“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” (Shaull, 2003, p.34)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Reading Books Online

Parents should strive to read at least one book together with their children everyday. When reading the book, discuss the words and illustrations with your child. Reading together is so much more than just verbalizing the printed words for your child. Ask who, what, where, when, how and why questions to help your child delve deeper into the text, enhancing their comprehension of the story and the bigger ideas behind it. Ask questions that help your child make the following connections to literature:

*text to text - comparing the ideas in the text to another familiar story (e.g., This book reminds me of the other book we read about a moon. It was called "Goodnight Moon".)
*text to self - comparing the ideas in the text to one's own life (e.g., This story is about a boy who hates brushing his teeth. That's like me! I didn't like brushing my teeth when I first learned how because the toothbrush tickled my mouth.)
*text to world - comparing the ideas in the text to a bigger, worldly idea (e.g., The children in this book recycle their paper. We should recycle the paper in our house too in order to make the world a cleaner place.)

I stumbled upon an excellent website today that provides hundreds of books for free online. It's called Big Universe. Check it out!

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