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You are here: Home / 2021 / Archives for April 2021

Archives for April 2021

Bridging the Learning Gap While Homeschooling

April 30, 2021

Covid threw many parents into the role of teacher. Although many schools have reopened to in-person learning across the country, some parents are still managing distance learning for their children. Parents also may still be struggling with a new normal that could include a mix of in-person and virtual learning or even trying to help a child who has fallen behind academically during the pandemic.

Readability’s CEO and Founder Ameeta Jain talked to educator, entrepreneur, author and mom Mimi Nartey about homeschooling during the pandemic and beyond as well as how to bridge the learning gaps during the stresses of pandemic learning. 

An Interview with Dr. Mimi Nartey

AJ: Hi everyone, my name’s Ameeta Jain, I’m CEO of Readability. And I have a very special guest with me today, Dr. Mimi Nartey. Hi, Mimi.

MN: Hi, thank you so much for having me today.

AJ: Oh, it’s such a pleasure, and I really appreciate you taking time out of your full schedule to be with us. And speaking of full schedules, why don’t you let our viewers know a little bit about yourself?

MN: All right. Well, I am a work-at-home mom, work-from-home mom. I’ve got two kids, I have a son who’s in third grade, and I have a daughter who’s in seventh grade. And what’s really interesting about our family is about two years ago,  right before middle school, we decided to pull my daughter out of traditional school and do a homeschool hybrid program.

I talked it over with my husband, and with my daughter, and we decided to make this kind of lifestyle commitment ’cause that’s really what it is, to take a non traditional educational path. And then of course, now, because of the context of COVID, my son is also at home learning distance. So I kinda even got more than I bargained for.

AJ: Well, it’s commendable that you’re taking this on, and I and also the courage, right? I think every parent has experienced that this year, or in 2020 this whole time during COVID what it’s like to have to try and do everything that you’re responsible for, and now have to be responsible for your child’s learning. And speaking with a lot of parents, they do feel like there’s been a lack of learning. And I thought that maybe as a mom who has taken this on, who was doing it, and then taking on a much greater, I don’t wanna say burden ’cause teaching our kids is a joy and a gift, but taking this extra responsibility on. What has that been like for you?

MN: So it has required a lot of flexibility of mind, adaptability. What I would say is in some ways it’s interesting because I made this decision just ahead of the pandemic. So I was prepared in ways that other women that I know, other mothers weren’t exactly. We had had someone come in and do kind of a consultation to help us organize a homeschool classroom, and we had taken all of these steps.

It was really serendipitous that it was able to make the most out of the situation. I felt like I had a little bit of infrastructure or framework to have this happen in our lives. But definitely, even making that initial decision was a challenge. Now, prior to this, for nearly a decade I was a college professor. I taught classes in environmental science, and public health at the university level. So one would think that I would have a lot of confidence in taking on like a middle school teaching, but it really is something that, you have to just give yourself a lot of grace, you commit to the process, I think it’s really great to kind of set deliverables for yourself so you feel like you are hitting certain things ’cause there’s so much flux and flow. It really is, it grows you in the way of learning to be just very flexible, and adaptable.

AJ: So that sounds like great advice to all those parents out there that have been learning this past year is to just breathe, and be flexible. But I know that parents are stressed out. “Are my kids learning? Are they absorbing this material? Have we wasted a year?”  Is that something that you’re seeing yourself?

MN: I would say, every child’s different and every familial circumstance is different. And so I even see disparate outcomes between my two kids. I have one who’s a little bit older and a bit more autonomous, and, in some ways, she has gained and thrived a bit. But my younger son, it is a challenge. And so I think for me there’s just been a reframe. Right now, the best I can do is just support him emotionally through this, and then what I will look to do is as things open back up, as we get back into a normal rhythm, really kind of concentrate on assessing the learning gaps.

When we have that kind of stability and that security back, then that’s the opportunity to kinda go back through and say, okay, well maybe we didn’t make as much progress here, or here as we’d liked. But at the end of the day, we survived a pandemic, we learned, and we grew in many ways.

I see my children being forced to mature in ways that I might not have pushed them to. Like I said, it’s really about the framework. And then there are strategies to always close the learning gaps. First thing first is to work on and support the mental and emotional health of the children, and that’s what I think we really should focus our attention on, and that’s where we can also find some grace in our own process. We can think, this isn’t gonna be necessarily the year where you get five reading levels ahead, or something like that. But what have we learned about ourselves? What did we learn about ourselves as individuals and as a family? And in the coming year, we’ll go back through and see where we can get additional support for the learning process.

AJ: I love that so much. I love the idea of focusing on their mental and emotional wellbeing, their health, as we see so much happening in society and with our kids. Being there for them on an emotional level really speaks to me, and I’m sure it speaks to our viewers as well because parents have gone through their own stuff too, and so they’re struggling. They’re really out there struggling, whether it’s trying to work and teach their kids, and financially, I mean there’s just been such an impact on so many families out there. And do you, what would you suggest we do? Or do you have any ideas yourself on how we can bridge that gap in learning? I know that you have to assess where your child may be falling behind, whether it’s English, math, science. But what would you suggest we do to help understand where they’re falling behind, and what can we do to help them?

MN: I think again, in the coming months and over the next year or so, I’m gonna really suggest that all parents get in really close communication with the instructors. So if you aren’t the instructor yourself, again, I have the one child who will go back to traditional school. And really keep those open lines of communication, and ask for those kinds of assessments, and that feedback on where things may have fallen short.

For me as a homeschooling mom, I get to, because I determine the curriculum I kind of can see where we are, and I would say more of the challenge there is maybe I had intended for us to finish this curriculum by this time and we haven’t done that. But all of it, again, like I said, it’s a reframe. And just understanding that it seems like it’s been a long time and it seems like the impact is more immense than it actually is.

A year, even if you had to pull the child out of school for a year, people have to leave school for health reasons for a year, there are many reasons why this could’ve happened. And people are able to find some sort of resilience in a moment like this. So again, it’s just about changing what the expectations are in mind to say that, it doesn’t have to be the way that I had originally imagined it. Obviously it’s not gonna be the way that I had originally imagined it. But sometimes children, you might say the child needs to repeat, that’s okay, that’s okay. It’s one year.

AJ: It’s okay, exactly. One year in your whole life is not going to make or break you.

MN: Yeah, and I think, like I said, that’s what I mean about having the flexibility of mind, and really just seeing that there’s more time in this process than we think. That we have set an arbitrary arbitrary amount of time for an elementary education, or for the K through 12. It’s a little bit subjective what those years are gonna be. And because I have one parent who’s from another country, I have different worldviews that I borrow from. So, here we have a certain age that kids start school. What’s so funny is in my dad’s country, Ghana, he would tell me that when a child can kind of put their hand over their head and touch their ear, that’s when they say you’re ready for school. So it’s just kind of funny. So it’s not really age dependent. So when you borrow from other people’s perspectives and see that there’s more flexibility in this, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, the timeframes that we put, the pressures associated with those timeframes that we put on ourselves are really more imagined than real. Then it gives us the breathing room to be creative about what we can do to rise to this challenge.

AJ: I love that Mimi, and I’m sure the teachers that are watching us today are saying “Yes, Mimi,” and the parents that are watching are just so thankful for that hope, and peace of mind that you’re giving them that it’s going to be okay because that’s exactly what you’re saying, that it’s gonna be okay. And to make sure that you’re watching their emotional and mental health and wellbeing.

