the trainers taught parents an activity that would help their children find a hidden object using sound clues. "Ready, Set, Read!" taught parents how to improve their children's fluency by having them read the same passage over several days.
A wrap-up session taught parents how to read aloud to their children. Included were tips on choosing appropriate books, how to read with expression and how to help children connect to the story.
Parents seemed gratified to receive the information, said Porter, the Campbell Park reading coach.
"I think a lot of parents are worried about not being able to help their children in the right way," she said. "They want to help, but sometimes they're afraid to ask how. In these sessions, they could see there are a lot of simple activities they can do that are very effective in helping their children improve their reading."
TO LEARN MORE
For information on Families Building Better Readers parent workshops, visit the Florida Department of Education Office of Family and Community Outreach, 850 245-0847 or visit www.firn.edu/doe/family/home0077.htm
