- Welcome to Beyond the Classroom on PBS39.

I'm your host, Joe Pacitti, and it's a pleasure to sit down with you this evening.

Raising lifelong readers seems like one of the most daunting tasks a parent will face.

With so many distractions pulling our kids' attention in different directions, sitting down and reading a book silently or out loud for pleasure as an adult or child seems like a rare treat nowadays.

But remember, fluent reading, especially by grade three, is an essential predictor for future success in and outside of the classroom.

Tonight, we'll speak with our guests about raising lifelong readers by exploring book selection and strategies we can all use at home.

Let's get started.

So I want to thank our guests for being here this evening.

This will be a really exciting conversation and I'm looking forward to having it.

So, Jenna and Josh, I'd like to start with you, Jenna.

Can you just introduce who you are, what your role is, and why you're passionate about reading?

My name is Jenna Cole, and I'm a reading specialist in the Allentown School District.

It's my 15th year of working in Allentown.

I started off as a second grade teacher, and I became a reading specialist five years ago.

I love to read.

I love to share that joy with my students.

I get excited when you see a student struggling, and they have that moment where, like, it clicks.

- That's excellent.

Josh?

- I'm Josh Berk.

I'm the executive director of the Bethlehem Area Public Library.

I've worked in libraries for about 20-something years.

I actually come from a family of librarians.

My mom and my dad are both retired librarians.

My dad, actually...

I have my dad's old job.

He was the library director at Bethlehem for 3-4 years.

So I kind of grew up in the library.

My house was always like an extension of the library.

There were absurd number of books around growing up, and I always wanted to be the second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies.

That was my first career goal, but then, like, secondary to that, I knew I wanted to do something with books.

So I ended up both writing books for kids and working in libraries.

- Excellent.

I understand Chase Utley just beat you?

It was very, very close to second base.

- Yeah.

They needed a lefty in the line-up.

- It makes sense, and it happens to the best of us.

So, Jenna, I want to start with you, in terms of developmentally, when we're talking about raising readers at home, I know that folks at home have a lot of questions about how it is a child learns to read.

Can you walk us through kind of big picture?

I know there's a lot that goes into that, just generally speaking, what that continuity of literacy looks like for a child.

- Yeah, so normally we'd start off with something called phonemic awareness.

Phonemes are the sounds in a word.

So, just making sure that students are aware that those sounds go together to make up words, teaching them to rhyme, you know, adding and deleting phonemes just, like, little activities you can do.

They start learning sight words and then putting those together to read sentences.

Typically in grades K to two is where we say we are teaching them how to read.

And then, after that, they're reading to learn.

So it makes that shift where we focus more on comprehension, and all of that.

- OK, so Josh, just to kind of extend that question, I always am wondering for my own kids, as I'm sure that we, you know, all three of us have, what is appropriate literature for my children at home when it comes to that developmental aspect of reading?

Could you talk us through, from the library's perspective, the Bethlehem Area Public Library, how you have that set up, the actual physical space to help encourage kids to select the right book for them?

- Oh, that's a good question.

You know, literally the first thing is the height of the shelves.

So, the lowest books to the floor for kids that size, and then we sort of grow with them as they grow.

I am not a super big fan of some of the leveling that's done by reading level for kids.

Like, you'll get kids who say, "I have to read a book on this "Lexile score or that Lexile score," and they're super laser-focused on it, and they feel like they can't read outside of that, you know, little box.

And I always have been of the mind-set that reading should be fun.

It can be a lot of other things, but it should be fun.

And, if reading something below your level is still fun for you, then it doesn't hurt.

You know, you're still practicing.

You're still learning to love a book.

If you're always reading above, then it becomes frustrating, and then, you know, it's not fun and you don't want to keep doing it.

So, you know, there's a couple of big broad categories of books for kids as they pass through the stages I mentioned.

But, you know, I think it's totally fine to read up for a little and see how it goes, read down if you need that, sort of, comfort and boost.

And, you know, the important thing is just to enjoy what you're reading and find something that is fun for you, because if it's a chore, you know, you won't do it.

But if you make the understanding that learning and reading, in particular, is a way to connect with things you care about and, you know, the world at large and things you love, then you can, you know, spark that joy in a kid.

- So, how do we balance that, Jenna, from your perspective, in the classroom between that academic component of reading and that reading for pleasure?

- And I agree exactly with what he said.

There is a place to have that instructional reading level.

You know, you're sitting down a small group, you want those students to be reading books on their level.

But then, there's also, you're going to read a book that might be a little too hard for you, might have to struggle through it.

But if you enjoy reading that, you know, have someone help you, reading books that are too easy for you because you enjoy it.

And I think any student can be taught to love reading if they find the perfect book for them, like going to a library, you know, comic books and... - Yeah.

So, if I'm walking into a classroom, what is the difference between, let's say, classroom libraries, and the books that you would find at the public library?

What does a classroom library look like?

- So, a classroom library, a lot of them are leveled.

We can steer students to reading those specific books that are on their level.