MN: Right, and I would even push it further. I always say my superpower is ruthless optimism. I think that from this, we have as a society, and especially with our kids, accessed technology in a way where after this, in the aftermath of this, if we’re very creative we can apply some of that technological intellect that we’ve gained to really improve access to education, and really improve opportunities for kids’ life through Readability and other kinds of things, ’cause the kids now have such an appetite, and the skill, a new level of skill to navigate these things. And the technology can lead to more equitable outcomes eventually. So I’m hoping that will be, in the long term, how we gain.

AJ: And you bring up a really good point. There are studies out there that do talk about how technology, things like when AI is speaking to you, kids are very receptive to it and so this is a mechanism, a way in which you can supplement their education. So that’s a really good point, thank you for that. So Mimi, I feel like you’ve given us, and by the way folks, for all of you today watching, Mimi is so humble and just like, “Oh, you know, I’m a mom and I homeschool.” She’s also a coach. There’s so much that she’s doing out there with, Mimi, I think you should tell them because I would love to hear a little bit more about the other things that you’re doing and how you’re just amazing.

MN: Oh, I appreciate that. Yeah, I feel like I’m very, very passionate about education and I conceive education very broadly, what that looks like, and what that means. And so I do coach soccer. In the past, I was a professional soccer player and I did get the chance to compete in the Women’s World Cup.

AJ: Amazing.

MN: It’s like secret lives of moms, you kinda, secret lives of moms.

AJ: Yeah, you’re just not a mom, even though being a mom’s amazing, yes.

MN: So I do coach youth soccer. I do spend a big part of my time invested in that because I also can see that as a different kind of educational intervention. I think sports is one epistemology, one way of knowing things, and I like to support kids learning and development through that. Another project that I’ve been working on for about five years, it’s called Race, Class, and Parenting. And it’s really a social justice parenting intervention. So I host symposiums, I create content, I write books, all related to social justice parenting. I think a lot of people, especially during the same time, it seems to have overlapped much with COVID. There’s been so much social and political unrest. And I know that there are a lot of people who are looking for support through their parenting process with that, how to open up conversations with kids about social injustice, how to give them a more tolerant and inclusive worldview. And so I have a passion to help those parents, what I always say is parent to their intentions, by providing them information and support.

AJ: I love that. Parent to their intentions. And then where can parents watching today, and teachers watching today find you? Where can they find this class?

MN: Yes, so I have a YouTube channel called Mompetitor by Mimi Nartey, like competitor, Mompetitor. And I do have a lot of content there if you just wanted to, for example, see a video about what is systemic racism. I have a couple of e-books available on amazon.com under the title, “Race, Class, and Parenting”. Or you can search my name, Mimi Nartey, or you could just reach out to me directly at drmiminartey@gmail.com

AJ: Oh, thank you, thank you, Mimi, that’s amazing. And I’ve really enjoyed talking to you today. And as you can see, the audience, she’s not just a homeschooling mom, she’s so many things to so many people, and I just really enjoyed our talk today. Thank you, Mimi.

MN: Thank you so much, it’s been great. Thanks so much, Ameeta, you’re a person for whom I also have a great amount of respect, so I’m excited to be here.

AJ: Thank you. Well, I feel like we’re going to do great things together, and it’s all about our kids, it’s uplifting our children, the most vulnerable in our society. And so we have a common path there and a common goal, when it comes to our kids. Thank you.

MN: Thanks.

About Professor Mimi Nartey

Professor Mimi Nartey is an educator, interdisciplinary scholar, author, speaker, philanthropist, and social entrepreneur.  She has an undergraduate degree in Environmental Biology and a graduate degree in Climate and Society from Columbia University in the City of New York.  She completed her doctoral studies in Public Health with a Comparative Education minor.

Mimi has held a lecturing appointment at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and adjunct faculty positions at Occidental College and LMU. She is a women’s empowerment scholar, and her primary research focus is women’s health in sub-Saharan Africa.  Her research experience includes developing anti-malarial drugs; using climate forecasts to predict disease epidemics; developing interventions for maternal and child health in sub-Saharan Africa; and using soccer to promote health.  She presented research at the annual American Public Health Association Conference and Yale University.  She has been invited to keynote at the annual Global Unite for Sight Conference at Yale University, and she has been invited by the government of Ghana to share research to the Ministry of Health.

Mimi is passionate about integrating science and philosophy to teach and promote social justice.  She has been involved in pioneering new approaches to address social problems such as gender and racial inequality.  She is the Founder and CEO of RCAP (Race, Class, and Parenting), which is a marketplace of ideas for women who are thought-leaders and influencers to engage in dialogue on social dynamics and parenting in communities of affluence.  She has an e-book available on Amazon.com on this subject.

Mimi was formerly a professional soccer player.  She was a silver-medalist in the 2002 African Women’s Cup of Nations, and she represented Ghana in the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup.  In 2016, she was invited to give a TEDx Talk entitled, “African Women’s Soccer and Empowerment: Memoirs of a Black Queen.” In December 2019, she was named to the list of “Dynamic Women” by Modern Luxury Angeleno Magazine.

Mimi is married to Kofi N. Nartey, MBA (luxury real estate broker and television personality).  In 2018, she and her husband co-founded The Nartey Sports Foundation to support sports-related interventions for underserved youth. The couple was  named a 2018 and 2019 “Los Angeles Power Couple” in Modern Luxury Angeleno Magazine and LA Confidential Magazine.  They live with their two precocious children, Liya and Lincoln, in Playa Vista, CA.

In 2020, Mimi launched a YouTube Channel (“MOMPETITOR by Mimi Nartey”) where subscribers can follow her life as a wife, mother, activist, coach, and philanthropist.

Filed Under: Interviews

The Best Online Reading Program for Kids

April 30, 2021

online reading program for kids

Some reading programs may require the child to have a specialized instructor; these are often used in the classroom setting and may be offered by schools. Other programs, however, are accessible online or via apps and can be a convenient and perhaps more affordable option for parents needing additional help or enrichment for a child that is struggling with reading.

An online reading program for kids may encompass many features and each one may look very different. What online reading program for kids is right for your kid? Trying out and researching different options might help parents decide! Here’s how to find the best program for your child.

What is the Best Online Reading Program?

The best really is a matter of opinion, and, obviously, Readability, in our opinion is the best! That being said, the best online reading program for kids and, most importantly, for YOUR kid should address their own unique reading struggles.

Researching different reading programs is a great first step in finding out what options are available. Google and other search engines, however, may bring up many, many choices. In fact, the options could be quite overwhelming.

Parents might consider the following when narrowing down their choices:

  • What is my child’s reading struggle? Comprehension, phonics…both?
  • What is my child’s reading level and how does that compare to the grade-level expectation?
  • How does my child learn best? Visual, tactile or auditory? Maybe a mixture?
  • What is the budget for a reading program?
  • Does my child enjoy online learning?

online reading program for kids

The Individual Reading Struggle: Address the Child’s Own Unique Needs

Finding the best reading program for your child means finding the program that best meets the child’s needs and helps address their reading struggles. Some reading programs online may focus on learning sight words or helping children sound out words. Phonics and phonetics are both key elements to reading. If the child is having difficulty with sounds and putting blends together, if they struggle in phonics, then a program should address this concern.

