Reading into their children’s literacy skills

Bel Pre event gives parents insights to teaching methods and the learning process

Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo J. Adam Fenster⁄The Gazette Ange Britton, a teacher at Bel Pre Elementary School, works on pronunciation with kindergartners Thursday during her ‘‘Phonemic Awareness” session as part of the Silver Spring school’s Literacy Night.

‘‘I just want to learn more about what the school’s goals are toward reading,” said Cheryl Bridges, a mother of a first-grader at Bel Pre. Bridges also said it aids in her own understanding of how teaching methods have changed. She said often there are new techniques to learning and while she may know the answer to a particular question her son has, she may not know how to explain it.

Learning about methods and techniques for literacy and reading comprehension are important, and that’s why school reading specialist Beverly Belin came up with the event.

‘‘I began this six years ago in an effort to improve parent and school connection ... and give parents an idea of ... how MCPS curriculum is presented to children,” Belin said.

Belin said Literacy Night has always been a success and she has gotten great feedback from many parents. ‘‘They appreciated seeing ... how teachers work with children and getting ideas of how to work with kids at home,” Belin said. ‘‘It was what we hoped.”

In fact, Literacy Night included about 200 parents and children this year and provided two sessions for parents and children. The sessions included topics in reading aloud, shared reading, interactive writing and phonemic awareness, which is the ability to hear and sound out words. There were also special sessions for parents who wanted to learn more about the school problem-solving process and standardized tests like Terra Nova and the Maryland State Assessment. At the end of the night, each student also received a free book.

Barbara Davis of Aspen Hill said she brought her children to Literacy Night to support the school and teachers.

‘‘We just try to support the activities, and the kids always like to come,” she said.

The children were enthusiastic. They were not only able to show their parents around the school but got to interact with the most influential adults in their lives: their parents and teachers.

Dawn Richardson, a kindergarten teacher, allowed her students’ parents to see how she read aloud to the youngsters and how she engaged the students by asking them questions. When students made connections between the story and other things they had seen, done or read, she gave them a lot of positive praise.

‘‘As much as it is important to sit down and enjoy a story, there are so many opportunities that [parents] may be [missing],” Richardson said. ‘‘... We think of reading as being more of a passive experience. ... It’s great for the parents to be talking.”

Stephen Dobbins brought his daughter Morgan to Literacy Night and said that he had never experienced anything like it while living in Albuquerque, N.M.

Morgan Dobbins even said that the session taught her ‘‘not to be afraid to think.”

‘‘That was wonderful,” said Stephen Dobbins. ‘‘It was interactive and dynamic presentation. Ever since day one, we’ve read, but it was really refreshing to see how to incorporate the different techniques.”