Getting parents and children off to a strong
start in reading
A
In recent years literacy experts have expressed concern that
children are not reading enough for pleasure and that many youngsters
are never read to by their parents. They claim that children who are left to
fill their own time, watching TV and playing computer games may be at a serious
disadvantage later on in life. In an effort to offset this alarming trend a Czech NGO is organizing an annual week
of events to provide inspiration for a habit that may turnaround a child’s
life.
B
Once a year it is Czechs Read to their Kids Week – a series of reading
events in hundreds of locations around the country. The tradition was
established in 2007 by Eva Katrušáková and has gained increasing popularity. I
asked Eva how the idea emerged. “I would say that everyone has been looking for
a way to bring children back to reading books. Originally, the idea came from
abroad from Jim Trelease. He has been promoting the idea of reading aloud
to children for many years in the United. We all know that reading is good, but
maybe some of us don’t realize how important it is to a child’s development. It
positively effects a child’s emotional development, improves their language
skills and thinking abilities, it develops their memory and imagination,
improves their attention span,
deepens their knowledge. “
C Do you feel that
parents have stopped reading aloud to their children? “Well,
maybe stopped is not the right word, but many of them think that if they put
their child if front of the TV or give them a computer game it is the same as
reading aloud to them – and that is simply not true.“
D How have children
responded to all this? “Oh, the kids are really great. We bring them songs,
short readings aloud, theatre plays and what is uppermost in our minds is that
reading should always be a pleasure for a child, for any child, and never a
compulsory thing, a punishment or a boring experience. So we try to keep them
happy when we prepare programmes for them. And when Mr. Jiří Labus or Mr.
Zdeněk Svěrák read for the kids they simply love it.”
E Are parents receptive
to the message that you are spreading? Have you seen signs of positive change
since 2007? “It is a strong annual reminder which is good because parents
sometimes forget about the need to read to their children. We don’t have any
numbers yet, but we can see how many people, institutions, schools,
kindergartens, mother centres and literary cafes are involved in the
project – so we know that it is worth doing.“
Adjusted
to (1)
offset – vyrovnat, vykompenzovat
span – doba, rozpětí
1) Read the
article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.
1 Children
sit at the TV instead
2 Children aren’t
fond of reading, which should be changed
3 Many
people are involved in the project
4 The idea
of reading aloud to children comes from the US
5 Children
are pleased because it isn’t compulsory
2) Read the
article and answer the questions.
1 What do
literacy experts say? Why are they worried?
2 What is Czechs
Read to their Kids? Where does this idea come from?
3 Why do
parents read less to their children?
4 What are
children’s reactions? Why?
5 How has
the approach towards reading changed since 2007?
3) Explain
the following words and phrases.
1 literacy
experts
2 reading
enough for pleasure
3 reading
aloud
4 it
develops their memory and imagination
5 literary
cafes
4) Answer
the following questions.
Why should we read to
children? How often? What happens when we read to them? What is Celé Česko čte
dětem project? How does our school participate? Where?
Video:
Tips, sources of information:
Source:
(1)https://goo.gl/zj7NEfLAZAROVÁ,
Daniela. Getting parents and children off to a strong start in reading. Český
rozhlas [online]. 2015 [cit. 2015-09-21]. Available at:
http://radio.cz/en/section/panorama/getting-parents-and-children-off-to-a-strong-start-in-reading--1
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