{"id":8861,"date":"2020-02-21T12:35:38","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T17:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=8861"},"modified":"2022-08-05T09:41:43","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T13:41:43","slug":"q-how-can-i-raise-a-reader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/q-how-can-i-raise-a-reader\/","title":{"rendered":"Q: How Can I Raise A Reader?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kenneth Kunz, an assistant professor of literacy education, is such a print fanatic that he installed a Little Free Library outside his house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s not the only way Kunz, who\u2019s president of the New Jersey Literacy Association and a board member of the International Literacy Association, is encouraging people to read more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Monmouth, his research focuses on literacy interventions in public schools, and this spring, he will co-publish a new book: Literacy Changemakers: How to Bring Joy Back into Focus for Reading and Writing with Teachers and Students. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, Kunz offers five tips for parents hoping to raise the next generation of book- lovers.<\/p>\n\n\n

Access is key.<\/h3>\n\n\n

“If you want a child to grow up to be a reader, you have to surround them with books,\u201d Kunz says. \u201cWe need print-rich environments.\u201d That means a house filled with diverse, high-quality reading material, displayed with titles facing out\u2014and cozy, defined places to cuddle up with a book. (Kunz is a big fan of book nooks.)<\/p>\n\n\n

Bring stories off the page.<\/h3>\n\n\n

To get kids excited about what they\u2019re reading, tie it into real-world experiences. Read a book about wild animals? Treat the kids to a day at the zoo. Young readers also love retelling a story they read by acting it out with props. (The perfect audience: you.) <\/p>\n\n\n

Make time for reading, but don’t time it.<\/h3>\n\n\n

Kunz calls out a misconception about requiring kids to read 20 minutes a day. Noting that reading aloud should happen every day, especially with young children, he acknowledges that it isn\u2019t always possible to find 20 minutes. Rather than setting minimums (or ceilings) on book time, Kunz offer this advice: \u201cRead as much as humanly possible with your kid.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

Encourage their interests and embrace their choices.<\/h3>\n\n\n

You know what your kids like. Buy books that echo those interests. Have a daughter who adores trees? Get her some Berenstain Bears books. If your son loved Diary of a Wimpy Kid<\/em>, encourage him to read the whole series. Then let him re-read it. \u201cPeople get hung up on reading level or challenge, but choice is going to lead to that,\u201d Kunz says. \u201cWhat develops our kids\u2019 skills is voluminous reading.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

Be a reading role model. <\/h3>\n\n\n

Let your kids see you with a book in your hands. Share what you\u2019re reading with them. Talking about the characters and stories you\u2019re discovering will encourage them to do the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n

The 10-Second Bonus Question: How can I reward my kids for reading?<\/h3>\n\n\n

The short answer: don\u2019t\u2014or at least not with tangible prizes. Kunz doesn\u2019t recommend using reading logs or suggest offering pizza in exchange for book time. \u201cThe more you extrinsically motivate with prizes and rewards, the less value children see in reading,\u201d he says. Instead, try accountability that isn\u2019t linked to prizes. Have your kids tell you about what they\u2019re reading. Ask them questions about it. Remind them of how reading teaches them new words and makes them more empathetic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have a question for our faculty experts? Email magazine@monmouth.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo at top by iStock.com\/digitalskillet<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Literacy education professor Kenneth Kunz shares his Top 5 tips for fostering a love of reading in your child.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":9032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Currents","issue":"Spring 2020","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8861"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16048,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8861\/revisions\/16048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}