Getting parents and children off to a strong
start in reading
A In
recent years literacy experts have expressed concern that children are
not reading enough for pleasure and that many youngsters are never read
to by their parents. They claim that children who are left to fill their own
time, watching TV and playing computer games may be at a serious disadvantage
later on in life. In an effort to offset
this alarming trend a Czech NGO is organizing an annual week of events to
provide inspiration for a habit that may turnaround a child’s life.
B Once a
year it is Czechs Read to their Kids Week – a series of reading events in
hundreds of locations around the country. The tradition was established in 2007
by Eva Katrušáková and has gained increasing popularity. I asked Eva how the
idea emerged. “I would say that everyone has been looking for a way to bring
children back to reading books. Originally, the idea came from abroad from Jim
Trelease. He has been promoting the idea of reading aloud to children
for many years in the United. We all know that reading is good, but maybe some
of us don’t realize how important it is to a child’s development. It positively
effects a child’s emotional development, improves their language skills and
thinking abilities, it develops their memory and imagination, improves
their attention span, deepens their
knowledge. “
C
Do you feel that parents have stopped
reading aloud to their children? “Well, maybe stopped is
not the right word, but many of them think that if they put their child if
front of the TV or give them a computer game it is the same as reading aloud to
them – and that is simply not true.“
D
How have children responded to all this? “Oh,
the kids are really great. We bring them songs, short readings aloud, theatre
plays and what is uppermost in our minds is that reading should always be a
pleasure for a child, for any child, and never a compulsory thing, a punishment
or a boring experience. So we try to keep them happy when we prepare programmes
for them. And when Mr. Jiří Labus or Mr. Zdeněk Svěrák read for the kids they
simply love it.”
E
Are parents receptive to the message that
you are spreading? Have you seen signs of positive change since 2007? “It
is a strong annual reminder which is good because parents sometimes forget
about the need to read to their children. We don’t have any numbers yet, but we
can see how many people, institutions, schools, kindergartens, mother centres
and literary cafes are involved in the project – so we know that it is
worth doing.“
Adjusted to (1)
offset – vyrovnat, vykompenzovat
span – doba, rozpětí
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to
a paragraph.
1 Children sit at the TV instead
2 Children aren’t fond of reading, which should be
changed
3 Many people are involved in the project
4 The idea of reading aloud to children comes from the
US
5 Children are pleased because it isn’t compulsory
2) Read the article and answer the questions.
1 What do literacy experts say? Why are they worried?
2 What is Czechs Read to their Kids? Where does this idea come from?
3 Why do parents read less to their children?
4 What are children’s reactions? Why?
5 How has the approach towards reading changed since
2007?
3) Explain the following words and phrases.
1 literacy experts
2 reading enough for pleasure
3 reading aloud
4 it develops their memory and imagination
5 literary cafes
4) Answer the following questions.
Why should we read to children? How often? What
happens when we read to them? What is Celé Česko čte dětem project? How does
our school participate? Where?
Video:
Tips, sources of information:
Source:
(1)https://goo.gl/zj7NEfLAZAROVÁ,
Daniela. Getting parents and children off to a strong start in reading. Český
rozhlas [online]. 2015 [cit. 2015-09-21]. Available at:
http://radio.cz/en/section/panorama/getting-parents-and-children-off-to-a-strong-start-in-reading--1
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