"My kids read books too fast! So thick a copy of "Grimm's Fairy Tales" read it in two or three days, and I don't know if he understood it in the end? ”
——A parent of a student of the Small Step Reading Program asked
With such concerns, why not just talk to your child about the book he is reading?
Parents may say that after two sentences, they can't talk about anything with their children!
"How did you feel after reading this book?"
"Good value for money"
- The conversation ends
"After reading this story, what do you understand?"
"Be honest and don't lie."
Is there such an awkward chat scene in your house?
Parents know that parent-child reading is very important, and it is important to communicate reading feelings with children, but when it comes to the level of practical operation, you will find that it is still quite difficult.
As a Chinese teacher, we all know that the design of classroom questions should be gradual, step by step, straight down the river, parents may not have so much practical experience, so what are the skills to talk to children about a book in the family environment? What does a good book conversation look like?
Interpretive questions
The question of interpretation is not simply to find answers in books.
If you just ask who happened when, where, and who, the process of communication will be the same as the beginning, and after one round, it will be a bit unsettling. Unlike the information extraction class, interpretive questions require children to integrate, analyze, and sort out the contents of the book.
Like what:
"What is the story you remember most in Grimm's Fairy Tales?"
"Who do you think is the funniest kid in '1st Grade Fresh Things?'"
This kind of question is also suitable for continuing to dig, asking more "why", children can review the content they have read, while recalling their own feelings when reading, so that reading more profound.
There is no standard answer to the question
In "Traces of the Gods", which is suitable for fifth graders, there is a question about the highlights: please tell the children what they think of Bo Yi Shuqi.
These two sages preferred to starve to death because of "righteousness and not eating Zhou Millet".
The author, Mr. Shen Fuyu, also said that they were "pursuing inner peace, obtaining purity and freedom" and that they were "completely independent people with a free heart, perhaps the earliest intellectuals in China."
However, some people think they are stupid, why not use such lofty morality to help King Wu of Zhou to govern the country? Moreover, compared to the tyrant King of the Jiuchi Meat Forest, wasn't King Ji Fa of Zhou Wu more virtuous?
This question is a relatively open question, you can fully agree with Bo Yi Shuqi's approach, you can also think that their behavior is obviously not positive enough, as long as the reason is clear enough to support your point of view.
Similarly, in the first grade monthly book "The Story of the Stupid Wolf", there is a topic: If you are a small animal, would you rather live in the forest or in the zoo?
There is no answer to this question, and it is especially important that parents themselves should not have preferences and guide their children to say that forest life is free. It is completely possible to let the children talk about their own ideas, whether it is a forest or a zoo, each has its own advantages and disadvantages, focusing on the thinking process of comparing advantages and disadvantages.
This kind of open topic is easier for children to express their true thoughts, the views in the book are the author's views, giving the child a larger space, let him feel that I do not have to accept the contents of the book in its entirety, the process of reading is also the process of thinking, which is also a necessary step in the development of independent personality.
Link real-life problems
This kind of problem often extends to the child's familiar life scenes, familiar people, through reading to establish a link to life.
For example, in the second grade monthly "I want to raise a duck", the white duck feels that he is not beautiful because he is fat (in fact, she is pregnant), so he is sullen, and the gray duck will hold his breath to make himself fat like a balloon, and the result is floating into the air, making the white duck feel very cute and funny...
If you also had a friend who was unhappy and unconfident because of his fat stature, what would you think would you do to comfort him?
Coming out of the world in the book, returning to the real world, in such a repeated in-and-out, the understanding of the book will be more profound because of its own unique experience.
Most of the above examples are discussed in the monthly book of the Small Steps Reading Plan, hoping that this will also bring some inspiration to parents to talk about books.
Of course, if you want to talk to your children more deeply, parents still need to do some homework on the content.
The premise is that parents need to read the book, if you only know the name of the book, then no matter how good the problem is, it is difficult to have a continuous and in-depth communication with the child. And if the child happens to like this book, he will be disappointed to find that you don't know anything.
Parents before talking about the book if you can read a book is of course the best, if you really do not have time to read, to find out about the writing background and book reviews of the book is also a more clever way.
END
Parent-child reading: how to read to your child?
How to talk to your child about books and discussions?
Let's listen to the wonderful sharing of Teacher Kong Xiaoyan, a core member of the Mother Tongue General Research Group and the 2015 "Reading Changes China" Annual Lamplighter!