Other children may read fluently but might not be able to summarize what they’ve read. The words may come easy but the meaning may be lost. Comprehension is another crucial part of reading. Children need to understand what they’ve read so that they can think deeper about the story.

However, comprehension goes beyond merely summarizing content. In time, children need to be able to understand feelings of characters, predict what will happen next, apply the understanding of the character and the plot to their own situations and further analyze metaphorical context that could be unwritten but still exist between the lines.

Comprehension can be quite abstract, and some children may find that digging deeper, looking beyond the literal, is a bit of a challenge. Children who lack the ability to summarize or to remember what they’ve read may be struggling with comprehension (although other issues could be at play, too).

Parents may have a good idea that their child is struggling to grasp the meaning of a story. Often, parents will ask their child questions while reading aloud. Children may not be able to retell the story or might not be able to summarize key plot points. While disinterest in the story also could contribute, if parents notice that their child consistently fails to be able to summarize or explain the basics of a story, comprehension could be the issue.

If parents have talked to their child’s teacher and have learned that the teacher is concerned about a child’s reading comprehension, parents may be looking for an online reading program that addresses this literacy component.

Reading Level: Is the Child Really Struggling?

Some parents may believe that their child is struggling with reading, when, in actuality, their child is perfectly on target. Parents could have expectations based on an older sibling who was a precocious reader.

Understanding a child’s reading level and how that level compares to grade-level benchmarks and expectations can better help parents figure out how much help their child needs. How can parents find out their child’s reading level? Ask the teacher!

Many schools test reading skills throughout the year. This helps teachers and districts better understand the progress of each child; this also helps identify children who may be falling behind or struggling with reading.

Parents can ask the teacher about their child’s reading progress and how that compares to the grade-level expectations. While a single test score might be lower because of a bad day or an illness, teachers can note patterns in progress.

Reading levels can be a number or a letter. Scholastic has a great primer on how to decipher the reading levels between reading systems. Once parents know their child’s reading level and how close or far they are to benchmark expectations they can find a program to best meet their child’s needs. Of course, parents also could pursue extra enrichment or help from the school, but the teacher would be the best resource for parents in how to start this process.

online reading program for kids

Money Matters: What’s the Budget?

Researching an online reading program for kids does mean also researching the cost of the program. Not every program or app is financially viable for every budget. Reading programs can be found in many different formats and price points.

Parents might want to look at their budget to see what they can reasonably afford. Some families may want to budget per month, others may want to simply pay for a program up front. Readability, for example, requires a monthly subscription. Parents will be billed the same price every month.

Online reading programs may be more affordable than a private tutor. Parents may wish to compare these options to find the best reading enrichment solution for their child. Readability offers a built-in AI tutor that assists children with pronunciation and asks questions related to comprehension. While there isn’t a tutor sitting next to the child, there is a tutor within the program!  

Learning Processes: Tactile, Auditory, Visual

Children and adults might have a unique way of learning. Some of us learn best by hearing directions, others need to see instructions in words. Still others are hands-on (tactile). How an individual learns could impact how parents provide help. The VARK Modalities are commonly cited as the four main learning styles; VARK stands for Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, and Kinesthetic.

During the pandemic, many children had to learn remotely. For some, this online method was an amazing change. Maybe being more independent and receiving virtual instruction was the ideal atmosphere; some children thrived in this environment.

Other children, however, really disliked online learning. Some might have struggled to grasp concepts that were given via remote instruction. Working only on the computer might have been frustrating to them. Maybe they thrived in writing out problems or working hands-on.

If a child loves online learning, then an online reading program could seem like a fun option to help them catch up to peers. Children who are tech-inclined also could favor a computer-based reading program.

Parents who watched their child struggle with online learning, though, could be hesitant to try an online reading program. However, some reading programs like Readability provide auditory and visual components to appeal to different types of learners. Look for programs that also provide a free trial period; this can help parents decide if their computer reluctant child would enjoy the program.

online reading program for kids

Content Matters: Is the Program Interesting?

One of the most important components of any successful reading program is the one that many parents probably don’t think about much. Is the program interesting?

While an online reading program for kids could check all the boxes, if it doesn’t interest the child, is it useful? One publishing expert advised that parents should let children pick their own books. The advice is sound, as most adults read books that interest them, and children should be free to explore ideas and stories that appeal to them, too. Maybe the benefit of choosing also could influence their attitude towards reading. 

If the reading program has stories that are geared towards a child much younger or just not any fun, will a child be motivated to engage with the content? This issue is, again, why parents may wish to look at programs that offer a free trial period.

Children want to read stories that interest them and that are engaging. Colorful illustrations and interactive features also could help grab their attention. Children who struggle to read also don’t necessarily want to read content that is written for a younger audience. While an eight-year-old may read at a much younger level, they might not want to read content that is designed for that younger audience. Children want to read what their peers read, so parents may look for programs that take this to heart.

The Data: Parents Need to Know that It’s Working!

Even if a reading program addresses the child’s reading struggles, how do parents even know the reading program is working? Parents want to see results, they want to understand that the program is beneficial and that their child is improving.

Reading programs should provide parents with the data they need to evaluate a child’s progress. For example, Readability provides a Parent Dashboard. This is a hub of information for parents to review their child’s progress on the program. The Dashboard provides data related to the child’s reading level, their progress, and how long they engaged with the program. Information from Readability also can be sent to the child’s teacher.

Parents also will want to talk to the child’s teacher to ensure that the progress they see via the app has been demonstrated in the classroom, too. Readability’s reading reports can help open a dialogue between the parents and the teacher regarding a child’s reading progress.

Ready to try Readability? Sign up for a free trial today!

Filed Under: Reading Program

How to Improve Reading Struggles for Children with Learning Disorders

April 29, 2021

There are about 10 million children who struggle to read. For some children, a learning disorder may pose a barrier to reading fluency and proficiency. However, reading programs via apps or perhaps more formalized programs through schools may help struggling readers become more proficient, confident and more fluid readers.

Readability’s CEO Ameeta Jain talked to educator Robin Getsee about her experience in helping children with learning disorders overcome reading struggles. Getsee discusses her experience with Readability and the success some of her students had with the program.

About Robin Getsee

Robin Getsee currently teaches English-Language Arts to middle school students with varying disabilities. She has been teaching at Woodland Heights Middle School in Mooresville, NC since 2006. Getsee has been the lead teacher at her school for the past several years and was honored to be selected as the Iredell-Statesville Schools District Exceptional Children’s Teacher of the Year for 2018.

Prior to her current position, Getsee taught high school special education in both Florida and South Carolina. After having her first child, Getsee left full-time teaching to work part-time for the Opportunity Scholars Program at The University of South Carolina-Salkehatchie Campus as an English/Language Specialist. 

Getsee currently lives in Troutman, NC with her husband and two children. Her daughter began attending NC State University in the fall of 2020 to study Paper Science and Engineering. Her son is currently a sophomore at South Iredell High School. In her spare time, Getsee enjoys paddle boarding, kayaking, and painting.

