Scrub-a-Dub-Tub: Ready to Read : One Size Doesn't Fit All

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Ready to Read : One Size Doesn't Fit All

I have alway believed that there is more than one way to get a kid excited about reading. Just like finding a diet that sticks, or really, truly, permanently give up smoking, it may take several attempts to truly find the answer. What motivates one person, won't work for someone else.

The important thing is to be open to and try different approaches. Somewhere out in the universe is the spark that will light up your child's world and hook them on reading. The idea is to complement your child's interest and help them find success for themselves. Don't compare him to Johnny, who is "already" reading ... or rabidly follow the process Susie's mother used to get her daughter to read.

For some of us, it's fun to sit down and read with our kids. We feel confident in our ability to guide our child. But that's not true for all of us, whether it's time to offer or personal confidence to teach. Well, several months ago we had a chance to play with a product called the One Minute Reader(tm). I recently found it again when I was cleaning up my office.

I sat down, opened it back up, and started to look at it again. We've been getting a lot of requests to help high school students who aren't at-level for reading for their grade. And it's been hard to find topics sophisticated enough (and at their reading level) that will engage them.

The One-Minute Reader(tm) system has potential for this target audience. It is perfect for school or at home. The story is only one page (with pictures), so it doesn't require a long attention span. There are games/activities and an audio CD to complement (and reinforce). And last but not least, there are charts for monitoring progress. Teens are generally competitive ... and they can compete with themselves AND see progress, too.

What caught my eye is the variety and the fact that the stories are non-fiction. Each of them is non-fiction. Each of the five books has five stories to choose from, and there are all kinds of non-fiction topics, from science to geography, athletes to mythology.

NOTE: This is not an advertisement or endorsement for a specific product. It is information offered solely for the purpose of letting individuals working with at-risk readers know about a reading tool.