As a second grade teacher, I always had, you know, around second grade-level, some of it would be a little harder, a little easier.

But obviously I wasn't going to have those big novels that would completely frustrate them if they tried to read them.

Read-aloud books are different.

So, the books that I would read aloud to my students would be a little bit above their level.

So, it would be like that listening comprehension, may not have been able to read that book on their own.

But listening to me read it, they could comprehend it.

- How do those read-alouds function?

I know that there's a lot of programming at the library, Josh, what does that look like for kids?

What kinds of programs you offer to help kids enjoy, rather, and have that experience of hearing other people read to them?

- So, sort of like the classic story time has been part of public libraries for I don't even know how long.

100 years, maybe.

But, you know, and part of that is like the whole getting ready for school of it, and kids, preschoolers coming together, hearing a story, being with their peers, knowing to sit and listen, and just see how the book works, like just that real basic level of understanding.

And then, beyond that, it's, you know...

The librarians really are very thoughtful in the choices of the books that they're going to read, so they're going to find a book that has those rhymes, those phonemic awareness, like, to teach the kids the appropriate step in literacy, but also, things that are fun.

And there's always extension activities, if it's like an art program or if it's a music activity, or something, so that, you know, when the kid thinks about books, they think about all those other things, you know, stories and songs, and seeing their friends, and having fun.

And then, of course, also they're learning to read, and learning to appreciate what that is.

Also it's good for parents to, you know, get out of the house.

When you have toddlers.

it's important to just get out and see other adults.

- Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

No, I've been there on more than one occasion.

When it comes to that idea of inspiring that love of reading, each of you have spoken to, you know, really accurately, I think without that, there's really nothing else that can happen.

If I'm growing up in a house that doesn't have a lot of big readers, so to speak, I'm not really surrounded by books.

It's not something that I'm used to, but I want to get started as a parent, what steps do I take to begin that process at a school level?

- If the parent wants to get interested, I would say go to the library.

You know, I have a Kindle, so I read on my Kindle, and my daughter, she wanted a Kindle so bad so we could read together.

So, that way, you have like endless possibilities of books you can download.

But I would say... And then finding things that you can read with your child, and that can be your time together to read.

Yeah, is there a difference, Josh, between reading on a Kindle and reading a physical copy of a book?

- That's a good question.

I've seen some studies where the like comprehension say, is a little better on paper.

They find that you remember things a little longer.

And I've found that, depending on the kid, the device can be too distracting.

If you're trying to read on your phone and, you're like my kids and like your Snapchat and Instagram, and all your notifications are popping up, like, you're not... My kids are not as young as yours.

But it's hard to focus.

I found that kids that age have been going back to paper, because they just know that there's no way I'm going to get through this, I'm going to be distracted.

They just need to put it down.

You know, that said, a lot of us read.

And if you are interested in the story and you're sucked into it, you know, and you care about it, then I'm sure for many people, that experience is exactly the same.

And I do think that for, you know, yeah, for young kids, too.

I think that just the physical something still about holding the big book and turning the pages is like a valuable skill and some sort of tactile experience, something happens in your brain.

It's a little specifically immersive with print, but... Yeah, I don't know.

That's...yeah.

We've been seeing a lot, we've been really expecting the Kindles to, like, completely overtake print.

And it's just sort of leveled out, like there are people who love it, but it hasn't proceeded to trend upward as rapidly as it seemed when they first were on the market.

- Yeah, and what I appreciate about your library, and most libraries have this, but having that access to digital collections as well through OverDrive.

So I can download things directly if I have a Kindle or things like that directly to my device, correct?

- Right.

- Yeah.

And audio books are great too.

It's great for kids to listen to stores.

It's great for parents.

And that's another thing parents can do with their kids in the car, you know, is listen to a story together.

Some of those are really, the performances are great and the adults can enjoy them.

Parents can enjoy them with your kids, even if you're not a big reader at home.

Maybe you can get in the habit of checking out audio books in the car with your kids or, you know.

- Yeah.

Now, in terms of structure, so you had mentioned the car being one of those places where you can do this.

If I'm at home and I'm trying to find a way to really make reading a structured activity, how would I go about doing that?

- So the first thing I did with my children from the time they were babies is just read to them every night before they even knew what a book was, and I would just read to them.

And now it's something they expect every night.

So if we're late going to bed and I tell them they can't read a story, they get upset because it's just part of our routine, and they look forward to it and it starts from me being to them and then it changes to them.

reading to me and, like, a little bit of both.

But I would say to start out with reading and then finding different activities that you can do with them that are fun, you know, so it's not sitting down making them do things.

We do stuff in the car where even if it's rhyming, we say rhyming words and go around in a circle, see how many times we can rhyme.

If you're at a restaurant and you're waiting for your food to come and the kids are getting a little antsy, doing little activities then.

Even doing bath time is a time where I do phonemic awareness with my daughter.

I know, only a reading specialist would say that, but you know I'll say, like, "Say peach without P," and then she has to say each.

So things like that, just finding stuff that they enjoy.