Readability’s CEO Ameeta Jain Interviews Robin Getsee

AJ: Hi everyone, my name is Ameeta Jain and I’m the CEO of Readability. And today we’re going to talk about how we can help improve the reading and comprehension skills for those kids that have varying learning disabilities or other disabilities. And I’m so excited and thrilled because today we have someone very special with us. Her name is Robin Getsee and Robin is a middle school teacher in North Carolina. Her students have varying disabilities and she’s been teaching for like 20 years, she’s a mom of two, and she also holds the honor of Exceptional Children’s Teacher of the Year Award for 2018. Hi Robin, welcome.

RG: Hi, thank you.

AJ: So I’d love to talk to you about your experience as a teacher working with students that have varying disabilities. I know you’re a middle school teacher so let’s talk about the age group and maybe define what those varying disabilities are.

RG: Sure so, I teach sixth, seventh and eighth grade special education. I teach the language arts. We have another teacher who does all of the math. Most of my students have, they range from students with learning disabilities. I have many students with other health impairments. Many of those have ADHD. I have several students with autism and that really about sums up the major categories of disabilities.

AJ: Okay. So what I’m hoping for today is that our conversation helps other parents and educators find resources, tools, tips, suggestions that can help their students improve reading and comprehension skills and really just help lift and advance those students. So I know that you have a very special story you’d like to share about one of your students.

RG: I do, so I learned about readability through a student with autism. He read painfully slowly at the end of last year, right before COVID. He was reading probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 words a minute. He also has a little bit of a speech impediment. So he stuttered and he read very slowly, working with him the best I could virtually through COVID. Summer rolls around, he comes back in August. We were very fortunate that our students were able to return face-to-face and he came back and I called on him to read and he was a totally different student. I could not believe how well he was reading. I could understand him. It was mostly fluent. His reading was still slow. And I called his mom that afternoon and I said, what have you done? Because this is, this was not a matter of my teaching, this was, that was going on at home. And she told me about the Readability program. And it was just absolutely fascinating to see his progress. Just absolutely amazing to see what he’s done. His comprehension has gone up from an early first grade level to an early third grade level.

AJ: Wow.

RG: His fluency is, I don’t have exact numbers on his fluency but like I said, we can understand him. His confidence has improved. He’s just a totally different kid.

AJ: That’s amazing. And do you remember about his reading level, from what level to what level he is now? Did he move up in his reading level?

RG: His comprehension is in early first grade and now he’s in an early third. I would guess he probably started somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 or 50 words a minute as a first or second grade level passage. And now he’s a lot more fluent, he’s up in the hundreds.

AJ: That’s amazing. That is, that’s heartwarming for sure that some, you know, we’re helping kids out there improve because if we can help lift our kids through reading, really set them up so that they can read well and comprehend well, then they can do anything. And that’s how we feel here. So that’s such a great story. And I know that, that’s when we connected, you know, with all this that was happening with this one student, how could you help your other students? So tell us a little bit about how you feel like if you were to share with other educators and parents, what about this program, is helping a child who, you know has a little bit of a speech impediment, is reading super slow. What do you think is important about this tool that will help other students?

RG: The biggest piece of feedback I get from my students is that they like it. I have some students, one particular student said “You mean I can do this and my mom doesn’t have to listen to me read?” And he was so excited because he gets embarrassed and he gets nervous when he reads in front of people, he’s worried his mom’s gonna yell at him and I’m gonna correct him. And he was so excited ’cause he could take this iPad and go in his bedroom and read by himself. And nobody knows he messed up except him and the computer and he’s willing to do it. And I think that’s the most important piece of a reading program, regardless of what program you use, the kid has to be invested in the program. They have to want to do it. It’s not gonna work if they’re not using it consistently and it’s not gonna work if mom is beating on them, trying to get them to, you know, do the program, do the program. They’ve really wanted to do it. And I find my students really like the program. They, I’ve got one that comes to my room before his eighth grade language arts class every day. And he reads for 15 minutes during the class change and they want to do it.

AJ: I think that is amazing. That’s amazing. And I think for parents and educators, when you have a full classroom and when parents are so, you know they’re strapped for time, their time is spread so thin and to have a tool that actually monitors the reading because we know that Readability does track the time spent reading and it does provide key performance indicators, right? Like read words per minute and the fluency and decoding. So that is important, so a child can go in their bedroom and a parent knows, okay my child is reading based on what Readability is telling them. So I think that’s important to note. And so what would you, you know, what other tools have you used with students that also help with reading? What would you say, before Readability, what were you doing?

RG: Before Readability I was, you know, kind of throwing in phonic skills as we did reading comprehension. If a student would miss a word, I’d just kind of throw in EA, make the “e” sound and we’d kind of throw them in but I didn’t really have a systematic approach for teaching that reading fluency. My, we call it resource class, it’s students who only have IEP’s and have special needs. And in that class it’s a replacement for the regular language arts class. So not only do I have to teach these phonic skills that they’ve missed, I’m also responsible for teaching the whole language arts curriculum and all those skills. I teach grade-level skills at lower reading levels. So I really haven’t had a systematic approach to being able to teach phonics before Readability. It was just kind of whatever spelling lesson I could throw into whatever we were reading that day. So Readability has really given me a chance to give those students time, just to work on those phonic skills that they’re missing.

AJ: That’s amazing. I’m so happy to hear that. And you know, collectively, that’s the goal. That’s my passion behind Readability, is to really lift every child, give every child a chance for success in life. And it all starts with reading, I truly believe that. And we so appreciate you Robin as a teacher for what you do especially working with children with varying disabilities because we know that job is not easy and we honor you, we respect you. And we’re so happy that you could be with us here today. And so just for any parting words, advice that you have for other parents and teachers alike, when it comes to their children who have varying disabilities.

RG: I think that the biggest piece of advice I have is just keep your kids reading. Regardless it doesn’t matter what they’re reading. I have so many parents that are worried that their kids aren’t reading at a high enough level or they’re not reading something educational. They’re reading something with pictures in eighth grade. It doesn’t matter; just read. And if it’s Readability and they love that great, if they wanna read a comic book or the back of the cereal box, it doesn’t matter, just read and talk about what you’re reading. That’s where they’re really going to gain those skills.

AJ: I love that. I love that, I think that’s a perfect note to end on. We’re so happy to have you here. And we would love to have you back especially after you’ve worked with more students, to hear their success stories. Thank you, Robin.

RG: Certainly. Thank you, Ameeta. I’ve enjoyed it. I appreciate you.

Filed Under: Interviews, Reading Program

What is Competency-Based Learning?

April 23, 2021

The report cards that list grades as letters might be eschewed for an educational approach that emphasizes grading students on mastery and fluency. Competency-based learning typically includes number grades denoting and correlating to a child’s mastery of a particular subject.

While standard grading systems favor grade percentages that correlate to a specific number grade, competency-based learning analyzes the child’s overall performance to assess fluency and mastery and denotes grades in numbers or may not assign grades but instead note the level of progress (e.g. exceeds the standard).

Students might not be expected to master a particular standard until the end of the year, and the competency-based grade may reflect this expectation. For example, children may receive a 2 or a description of “not yet mastered” or a similar descriptor.

Parents, though, might be confused at this new system, preferring the easier-to-understand grading scale of their own youth. Readability’s CEO Ameeta Jain talks to educator Jabez LeBret about why competency-based learning may be our future and why parents should embrace it. 

An Interview with Jabez LeBret

AJ: Hi everyone. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Ameeta Jain. I’m the CEO of Readability. And today we’ll be talking about Competence-Based Learning. What does Competence-Based Learning mean? Why is it so important? And as parents and educators how can we implement or apply this in our homes and school?

