• How can we as educators help parents in supporting their child to develop learning skills when it comes to the higher demands necessary for reading & writing grade-level standards and expectations?

This is a question that many teachers struggle with every year in our schools. The focus of this blog post is to provide free printable grade level resources (see grade level table below) and a few talking points to consider when speaking to parents.

In everyday interactions with children, there are many things that parents can do without lecturing or applying pressure to help children learn to be better readers and communicators.  Developing a child’s desire to learn is one of the greatest gifts we can give.

Providing Positive Reinforcement

We need to also remind parents that all to often the answer to “where can I go for help?” is often sitting in at bottom of the child’s backpack. Parents can help their child by just asking their child to see their math textbook on a regular basis. Working with their child to look for how the textbook explains a concept can greater help student in their time of struggle to know that a resource is always within arm’s reach.

What a valuable lesson for students to discover that answers come not from magic, but from reading and thinking and struggling to understand a sentence or passage in a book they have ready and available.

If parents actively praise and value the effort their youngster makes in pursuing understanding, the youngster gets the message that the struggle is important. They can feel pride and confidence that is significant even when understanding is slow in coming. Parents can have a great impact on helping their child by reviewing the work students are completing on a regular basis. Just asking your child to explain the work that they did can go a long way in helping them to internalize and become more comfortable with reading and writing.

Attached below Teach & Kids Learn (TKL) has provided grade-level parent activity guides which can be printed and provided to your parents or you can just share this article.