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DEVELOPING A LOVE OF READING
A central goal of the Institute's curricula is to foster a love of reading and a deep engagement with books at all stages of development. Young children who have a strong, positive relationship with books are excited and motivated about learning to read, and do so with greater ease and success. Older students who develop a love of reading reap tremendous personal and academic benefits throughout their lives.
READING ALOUD TO CHILDREN
Reading aloud is the key to instilling a love of reading in young children. As they listen, they enter into the world of the story, imaginatively participating in the characters' adventures. When children are read to regularly, they come to associate reading and books with the love they receive from their parents. They develop a strong, positive relationship with books that becomes lifelong source of pleasure and meaning.
Children who are read to on a regular basis learn to read earlier and with fewer struggles. Even after children can read independently, they benefit greatly from listening to longer, more difficult books that they aren't yet able to read by themselves.
Reading development curriculum designed by the Institute provides parents of young children with guidance and practice reading aloud to their children. It also provides an extensive booklist that summarizes hundreds of fine picture books and chapter books for reading aloud at every age.
ABSORPTION IN BOOKS
As children become independent readers and achieve fluency and strong comprehension, they develop the capacity to become absorbed in books. An absorbed reader identifies with an author's main character and imaginatively shares in the character's experiences and adventures. The pleasurable experience of being absorbed in a book is its own reward. It also has a lasting impact - absorption is the basis for a lifelong love of reading that motivates children to read more and prepares them for the academic challenges that lie ahead.
Institute curriculum fosters absorption in readers in several ways. It integrates skills development with reading and discussing classic works of juvenile literature, with the aim of deepening students' engagement with books. The curriculum is designed so that a student does the wide reading necessary to build fluency and comprehension and achieve absorption. At each level, the curriculum includes a reading development booklist with the best of children's literature divided by level of difficulty. Students receive individualized guidance about their book level, so they are set up to succeed and become avid readers.
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