Literacy Lava (Magazine Review)

There is much information and resources available on the topic of literacy. Recently, however, I found a wonderful ezine (electronic magazine) called Literacy Lava. It is geared toward parents and is filled with creative and insightful ideas and activities for supporting children’s reading, writing and communication. 

Cover of Literacy Lava, Issue 4, an ezine with reading and literacy articles and activities

This month’s issue covers topics such as tips on encouraging writing, boys who love to read, themed baskets for learning and how to nurture creative thinking.  The varied activities can easily be done at home with parent and child. Past issues covered topics such as motivating reluctant readers, importance of reading aloud and linking math and literacy. 

Literacy Lava is put together by a team of teachers, writers and literacy advocates. Their philosophy include among others: to help children to read so that they can read to learn, modeling reading and writing in daily life, and to read to children everyday. 

You can download your own free copy of this month’s issue of Literacy Lava (and the past three issues as well) here.

Motivating a 9 year old boy to read

Sometimes, as children grow up, reading becomes less a part of their lives. If they are school aged children, they tend to read only for academic purposes. Reading as a form of recreation and entertainment is minimal and sadly at times, absent altogether. But this shouldn’t be so. Most of the time, children simply need to be motivated enough to enjoy reading. Once they enjoy reading as an activity, it can become a natural part of everyday living.

Recently I shared the following tips with a parent for getting her 9-year-old son motivated to read:

– Start off by reading aloud to your child. Reading aloud is not only for very young, it can be done and is just as beneficial for older children. One parent even read to his almost adult children every evening! Let your child sit with you so that he can see the text and pictures, if any.  In this way your child doesn’t have to expend the effort to read on his own but will benefit from listening to you. He will learn new words, follow the development of a plot, understand expression and intonation of voice all just by listening as you read to him. Use the opportunity to discuss the meaning of any new words you come across (keep a dictionary nearby for checking the meaning of new words while you read).  If possible set aside some time every day to read aloud to him, even if it is just 10 minutes. Bedtimes are usually a good time for reading aloud to your child.

There are many books out there available that make great read-alouds for a 9-year-old. Some Islamic oriented books are: The Invincible Abdullah series by Uthman Hutchinson. This is an adventure story that could be read aloud a chapter at a time every day/night. Also by the same author are In Anger and The New Kid (which are the last two books in the “American Family Series“, short stories for ages 6 – 11).  An easy read is the chapter book, Umar and the bully by Shabana Mir. While, Ahmad Deen and the Curse of the Aztec warrior  by Yahiya Emerick is great as well.  In terms of general fiction, great read alouds are Fantastic Mr.  Fox and Charlie and the Chocolate factory by Roald Dahl. Poems too, are great for reading aloud. Islamic collections of poems include Muslim poems for children by Mymona Hendriks and Muslim child by Rukhsana Khan includes several poems along with short stories. Any general collection of poems by Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein are great.

– If you allow your child to watch television or DVDs, then you can motivate him to read by allowing him to view a movie based on a book only after he has read the book. After he has read the book and watched the movie, talk about how characters are portrayed and how plots develop in different media. There are many books made into movies but some good ones are Stuart Little by E. B. White, The Borrowers by Mary Norton and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (the old version).

– Subscribe to magazines for him to read. Magazines are great for children since without realizing they become informed while reading. Moreover, the arrival of something new in the mail each month just for him will make him feel special.

There are a few Islamic children’s magazine available online such as Muslim Kids Journal and Truths for Kids. General print magazine include Highlights (stories and puzzles); and Cobblestone Publishers which produce several magazines for various age groups in science, literature, history and cultures.

– Take your child to the library to browse and see what takes his interest. If he finds something he likes, then get a library card (call ahead so that you walk with the required documents, if any, for becoming a member) and let him borrow it.

– Sometimes you may find that your child’s interest in non-fiction books is greater than that for fiction. Books about animals, plants, space, machines or any other subject provide children with lots of information as well as develop his reading ability. The “Tell Me About” series of books from Goodword provides information about Islam in an attractive way using facts, history, geography and science.

Whether it is comics or non-fiction, any reading a child does on his own, is still a step in a positive direction. This coupled with your reading aloud of some fiction would help him have an enjoyable reading experience, insha’Allah (God Willing).

