Denise Brennan-Nelson visited with us today. She encouraged the kids to learn to write about things that they are passionate about. I love to see authors coming in to our elementary schools because they bring something alive that seems so unattainable to kids. It was a good experience and it just persuades me more and more that the key to making our kids into good writers is for them to love to write. After the visit, I took some time to show them that I love to write and I wrote for twenty minutes while they wrote. The most powerful thing that kids can see is that adults are passionate about the things that we ask them to do.
We ask kids to read 20 minutes every day. I have been having reading interviews with the kids and it is amazing how much the assessment data lines up with kids who read a lot and kids who are too busy to read. Practice makes a huge difference when it comes to reading. The other question I ask kids when I do my interview is how many people do you see reading in your home. Kudos to the parents that set aside some time to read while their kids read. It makes a huge impact when your kids know that reading is important to you. I know that they don't always see our reading when we are keeping up with news and other things on our mobile devices, but make it a point to show your kids that reading is an important part of your life also. You can't underestimate how much of an impact that has on kid's lives.
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