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NYS READS > Families
 
Welcome to the Families Home Page
 

Families are critical partners in effective literacy education and play important roles in supporting their children’s reading success.  The resources in this section are provided to help encourage, support, and understand the development of literacy skills in young children.  Teachers and educational leaders will find valuable tools with which to engage families in the school community.  Family members will find resources to inform and guide them to take a more active role in developing their children’s literacy.

Below you will find a brief description of the important questions for Families:
  • How can I create a literacy-rich home?
  • How can I find information about government resources?
  • How do I read to my child?
  • What are the key literacy milestones from birth to age 6?
  • What can teachers do to engage families in literacy learning?

 You may scroll down the page to access these descriptions.

 How can I create a literacy-rich home?
Family literacy is the strongest possible foundation for future strong readers, and family literacy exists in literacy-rich homes.  You may ask yourself, "How can I make my home a literacy-rich home?" 

  • Talk to your children, from the time they are born.  Familiarity with language, inflection, vocabulary, listening and responding - these concepts are the earliest building blocks of literacy, and young children, even infants, internalize them simply by interacting and observing your behavior.
  • Read to your children...early and often.  Even infants can benefit and learn from the relaxation and comfort of being held while hearing the gentle sounds of language from story books.  Daily reading sessions can teach fundamental concepts of print (read left to right and top to bottom, hold a book right side-up, turn pages...etc) and have lasting benefits for future language development and love of books.  
  • Teach your child the alphabet (the ABC's song), read alphabet books, play with letter blocks while teaching letter identification and letter sounds
  • Interact with your child.  Play peek-a-boo; recite nursery rhymes.  Nursery rhymes are beneficial on so many levels: rhyming, counting, storytelling...etc.  Count things, identify colors, shapes and sizes.  When reading, ask your child to predict what happens next using clues from the pictures in the book and your child's own experiences.  Questioning/predicting, using picture clues and relating text to personal experience are the bases for future reading comprehension.

For more information about creating a literacy-rich home, click here.

 

 

 How can I find government resources?
This page is being developed.
 

 How do I read to my child?
This page is being developed. 
 

 What are the key literacy milestones from birth to age 6?
This page is being developed. 
 
 
 

 What can teachers do to engage families in literacy learning?
This page is being developed. 
 
 
 


This website is made possible through two contracts with Monroe 1 BOCES (C009985) and Eastern Suffolk BOCES (C009986) and the NYS Education Department - Early Education and Reading Initiatives. The contents of this website do not necessarily reflect views or policies of the NYS Education Department, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the NYS Education Department.
 
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