I’m super excited because we have an expert in this area to help us through all of this. His name is Jabez Lebret and he’s got a vast bio, and I thought I’d pull out some things that I found really fascinating and interesting about him. Jabez got his start as a financial analyst managing a multimillion dollar P&L at Nordstrom. He has delivered over 1200 presentations around the globe and is a bestselling author and a journalist for NBC and Forbes. He sold his award-winning award-winning marketing agency to pursue an ambitious project in education. After five years of research, Jabez and his wife opened up the nation’s first tuition free all girls school in San Diego, California with a focus on social, emotional learning and competency-based assessment. And what I love is he’s a gin enthusiast and a drinker of coffee in large quantities. Hi, Jabez.

JL: Hello, thank you for having me.

AJ: Thank you for being with us. So let’s just jump right into it. Tell us what is Competence-Based Learning.

JL: So we’re all familiar with our normal traditional grade set for most of us that went to school here in the U.S. We have our A, B, C, D’s and F’s, and that has been the standard approach for many, many, many, many decades. Competency-based assessment is basically trying to focus on proficiency. And so the question is, can we test how much of something you know, and how well you know it? How competent are you? How proficient or what’s your mastery level of that information? Not just, can you give me an answer on a test or fill out a homework assignment and show some sort of single linear answer. It’s really trying to kind of broaden our approach in education to understanding what a student knows.

AJ: Amazing.  When we think about Competence-Based Learning and we’re looking at a classroom setting, what does that look like in a classroom setting?

JL: Yeah, it’s important to understand why classrooms were set up the way that they were set up in the current system that we have now. And it really hearkens back to the industrial age where we needed factory workers. We needed farm workers. We needed to be able to pipeline some students into professional services like lawyers or doctors. But for the most part, we were trying to move people through kind of like an assembly line. And so what we did is we created these classrooms that resembled a kind of a factory. You’ve got rows and rows of chairs. You’ve got the teacher up front and then they’re espousing information. And then they’re trying to make sure that some of that information sticks so that when that student eventually graduates from high school, they may or may not go on to college but whatever they do next, we have kind of a general idea of where they stack up to each other.

How do they fit into the world that we have back in 1905? I mean, we’re talking like over a hundred years ago this system was put into place. Today’s world has dramatically changed over the, I mean not to mention the last 10 years, but the last 30 years. Oh my gosh. Like we have computers in our pockets that we walk around with. I remember my math teacher used to say, “Well it’s not like you’re going “to carry a calculator around with you everywhere you go.” And I was like, “Well, now I actually carry it around with me everywhere I go.” So it begs the question. Should we be changing our approach to how we view knowledge? What kind of knowledge students should learn, and how do we assess that kind of knowledge?

The newest direction and where education is trying to move towards is to say we no longer are as concerned with whether or not you have rote memory of a list of tasks. We are now more concerned with do you know how to learn? Do you know how to think about things analytically? Do you know how to put on a critical thinking cap, to approach problem solving? How do you tackle a problem? How do you build perseverance and how do you build the ability to go out and install something that you’ve never seen before? 

Now, if you’re talking about trying to build that kind of graduate at the end of a high school or college career, what you need to start focusing on is how do you test and how do you assess what they know. Because we all know that what we test is and what we measure is what we get. And so if we’re going to keep measuring in A, B, C, D, F then we’re going to get students that simply are striving towards that rank file. If we’re going to say we want students who know how to learn and understand things and can think about things, we have to change the way that we assess them, and that’s moving towards a competency-based approach.

AJ: Oh my gosh, I love that. And I can imagine a lot of the educators that are watching today saying, “Yes, yes.” Because they are also fighting the system, I think, with our education today and how it is. And I know a lot of parents are not really for the traditional grading system that their child shouldn’t be just put in a box that way. And I 100% agree with the idea of developing critical thinking skills in our kids. And that’s vital to their ability to learn and to do anything really is those critical thinking skills.

JL: Yeah. And if you want to study something like, we landed on the moon in 1969 that is an amazing feat, no question about it, but is it important to know that that happened in 1969 in and of itself as just a date? Not really. What’s more important to us is to understand the geo-political nature of what was happening in the world that led to us feeling as though we had to get to the moon first, right?

We were in this locked battle with the mighty USSR and we were in the Cold War and all of those big things that were pushing this moment in time that seemed very scientific and was, but the science was being driven by the politics as much as it was being driven by the scientist. And understanding those dynamics makes for more well-rounded education and a better suited student to understand that life is about layers. It’s not about just the simple answer we landed in 1969. That really isn’t the most important part of the story. And competency-based approach is a challenge, I think, for some because one, it’s kind of difficult to assess somebody’s proficiency or mastery at something. It takes more time, and it takes a lot of effort. And it’s a little scary as a parent.

You’re a parent, I’m a parent. And I’m thinking, I went to college. I wasn’t very good in K-12, but I did end up getting into college. And it was a great experience. Maybe I want that for my little one. And if I don’t align with the standards, am I now going to miss an opportunity for my child? So I push on the system and I say, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want to see A, B, C, D’s or F’s. I don’t want this competency whatever proficiency mastery, because what I want to see is that my kid can get into XYZ college. And that’s just a need for educating parents on the fact that colleges are shifting the way that they accept students. And that by the time your little one’s going to college if they go, it’s going to be a very different landscape than you or I faced.

AJ: Yeah. And I do see that. And speaking about grades, you and I had talked about this offline. When my son was in fourth grade and flash forward, he took the ACT, got a perfect score without studying. He had like a 4.83 GPA. He took every AP course there was, he worked really hard in high school to have what he thinks he needed to get into college. But when he was in fourth grade, we had a specific teacher that probably had biases and wasn’t healthy for my son. What was subjective was his writing skills. And she kept grading him well below his abilities, even though his third grade teacher said he had such an amazing voice that the summer he should write a book and that she’d help him get it published. To go from that to fourth grade saying “He can’t write.” “He doesn’t know.” “He doesn’t have grammar.” “He doesn’t have sentence structure.” And you’re just like, “How can that be? How could he have gone downhill so fast?”

Even though I had all these meetings with her to try to figure out what was happening, she had biases, and she did mean things in class like she would open up her arms wide to the whole classroom and say, “Competent.” And then to my son just narrow in and point to him and say, “Incompetent” in class, in front of everyone. And he would come home and he would tell me about these things. I talked to the counselor, talked to the principal to no avail. She basically tortured him the entire year.

When it came to the last day of school and I knew he would be getting his report card, I had just made a decision that what she thought and what she was doing was very harmful to my child, and I had to do something that would eliminate or eradicate that harm. And so what I did was I told my son, I said, “You’re going to get your report card today. And I do not want you to look at it. You’re going to hand it to me.” And he said, “Okay.” And I got to school waiting outside his classroom. He came running. He was so excited. And I said, “Did you get your report card?” He said, “I did.” I said, “Did you look at it?” He said, “I didn’t.” I said, “Great hand it to me.” I took that report card and I tore it up.