Tongue Twisters a tool for developing Literacy

Tongue twisters are a great way to help children develop their reading and spelling skills. A tongue twister is a sentence or phrase that is difficult to pronounce or enunciate. Some tongue twisters contain alliterative (repeating of a sound) words and some use rhyme, others use a combination of both. Either way, tongue twisters are generally somewhat tricky to pronounce. Saying a tongue twister requires care in pronunciation of the words. The challenge comes in repeating the phrase or sentence at least three times but up to ten is even possible.

Tongue twisters may seem like play rather than learning; but children learn a great deal through play. Many tongue twisters are silly phrases and sound funny when they are said. They surely produce a lot of fun and laughter, making them a great way for them to enhance a child’s reading. In addition, “tongue twisters are not only for light-hearted linguistic fun and games. They serve a practical purpose in practising pronunciation. English tongue twisters may be used by foreign students of English to improve their accent, actors who need to develop a certain accent, and by speech therapists to help those with speech difficulties.”(see Fun with Words) 

According to this website, preschool children benefit a great deal from saying tongue twisters:

Repeating tongue twisters helps preschoolers to hear the sounds that make up the words, which helps them recognize those words better. Learning to read, and spell are interconnected, and much more complex than we know. Repeating tongue twisters can help establish a sound foundation for spelling and reading.

Here are a some books that provide a wide selection of tongue twisters that will be a great addition to your home, school or classroom library:

Fox in socks and Oh, Say can you say? by the reknowned Dr. Seuss, consists almost entirely of rhyming tongue-twisters. These books are great for 4 – 8 year olds, with the four year olds prefering to listen to you read them the tongue twisters. Confident five year old readers may try reading aloud these tongue twisters. As they grow older, children will have enjoy the challenge of reading the tongue twisters themselves.

Busy buzzing bumblebees and other tongue twisters by Alvin Schwartz is a collection of over forty tongue twisters that make a great read aloud choice for young children (4-6). Use it as a transition between lessons or to share a laugh over the tangles your tongue can get into saying the rhymes.

She sells seashells: a tongue twister story by Grace Kim is a unique book in that it takes several tongue twisters and weave them into a story.  So we meet the girl who sells the seashells, Peter Piper and Betty Botter and enjoy saying the funny rhymes that tell their story. this book is great as a read aloud. It’s rated by Scholastic as a Level 3 easy reader. One teacher mentioned that she found it to be much to challenging for her grade one class. But she did say that more experienced readers would enjoy the story as they try to say the tongue twisters out loud.

Here are some samples of tongue twisters you may know.

Many of us know of this tongue twister (which happens to be a great one for young children):

She sells seashells by the seashore 

The shells she sells are seashells I am sure 

So if she sells seashells by the seashore 

I am sure that the shells are sea shore shells.

Here are a few quick tongue twisters for any age group (ask your child/student to say these 10 times without stopping!):

A big bug bit the little beetle, but the little beetle bit the big bug back.

A plain bun, a plum bun, a bun full of plums.

Friendly fleas and fire flies.

Chester Cheetah chews a chunk of cheddar cheese.

Six slippery snails slid slowly seaward.

Two toads tittered till totally tired.

What about some quick Islamic oriented tongue twisters? Well, I have a few quick tongue twisters for you:

Masud went to the masjid for Maghrib.

Harun and Hilmy hurried home for hummus and halwa.

These tongue twisters are great for slightly older children (6 and up):

Whether the weather be fine
or whether the weather be not.
Whether the weather be cold
or whether the weather be hot.
We’ll weather the weather
whatever the weather
whether we like it or not.

Yellow butter, purple jelly,
red jam, black bread.
Spread it thick, say it quick!
Yellow butter, purple jelly,
red jam, black bread.
Spread it thicker, say it quicker!
Yellow butter, purple jelly,
red jam, black bread!

A flea and a fly in a flue
were imprisoned,
so what could they do?
Said the flea, “Let us fly!”
Said the fly, “Let us flee!”
So, they flew
Through a flaw in the flue.

Have lots of fun with these tongue twisters and if you know of a tongue twister, please send it in, and I will post it, insha’Allah (God willing).