Unlocking the Keys to Reading with Your Child

Taping "Literature Links" at Allen E.S. in Medford, NJ

My wife Lauren and I make an effort to read with our children each night before bed. Most of the parents I know do the same because it's no secret that reading proficiency is fundamental to success in life. However, it wasn't until I started working on a segment for Classroom Close-up, NJ entitled "Literature Links" that I realized I could be helping my children get a lot more out of our reading time.

The story is about a parent book club at Milton H. Allen Elementary School run by teacher, Amy King. In the club, parents learned how to encourage comprehension strategies with their children using techniques from the book 7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It! by Susan Zimmerman.

The foundation of the book is that it's comprehension, not the simple ability to decode words, that defines reading proficiency. This may seem like an obvious statement, but in reviewing the book prior to taping the story, I realized I was often guilty of not ensuring that my kids were fully comprehending what they were reading or what was being read to them. I'm now making an extra effort to try and use the 7 Keys to make sure my children are getting the most out our reading time.

The easiest technique I picked up was simply to start asking more questions during our reading to help them comprehend.

• Do you know what that word means?
• What do you think will happen next?
• Does that remind you of anything that's happened to you?
• What do you think that looks like?

Like I said, it seems obvious, but I realized that sometimes it's too easy to just plow through a story with my child like a chore, rather than taking a little extra time to teach. Another insight I picked up while covering this story was that when a child demonstrates early reading proficiency, parents sometimes tend to back off of using comprehension strategies. Because children can decode words with little effort, we let them start reading on their own more and more, without making sure they understand what they're reading. I see this happen with my own daughter. She can read a paragraph to me, pronouncing every word correctly, even if she's not sure what it really means. Or she can read a story, but not have the background knowledge to really synthesize what she's reading. For example, she's reading The Boxcar Children, but has little or no knowledge of the Great Depression.

The tag-line for Classroom Close-up, NJ is, "Great Things are Happening in New Jersey's Public Schools" and while the show does indeed showcase the great things happening in our schools, it also hopes to inspire and teach by showing examples of programs that make a difference. I think "Literature Links" is going to be one of those stories. It definitely taught me a thing or two.

The Classroom Close-up, NJ episode with the Literature Links story will air Monday at 7 pm and on Saturday at 9 am on April 25, 30 and May 23, 28 on NJN.

I'm Sorry to Tell You, but Your Shoot Has Been Eliminated

Outside the Princeton Public Library on Thursday, January 27, 2011

We've had a bit of a snow thing going on lately.  This means I get to spend some extra time with the kids and experience the full joy of living in a street parking neighborhood.

Snow is also the reason I'm not writing to you about the awesomeness that would have been the Classroom Close-up, NJ shoot for Making Stuff at Princeton University. This enormous event for nearly 1000 middle school students tied to the 4-Part Nova series of the same name was canceled due to weather.

I can't tell you what would have happened at Making Stuff, but I can tell you I was looking forward to it because the taping agenda reminded me of one of my all-time favorite assignments, Envirothon .

The NJ Envirothon was also a big event with hundreds of participants where rather than try to document everything, we decided to follow a small group of students from start to finish (this was the same plan I had for last week's non-shoot).

Not me.

However, Envirothon also had the added bonus of being a science competition, so I decided to take a crack at editing it Amazing Race style. And while I'm definitely no Elise Doganieri, Bertram van Munster or Phil Keoghan, I could not have cast a more entertaining group of students to follow. I don't think their team even came close to winning, but they totally made the segment work.

Another added bonus was that it was really warm the day we shot Envirothon.

And it didn't snow.

Learning to Be Fearless

Back in November I met a group of students from Absegami High School at the NJEA Convention in Atlantic City. They were there to do an interview with CNN's Soledad O'Brien for their school's news program, Gami TV. You may recall that I was really impressed with their work.

Well, one of the things I've learned in this business is that one thing always seems to lead to another.

Wanda, the executive producer of Classroom Close-up, NJ was just as impressed as I was and decided we should do a story about Absegami's Media program for our show.

So yesterday, I got up bright and early to make the 80 mile trek down to South Jersey in time to catch Gami TV's morning newscast, hang out in some classes, and talk to these students and teachers about their media program. It's impressive. Three levels of elective classes being taught to nearly 200 students. A 14-minute live daily newscast — the real deal — not just the announcements. More editing stations than they have at NJN. And an advanced course in filmmaking to top it off. No wonder the group I met in AC were so sharp, they're in a college-level media program.

But the best part about the program is that it's not about teaching kids how to succeed in the TV business. Sure, they walk out of high school with more hands-on experience than some college grads, but they also gain skills to help them succeed in anything. Things like public speaking, interviewing, and experience working in teams on complex projects. Not to mention the ability to handle the pressure of a deadline-driven environment. They learn to be fearless.

The Classroom Close-up, NJ episode with the Gami TV story will air Monday at 7 pm and on Saturday at 9 am on April 11, 16 and May 9, 14 on NJN.   

And check out the intro to the Gami TV news that I found over on Vimeo.