Monday, November 10, 2014

Young Reader's Day ~Suzy Leopold

Celebrate Young Reader's Day

Young Reader's Day is an annual event celebrated on the second Tuesday in November. It is a worldwide event. This year, this special day, takes place on November 11th.
Lane, Charlotte and Lily
in Oma's Book Nook
Celebrate the love
of literacy with children
Just ten days ago, National Book Lover's Day was celebrated on the first day of November. As writers of children's picture books, you may not need an excuse or a reason to read. 

Young Reader's Day . . . 

Is a day to celebrate 
the love of reading. 

Is a day to celebrate 
reading with children.

Celebrate Reading with Children
With my teaching experience as a Reading Specialist and a certified Reading Recovery Teacher, and a teacher of ELLs [English Language Learners], of hundreds of students over the years, I can share with you, that learning how to read is a complex process. Learning how to decode symbols to derive meaning is a complex interaction between the student and the text. This is all shaped by the child's attitude, experiences, prior knowledge, and foundation in the student's native language. Reading is about language acquisition, sharing ideas and information, and communication. 

Watching struggling students crack the code and learning how to read equals student success. I always felt that a student's success was my success. Teaching a student how to read is building a child's foundation and preparing the student for the future.
Celebrate National
Young Readers Day
Many schools will celebrate five days of reading during National Young Readers Week, sponsored by Pizza Hut Book It! NYRW is an annual event that was co-founded by Pizza Hut in 1984. I recall distributing hundreds of Pizza Hut Book It Club! certificates to students who achieved a reading goal. The kids were always pleased to redeem their certificate for a personal size pizza.
Homemade Pizza
Reading is typically an individual activity. Today, consider sharing some time and books as read alouds with young readers. Continue to practice, develop, and refine reading with children.
Joshua, Jaxon and Henry
reading with Oma Sue
Consider giving a book to a child or a grandchild on Young Reader's Day. The gift of a book is an intelligent investment in a child's future.

Celebrate Young Reader's Day 
together by reading 
to children and with children.

12 comments:

  1. I hope you're celebrating as well, Suzy, for all the kids you've helped teach to read! Great post!

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    1. Enjoy celebrating Young Reader's Day with your daughter and son, Tina as you read with them.

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  2. What a wealth of knowledge and experience you have with children's literature. We are lucky to have you to share it with us. You are not only a fantastic Oma, but an advocate for children's literature. Thank you for sharing it all with us!

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    1. Thank you, Todd. Your kind words warm my heart.

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  3. Oma, you are the best.Love the pics you posted. I had never known how difficult it was to "teach" reading since i was a 7th grade English teacher. When I became a K-12 librarian and worked w/the young ones, it became more clear. Now as a volunteer for a reading interventionist - it is an amazing process and very complicated. My teaching hat is off to you!

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  4. Kathy: Seventh graders and most middle schoolers are a cool, unique group of students. Sometimes this age group feels *too cool to read.* Suggesting book recommendations and encouraging the kids to read a variety of genres usually changed their minds, as they discovered that reading truly is cool.

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    1. Oh, Garden Girl, i know it. I taught 7th grade for 17 years and most of them liked reading by the time they were done w/me.

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    2. Well, I respect you for teaching middle schoolers how to read for seventeen years. My experience with this age group was five years, Kathy.

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  5. How wonderful for all of those children you've brought to reading, Suzy!

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    1. Patty: Sharing the love of reading with students and kids is my passion.

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  6. Appreciations to your starting this week's celebration here, Suzy.
    And also thanks for your info & great links - I followed them - to Reading Recovery.
    I learned a lot with this post.

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  7. And you, too are appreciated, Jan. Thank you for taking time to connect to the links that I shared. I am pleased to know that you acquired new knowledge. ~Suzy

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