I tore it up and I kneeled down to him and I said, “What she thinks is irrelevant and inconsequential to you and your future. I do not want you to give her a second thought. You’re brilliant. You’re meant for greatness. And that’s how it is.” And he was so thankful, so relieved that even though he worked so hard and he probably did get fours and maybe she gave him a two in writing, it didn’t matter. None of it mattered to me. It was his emotional wellbeing at that very moment that mattered. And in that summer, I put him in a writing program for young kids. I put both my son and my daughter in there because I needed to change that narrative. I needed to adjust the concepts in his head that he did have abilities. And he was able to express himself.

JL: Your children are lucky to have a parent who is as aware and as able to navigate that sort of situation, right? And I always try to encourage parents who don’t know, maybe it just never dawned on them to think about it that way, that to think that the actual grade is an assigned measurement by the teacher, there is a subjective nature to it, period. And it is not a measure of intelligence or capabilities, right? I mean, I’m a high school dropout. So I got lots of F’s in high school. No problem. That was not the hard part.

AJ: And look at you now.

JL: And it worked out in the long run, despite that and I don’t recommend going to the extreme, but the point is we need to throttle back on the reliance on grades as the measurement and we need to start really asking ourselves what outcome do we want? What do we really want for our children? Do we really want our child to be obsessed with an A or a B, or do we want our child to be obsessed with learning? Obsessed with problem solving? Obsessed with going out there and thinking about things critically? That’s how with tinkering and figuring things out. That’s what we want. Not, “Oh my gosh. If I don’t perform well on this test.”

The pressure and the anxiety and the unnecessary nature of how we’ve approached modern day education is something that we all play a role in. Administrators need to stop leaning in on how easy it is to use grades and test the assessments, numbers. Universities and post-secondary need to continue their work. Parents are a part of this puzzle. Everybody does this in education. Everybody says, “Well, it’s the teachers in the District.” Or the teachers say, “Well it’s the District and the parents.” And then the Districts say, “Well it’s teachers and the parents.” Everybody points to everybody else. We all need to take a step back looking in the mirror and say, “What the heck do we want out of this thing?” Like, what do we really want out of our kids? And let’s build that.

AJ: I love that. And I agree wholeheartedly. And as for the parents who are watching today what are some of the first steps that they can take? Because when you talk about the pressure that is on our kids today, and all the things that they have to do just to get into school, it is crazy. And we see, these kids now have anxiety, they have stress. And we’re seeing a level that has just skyrocketed in the last 15, 20 years. And it’s not okay. So as parents, what is your suggestion that we can do at home to really advance Competence-Based Learning? What can they do?

JL: Step one, knowledge is power. I would say, go check out a really good school to look into, for example, One Stone up in Boise, Idaho. They graduate students with zero GPA’s. They don’t give out GPA’s. And those students go on to plenty of great, amazing, incredible colleges. So make yourself feel comfortable. There are people doing this, and it is working. And arm yourself with a little knowledge. Go to your school, ask the teachers, ask the principal what are they doing when it comes to Competency-Based Learning to understand what are students really proficiently and mastery level understanding of the knowledge.

Remember that your knee jerk reaction for things being done the way that you had them done when you were growing up is not necessarily the best way for them to be done now. And that’s a tough thing to let go. I only know it one way, and it’s a little scary. And so you have to keep reminding yourself there could be a better way, just like there’s a lot of better ways that I do things now than I did 20, 30 years ago. There’s a better way. And let’s embrace that and try to encourage that in our schools and give our kids the freedom to explore those options and really grab on to that kind of learning.

AJ: Well, I think that maybe conversations would be part of that. Where the parents are constantly talking to their kids about what’s happening at school, what they’re learning. And what’s important about what they learn. I know that, for me, when my kids were given books as assignments I loved to read those books with them and just have conversations, stuff like that. And I was never one to really push grades or anything like that on my kids. And it turned out that that was the right way to go because they have excelled in so many ways. My son got a full ride to get his Master’s and that’s incredible. And there was never a focus on grades. It was always like, how does this make you feel? What do you think about this? And so that’s what I think that maybe my suggestion to parents would be is those conversations are so important when it comes to their schoolwork.

JL:  Yeah. And ask about failure. If we want to think about what it really goes into learning something well like becoming a master of something includes a significant amount of missed shots. So if you’re going to excel, missing shots is important and talking to your kids about that is important and saying, “Hey, what did you fail at today?” Or this week?” Like what didn’t go well and didn’t work out. And what can we learn from that?” is a wonderful way to start approaching building up the reflex of competency-based approach as opposed to just simply saying “Regurgitate an answer for me.”

AJ: Right. And I think we’ve all learned in the last 10 years that it’s not really failing, we’re failing up. I like to use the word failing up because those lessons are important. And really we’re just getting better and better as we go through things in life. And we learn from those, it’s all a lesson it’s really never a failure.

JL: Yeah. I want to take failure back. I want to reclaim that word. I want to own that word for a positive, like it’s not a negative thing. And it is taught that way in school. I always thought it was fascinating how the letters go A, B, C, D and they skip E on purpose to go to F, and there’s only one reason why that happens and that should tell you everything you need to know about the grading system and why it’s not a good idea. And it’s not about being soft on our kids’ feelings.

It’s about being smart in the way that we choose to approach learning and being more thoughtful about how we want our outcomes to manifest at the end of their educational journey, which hopefully never ends. And if we want them to be lifelong learners, then we have to start focusing on competency-based approaches and stop focusing on assessment based. Otherwise we’re just never going to get there.

AJ: I always tell my kids, if you’re not learning you’re dying. Learning is a lifelong thing. You’ll never stop learning. So thank you, Jabez. Do you have any last piece of advice for our viewers today, for educators or for parents?

JL: Oh, I always say open up a dialogue. Don’t be afraid to embrace change. The system is changing, and it can feel as though it’s not and it can feel as though there’s nothing you can do about it. But if every one of us takes a little moment to have one more conversation about how we can make this thing better including the students and bringing them into the conversation, I think that we’re going to actually start seeing real change happen that is both necessary and overdue.

AJ: And I agree 100% because I really believe that if we can really expand on these critical thinking skills helping children develop those skills, we can really lift our kids, lift humanity. We’ll have so many thinkers out there, not just people who just follow blindly, but they’re thinking for themselves. And I think our society needs that.

JL: A hundred percent. And don’t forget about the kids who seem like they’re not learning. I was the third grade student who couldn’t read, and it was because of my home life that it just hadn’t happened. I mean, I would have killed for an app like what you guys have at that age but the technology didn’t exist at the time, but do take a step back and think that there is a way to approach and reach those students. And I think competency-based approaches are a magnificent way to really help out. And I just appreciate you sharing the information about this and wanting to share this sort of conversation with your audience because it really is important.

AJ: Thank you, Jabez. I know we’re like-minded in that because reading really is the foundation for all learning. And so if we can teach our children to read well but not just read but comprehend what they’re reading, right? Using those critical thinking skills. When they’re reading we are setting them up for a lifetime of success, because, again, if they can read well they can do anything. And I know that that’s like one of my biggest goals to lift our children through reading. And I really appreciate you, appreciate what you do for the girls in San Diego, California. I know because of COVID that school shut down. And I really hope that that opens up very soon. Things get better.

JL: Thank you. Appreciate that.

AJ: Thank you Jabez. Thanks for having, love to have, having you. Thank you.

JL: Well, thank you for having me. It was a pleasure to be here.

