Third grade is the year kids are expected to go from 鈥渓earning to read鈥� to 鈥渞eading to learn.鈥� It sounds so easy, doesn鈥檛 it? As if by spending enough days sitting at their desks, third graders will magically make the switch. For most kids, though, the change from learning how to read to reading to learn can be very difficult.
To help your child make this big change in reading, by all means, keep reading to him, and having him read aloud or by himself. But there鈥檚 one more way to help your child read to learn that may come as a surprise: Talk with him! Have conversations full of all kinds of words (he鈥檚 not a baby anymore, so don鈥檛 hold back on using big words conversations that build vocabulary than by focusing on decoding strategies.
So to make sure your child doesn鈥檛 fall behind when it comes to reading to learn: 1) Read challenging books aloud to him; 2) Use words he doesn鈥檛 know; 3) Talk about big topics like what鈥檚 going on in the world, history, or whatever he鈥檚 interested in, whether that鈥檚 sports or space rockets or animals.
