Literacy On The Go

As parents, we're all busy, and sometimes adding extra home practice can seem overwhelming! One of the easiest things to do is implement "Literacy on the Go." When you're in the car or waiting around can be some of the most powerful learning time. In her book, Reading in the Wild, Donalyn Miller recommends "reading on the edge." If you're reading on the edge, you use all the little minutes in between. We can grow this concept from just reading to literacy. What if all Thompson students were doing "Literacy on the Edge?" Whether you're waiting at the doctor's office, riding in the car, or waiting in line to vote or ride your favorite ride, try to make literacy a part of it by playing a game, reading a book, or singing a literacy song. Below are some suggestions for doing just that.

Tips for parents

Read to them!

Read to them always and often! This may seem like a simple suggestion, but it is one of the most powerful ones! Reading to your children gives them access to written language that is more advanced than their reading ability and their own spoken language. Written English is significantly more complex than spoken language. It contains rich vocabulary and complex sentence structure. By reading to your children, you are supporting their oral language development as well as learning the language comprehension side of The Reading Rope, including background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures, verbal reasoning, and literacy knowledge.

How could you do this on the go?

Listen to audiobooks in the car. Pause it to discuss
- Interesting vocabulary words
- What is happening in the story if it's a story
- Key information if it is a nonfiction piece
- Any time there is a multiple-meaning word or a saying or idiom. You could say something like, "The author said the main character was trying to break the ice. What do you think this means?" Or, the author said, "Anish's sister was under the weather. What does this mean?"
Keep a book in the car. Read it when there is a second adult in the car or when waiting in the car.
Watch a children's book on Youtube and discuss it.
Read in Libby or Hoopla. Both of these apps are supported by our local library. Anyone with a library card can check these books out and send them to your device without even visiting the library.

Play the alphabet game

Play the alphabet game with your kids in the car. You can notice letters and whether they are upper case or lower case. Adjust the game to make it harder or easier depending on the level of your students. You can do this by varying if you play together or compete against each other to get to z first. Another way to vary the difficulty would be if letters need to be found at the beginning of the word only or in any part of the word.

Keep a bin of books in the car

There are so many wonderful benefits of keeping a bin of books in the car! The more time children spend in activities that support their literacy development, the more likely they are to be successful in school.

Consider varying the genre, or type of book, so they are exposed to many types of text. By incorporating nonfiction text, you can support your child in building background knowledge on various topics. Our local libraries have a huge selection of nonfiction children's books to choose from!

Segment and Blend phonemes in a word

This phonemic awareness activity can make a huge difference for students! Basically, all you have to do is say a word, and have them segment the sounds. For early readers start with words with 2 or 3 sounds. As students get older you can try words with 4 or 5 sounds. Here are some example words to try.

For early literacy learners:

For more advanced literacy learners:

clap
stop
scrap
clip
trip
drat
sand
hand
beach

Option 1: Say the word and have students segment the sounds.

Option 2: Say the sounds and have students blend them to make the word.

Sing songs that build literacy together

Singing songs is one of the best ways for early readers to learn basic literacy skills.

“A” is for Apple by Teresa Carpio (alphabet)
C is for Cookie by Sesame Street (alphabet) This song is all about the letter “c”. We have fun singing it and substituting other letters and words to go with each letter.
ABC The Alphabet Song by Dora the Explorer (alphabet) It is a short and clear song of the original tune.
Elmo’s Rap Alphabet by Sesame Street (alphabet)
Letter Sounds by Barbara Milne (letter sounds)
Singing Long Vowel Sounds by Radha (long vowel letter sounds)
Fun With the Rhyme Time Band by Hap Palmer (rhyming)
Tongue Twisters by Jack Hartmann (alliteration)
I Wrote This Song by Nancy Kopman (phoneme substitution)
Apples and Bananas by Raffi (phoneme substitution)

Notice functional text AND talk about it!

When you are outside of the house functional text is all around you! This genre of literacy covers a variety of texts, but you can think of it as text that has a function or purpose. Here are some examples:

Menus at restaruants
Signs on the road
Websites
Maps
Charts
Graphs
Flyers
Infographics
Memes
Advertisements
Voting flyers for candidates

When you see text like this, discuss it with your kids. Ask, "Why do you think the author wrote this? What is the purpose?" For younger students, you can talk about what you notice or what information you get from the text. For older students, you can ask more complex questions. For example, if I only have 20 dollars, how many cheeseburgers can I purchase for our family for lunch? If I want to pick one item from each section of the menu, which items do you think I should I choose? Why would you choose those?

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