About Jabez LeBret

Jabez was a homeless highschool dropout. After getting his GED he decided to pursue a degree in finance and marketing from Gonzaga University. From there, it was off to the races. He became a financial analyst managing a multi-million dollar P&L at Nordstrom, delivering over 1,200 presentations around the globe, a best-selling author, and a journalist for NBC and Forbes. He is a seasoned entrepreneur who has built and sold multiple companies, even opening a tuition-free all-girls boarding high school for underserved youth.

Filed Under: Interviews

How to Improve Your Child’s Reading Skills

April 23, 2021

How to Improve Your Child’s Reading Skills

Americans don’t crack open enough books. According to a 2019 survey by Pew Research Center, about one out of four Americans (27 percent) hasn’t read a single book in a year. Parents or caregivers who don’t read could be unintentionally showing children that reading isn’t fun or entertaining. Children learn by example, after all.

Parents who are trying to help their child learn to read or to become better readers might need to start looking at their own relationships with books. Here’s how to improve your child’s reading skills by starting your own reading habit.

Create a Reading Schedule

There could be a million reasons why we fall out of the reading habit. Time is precious, and most adults—parents and caregivers especially—just don’t seem to have enough time to do everything. Trying to develop a reading habit after falling away from books can be a challenge…and a big change.

So how can busy adults find time to read? The answer is pretty simple. When we encourage children to read, this could be a good time for adults to read, too. If children normally read at night before bed, perhaps the family can gather together in the living room or rec area and have family reading time.

Parents may still read to children. If this is the case, then when do adults read? Before bed might be a good time. Wait for kids to fall asleep and then pull out a book. Many adults may play on their phones, watch television or engage in other screen time at night. The blue light from devices can actually throw the body’s circadian rhythm out of whack. Reading, though, could have a positive effect on sleep. According to the Sleep Advisor, reading before bed has many benefits: it helps zap stress, it boosts creativity, it can improve your mind (new information!), provides a sense of peace…and much more!

Drop the devices, and crack open a book!

Choose a Book You Love

One of the tips that are often given to help children learn to like reading is to let them choose their own books (within reason, of course). For adults, the same advice should apply, too. To get into the reading habit, figure out what type of subjects are interesting.

Make a list of authors that you know you’ve read (and liked), subjects that you want to explore and other general interests. Maybe there are some literary classics you’ve always wanted to read. Make a list! Then go online to the local library and reserve a few books. Don’t have a library membership? Contact the library in your area and find out how to become a member!

If money is tight, think about buying books at thrift stores or secondhand bookstores. You might find some great titles at low prices!

how to improve your child's reading skills

Set a Goal…But Be Realistic

Parents or teachers may encourage children to set a reading goal. Adults can do the same. Maybe the goal is based on minutes, pages or chapters. Setting a goal could help with accountability.

Try not to go overboard with goals, though. While setting big goals is admirable, don’t make them unreasonable. If it’s been years since a book was opened, you might need to start off lighter. Every reader is different. Some of us read slowly, others can fly through books. Concentration could be an issue, and it’s ok to go back and reread. Figure out what works, but be kind to you! Remember…reading is fun. Don’t make it a job!

Accessorize!

How in the world do you accessorize a book? Bookmarks! Little things can boost the mood. Think about walking through a park and spotting that first spring flower. Or seeing a rainbow after a big storm. Create a little happiness and design a bookmark to keep track of the pages. Or go buy one.

Yes, you could grab a paperclip, but creating a bookmark is a nice little nod to childhood. Get artsy. Have fun. And let the kids join you. So how do you make a bookmark? It’s simple, and you can buy supplies cheap (dollar stores!). You’ll need:

  • Construction Paper
  • Stencils
  • Glitter
  • Markers
  • Crayons
  • Stickers

Bookmarks can be created by simply cutting a piece of construction paper into strips. Typically, a pad or pack of construction paper includes many hues. Choose your favorite color, and let kids do the same. Then design your bookmark! Maybe it includes your name, monogram or just a crazy design! Have fun!

Read Childhood Favorites

Want to ease into reading again? Start by going backwards…all the way back to childhood. Many of us had favorite books from elementary school that stuck with us decades later. Maybe it was a popular series or just a classic book.

No matter the age, it’s ok to reread literature from our childhood. And, actually, it might be emotionally soothing. There’s something comforting about reading a book or re-experiencing something from childhood. Who says you can’t go back? Books are a window to different worlds, but they also may help transport us back to younger, simpler times.

Hunt down the old favorites!

how to improve your child's reading skills

Create a Family Book Club

Motivate a reading habit in the whole family by starting a family book club. Choose books at a level that everyone in the family can read.

Plan to meet to discuss book options and select several titles for the family to vote. Adults might consider choosing books that also have been adapted into movies. Why? It’s fun to watch how the book plays out as a movie, and the family can compare the two as part of the book discussion. Wait until after everyone finishes the book to watch the movie, though.

Adults can set reading goals for children for finishing the book. The ‘club’ could meet once or twice a week to discuss chapters and the plot. This could be the ideal time to get children to talk about what they’ve read and to discern if they are having any problems reading the book.

Looking for books that have been turned into movies? Imagination Soup offers a fairly comprehensive list of children’s books that have made it to the screen.

What About Yearly Goals?

If about a fourth of American adults haven’t read a single book during the course of the year, how many books should be a yearly goal? Setting a yearly reading goal by aiming to read a set number of books for the year can be a great way to boost reading, too.

Again, though, everyone reads at their pace. And time could be limited. Maybe aim for a book a month? If the book is incredibly long (perhaps 1,000 pages), opt for a little more time…and don’t stress! Twelve books for the year is still a great number. After reading for several months, the pace may quicken and reading could become a beloved habit.

When the Book is…Not Interesting

Sometimes even adults pick a book, read a few chapters and just can’t go on. Do you push through it? Do you opt for something else?

Some books just aren’t what we expect. Not every story, character or plot may resonate. Obviously if a book offends or is simply too much for whatever reason, adults don’t need anyone’s permission to put it down.

Depending on why the story doesn’t resonate may impact if you continue to read it or not. Don’t stress either way. Remember…reading should be fun. This isn’t an assignment!

Fiction or Nonfiction?

Want to keep the literacy journey interesting? Try mixing up fiction and nonfiction books. One month pick a favorite fiction author, the next month pick a book exploring a destination or topic of interest.

Have you always wondered about ancient Egypt? Maybe you wanted to read about a famous person? Grab a biography or choose a book that highlights a destination.

When kids see adults reading a variety of books, it may make them more curious about the world, too! And they may begin to explore their world by reading more books. Start a habit of reading exploration, see where it takes you, and invite kids to go on their own journey!

How Does Your Reading Improve Your Child’s Reading Skills?

Reading can be beneficial to all ages. But how does a parent’s reading habit help improve a child’s reading habit? When parents start reading more or even begin reading daily, this habit could show children that reading is fun and a form of entertainment.

When parents read, perhaps kids begin to simply see the habit as something everyone does. Of course, when children see their parents reading, they also can’t throw back at them: “Why should I read? You don’t read.” Parents of older children might have heard these words.

Parents who begin to adopt a reading habit also may be able to share reading tips. Or maybe parents can share their own struggles and how they overcame those struggles. This could open up conversations about re-reading or chunking text…and how every reader may need to find their own strategies.

