Jim Trelease "The Read Aloud Handbook"

Jim Trelease, author of the "The Read Aloud Handbook", spoke in southern CA at the conclusion of his final circuit of lecturing before retirement. Here are my notes, but you can get much more information from his website: http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/ and even more from reading his book: http://www.amazon.com/Read-Aloud-Handbook-Sixth/dp/0143037390/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204674596&sr=8-1
But you don't have to take MY word for it...

1/30/08

*Children spend 900 hours in school a year… and 7,800 hours out of school. Schools should not be held responsible for all learning. Home is where learning starts.

*In the 70's collage attendance was 43% female, 57% male- now reversed.

*Reading is an acquired skill. The more experience we have with it, the better we get. Read to your children, especially when they can read themselves. Read to teens while they do dinner dishes.

*We only choose to do things we like. Reading needs to give more pleasure than pain for children to choose it.

*Listening vocabulary (what we gain from listening) pours over to our speaking, reading, and writing vocabularies. We can say or write a word that we've never heard. Example: Man in audience asked if he spoke Chinese. He said no. Why not? He doesn't hear Chinese regularly- wouldn't know the words he never hears.

*"Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American children: by Betty Hart and Todd Risley http://www.amazon.com/Meaningful-Differences-Everyday-Experience-American/dp/1557661979 Read to children from birth so they regularly hear spoken word- vocabulary grows.

*Three B's for a good reading environment at home:B- Books (have a good variety in the home)B- Bedlamp (What kid doesn't want to go to bed? Let them stay up to read for a set amount of time)B- Baskets- keep books all over the house, in places kids are sitting (bathroom, kitchen table)

*Story of Ben Carson- http://www.usdreams.com/Carson.html

*TV- can be good- like medicine, TV needs to have access limited and dosageElementary children get 1460 hrs of screen time/year.Finland has highest literacy rate, yet children are not allowed to be taught to read until they are seven years old, and then only half day school. Finland uses closed captioned TV to watch US television shows. The children learn to read fast so they can know what is going on in the shows. We can also used cc on our TV's for everyday watching and the words will become more familiar to children watching.

*Book updates- some books not in the anthology-
The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster: A Tale of a Picky Eater
A Day's Work by Eve Bunting (Jim: "There is no shortage of smarter people. The real shortage is in better people")
Henry's Freedom Box by Kadir Nelson
The Water Horse by Dick King Smith
The SOS File-Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda (for children too young for Harry Potter)
Invention fo Hugo Cabaret by Brian Selznick
Thomas in Danger
Tucket's Travels by Gary Paulsen
Where the Sidewalk Ends (classic poetry for kids)