Reading also may bridge a gap between generations. Reading the same book can give kids and parents a fun commonality. Parents also can recommend books to their child; maybe rereading a book from childhood makes parents realize that their own child would love the story.

Whether it’s been years or a decade since you opened up a book, now is a great time to peek at the bookshelf, visit the library and hunt down some favorite books. Start your own reading journey and help children discover why reading is so much fun!

Filed Under: Improve Reading Skills

How to Improve Reading Comprehension: 2nd Grade Tips and Ideas

April 16, 2021

how to improve reading comprehension 2nd grade

Parents of second graders may be eying third-grade expectations, and, for some students, third grade may be the beginning of a more demanding curriculum. What reading level should second-graders hit to be prepared for third grade?

According to Scholastic, the reading level for the beginning of third grade is J; this corresponds to a Lexile® of around 520. If a child struggles with comprehension, they may struggle with chapter books in third grade. Here’s how to improve reading comprehension for children in the 2nd grade.

How Can I Improve My Child’s Reading Comprehension?

Whether a child is in 2nd grade or in a higher grade, reading comprehension can affect the understanding of the story or book. If a child reads fluently but is unable to recall the plot or important details, summarize the main ideas or begin to inference (in later grades), they may be struggling with reading comprehension.

Try these tips at home to help children improve their reading comprehension:

Sight Word Scavenger Hunt

In second grade, children probably still have a list of sight words that they are expected to memorize and recognize on sight. Parents can make flashcards with these words to help children identify these words. Sight word scavenger hunts also can turn identifying these words into a game; make a list of the sight words and encourage children to find them during errands.

Ask ‘Wh’ Questions

Parents can read with children and ask key questions about the book after a chapter or every few pages. Focus on the ‘wh’ questions of comprehension: who, what, where, when, why, and how.

Comprehension Bookmarks

In second grade, chapter books may be short. Parents can also encourage children to make a comprehension bookmark to help them ask questions and think about the context of the story as they read. There are many great resources for creating comprehension bookmarks on the web; the site What I have Learned in Teaching offers many great examples. 

Read…Then Re-Read!

Scholastic also recommends that children reread passages to help them with fluency and understanding. Even adults sometimes need to reread paragraphs or maybe even multiple pages if they lose their focus while reading. It’s always ok to go back and reread for understanding. This could become a good strategy for children who need repetition to gain mastery.

how to improve reading comprehension 2nd grade

What are the Seven Reading Comprehension Strategies?

Parents may wonder how teachers provide guidance to help children master reading comprehension. Reading Rockets includes seven strategies for helping with reading comprehension; the article is geared to the classroom. However, parents could integrate these strategies at home. The list of strategies includes:

Monitoring Children

According to Reading Rockets: “Research shows that instruction, even in the early grades, can help students become better at monitoring their comprehension.” While this is geared towards teachers, parents can monitor and help children better understand where they struggle. Then children and parents can create solutions to aid those struggles. This could include rereading or other helpful aids.

Metacognition

What does this mean? Basically, the site explains that it is “thinking about thinking.” Students will peruse what they are about to read and have an idea about why they’re reading the text. Then they will adjust their reading for the text; that is, they may read slower for more difficult material. Children also could ask questions as they read.  Reading Rockets lists a number of strategies for metacognition.

Graphic Organizers

These visual aids could greatly help children with comprehension. And, yes, parents and children can make them at home! Visit Reading A-Z for printable organizers.

Asking Questions

Another strategy from Reading Rockets is Answering Questions. This is beyond the ‘wh’ questions, however. Instead the questions include more intricate reading strategies to test comprehension. These questions, per the site, include:

“Right There:” These can include simple scavenger hunts through the text. Like what is the stuffed bear’s name?

“Think & Search:” The point of these questions is that children need to “search” the text to find the answers. Examples can include questions about a character’s emotions.

“Author & You:” This makes children think about the book or characters and the events. These are ‘why do you think…” types of questions. Reading Rockets used the question: “How do you think a frog felt when he found a toad?” as the example of this strategy.

“On Your Own:” These questions relate personal experiences to the story. For example, a story where the main character’s father loses his job could prompt a question on how a child would feel if this happened to them.

Brainstorming Questions

Children can come up with their own questions about the story and see if they can answer those questions. This could help them test understanding. This could delve back into those key ‘wh’ questions. 

Story Composition

How a story is composed can be a crucial part of comprehension. Reading Rockets focuses this strategy more on the meat of a story—so characters, problem, setting, resolution, etc.

However, to expand on Reading Rockets’ summation, it’s also important that children recognize different types of narration. Some stories include flashbacks or background information. Identifying how narration changes or how points of view change throughout the story may impact comprehension. If a child can’t understand that a story is composed of numerous narrators, they may miss key points of the story.

In Summary

The final strategy, per Reading Rockets, is summarizing. Children need to be able to summarize what they’ve read. Summarizing includes understanding the main ideas and being able to filter out the info that isn’t so important to the story.

how to improve reading comprehension 2nd grade

What Level Reading Should a 2nd Grader Be At?

There isn’t an exact and precise answer regarding ‘what level reading should a 2nd grader be at.” Reading levels typically progress throughout the year, and teachers like to see growth. Scholastic notes that children could begin third grade at a reading level of J. Some children could be reading at a much higher level, others could be below this level.

When should parents be concerned? Every parent is different in what concerns them. However, if a parent notices that their child doesn’t seem to be advancing in their reading levels, they might open up a dialogue with the teacher. In addition, standardized tests or reading assessments could indicate that a child is reading below grade level.

Can Reading Apps Help With Comprehension?

Parents who notice their child is struggling with reading comprehension could use tools and resources at home to help them gain proficiency and confidence. Worksheets and apps could help children who perhaps don’t qualify for extra help at school. 

Parents can talk to their child’s teacher about enrichment reading worksheets to use at home. Teachers could have some additional materials that they could send home for enrichment, too. It never hurts to ask!

Parents who feel their child needs one-on-one help also could use a reading app at home. These apps should focus on helping to address the child’s individual struggles, however. While apps designed as games can be fun and entertaining, they might not help a child delve deeper into the context of a story or provide assistance to a struggling reader. 

Readability is designed to provide children with help in both phonics and comprehension. The app includes a built-in AI tutor that provides feedback with pronunciation and helps children when they struggle during lessons. The tutor also asks questions about the story to gauge comprehension. Children advance to a higher level as they show mastery in both reading fluency and comprehension.

How Do Parents Know That an App or Reading Program Works?

Apps and reading programs can be an investment for parents. The cost could be a monthly commitment. Parents may wonder what to expect from their investment. How do you know if an app or program works for the child?

With Readability, parents can access the Parent Dashboard to gain insight about their child’s progress. Via this dashboard, parents can view a child’s progress, current reading level and other pertinent data. Parents can also check to see how long the child used the program.

Data from the dashboard also can be sent to a child’s teacher. Parents can talk to the teacher to inquire about progress at school. While improvement and advancement via the app is important, parents also want to know that the child is making similar progress at school.

Parents also may look for programs that offer a free trial. Not every program will be a fit for every child. Parents should feel empowered to try out a program to ensure that it meets their needs…and can help their child’s unique struggles. Readability offers a free seven-day trial; children have access to all the stories and features in the program for one week at no cost. At the end of this period, parents can decide if they want to continue with a monthly subscription.

Ready to try Readability? Sign up today for a free trial…and get reading!

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