So if your kid enjoys playing with cars, maybe you'll go outside with sidewalk chalk and you'll write some letters or some words.

And they have to make the chalk go over them and say each letter as they go.

So finding things that they're interested in and making it fun, you know, I've hung sight words up around the house and they have to go slap them with fly swatters, put sight words up your steps every night.

They have to walk up and say the words.

And if they say it correct, they pick it up.

If they get it wrong, they leave it down for the next night.

So it's like that every night, making it a routine to do that.

- So obviously, I'm not saying only reading specialists would do that.

But I may have done a couple of those things myself.

But when it comes to getting those, so if I don't have access to the sight words or I don't know where to begin with it, what would I do?

What's my approach?

- So I would say contacting your child's teacher and seeing what sight words the school uses.

I know in Allentown we use the Fry words so you could just Google the first 25 Fry words and I would just suggest not using too many at a time.

They're usually in sets of 25.

But I would start with maybe five and then throw in some that they know, some that they don't know.

So it's kind of a mix and they'll feel successful with the ones that they know.

But, yeah, I would talk to the school about what words they're using and then I would assess them.

You know, again, that's what I would do, like just seeing what letters and sounds that they know and which ones that you need to work on.

- Yeah, having access to those at home, too.

I think that's always been a struggle for me, is exactly where are you at and where do you need to be and what are the things that I can use to fill the gap.

That's always been a challenge.

- Yeah.

- So, Josh, when it comes to that kind of developmental, you touched upon this earlier with your librarians engaging in that work and understanding that continuum of literacy for kids.

What other services does the library offer in terms of encouraging children's development with their reading?

- Well, there's a summer reading program.

That's one of the big highlights of our year as librarians, because once the school year ends and you really don't want the kids to slide back from what they've been learning.

So that's like an incentive-based program where kids have to do more.

Basically, the more you read, the more prizes you get.

So some kids, like, need that sort of short-term gratification.

Some like to really work towards a goal.

I remember I was a kid.

I remember my dad was the library director.

And the prize was if you read a certain number of books, you got to see this magician at the end of the summer.

And I super, like, loved magic because it's a cool person.

And I did not read, though, that summer.

I was too busy, like, playing baseball in the yard.

And then my mom was like, then you can't go to the magician.

I was like, my dad's the director.

Like, I'm pretty sure he can get me in.

And she was like, "You got to read."

"You've got two days, you got 20 books."

And so I just, like, did.

I just, like, forced myself to read.

And, you know, I don't think everyone is quite that strict, but my mom was, yeah, she was librarian.

She was tough, but she taught us, and my sister to really love books and really love reading.

And the library really tries to make that make that summer program really fun and really, like, you know, give kids rewards for reading, you know, in addition to it being its own reward.

- Yeah.

So how do we incentivize, Jenna?

So that always, you know, all of those things, like, I remember reading because I really wanted that personal pan pizza from a certain pizza place that I won't name out loud, right?

Because every Wednesday I knew that I could get that if I had enough stars in my BOOK IT!

slip.

And my kids don't have that or access to that as an incentive.

What are appropriate incentives for reading and is there a limit to what we should be doing?

Should we stray away from certain things?

- I mean, maybe if your child is really reluctant to read having, like, if you read for ten minutes, then you can, you know, have a preferable activity where it could be playing outside or it could be watching some TV, playing with a sibling.

But they have to do that first, you know, until they hopefully enjoy doing it.

And you don't have to have that.

I know some teachers do still reward the students.

We don't have all of those incentives that we used to have.

But some teachers still do reward students for reading a certain amount of books.

- And why have we moved away from that, do you think?

-I think sometimes it was parents would sign off that the kid read and they didn't really do it, or maybe we felt like we were forcing them to do something that they really didn't enjoy.

I don't know.

- Yeah, well, I mean, guilty here.

I remember my father signing off on a BOOK IT!

slip.

I didn't finish the final book, but I really wanted that pizza.

- Yeah.

- And it's amazing what you would do to get that thing.

And I would imagine that, to your point, I think the goal isn't necessarily that you get another thing.

It's that we're encouraging students or our children to read, like for the love of reading, right, and choosing those things.

And Josh, going back to the kind of selections for kids, there are so many things.

If you were to walk through the children's section at the Bethlehem Area Public Library, it's almost overwhelming in terms of what is there.

I'm always interested in seeing what books you have on display for kids and why those are there in particular.

Can you walk us through why those are there?

- Oh, sure.

That's a good question.

And, you know, a lot of times it's just what's new.

There's always new and interesting books.

I think a lot of times us as parents, we fall back on the stuff that we grew up reading and loving.

But, you know, every generation has their own thing.

So even if you don't get it, Dogman or whatever, like, new book your kid might be into, who cares, right?

If they love it, they love it.

So, like, we'll put things that are new and popular and, you know, we'll also just try to highlight parts of the collection maybe that aren't, you know, just, like, aren't catch your eye, maybe in the back corner or whatever.

And, you know, there'll be stuff that, like, themed things with holidays or the start of a new season or whatever, you know, whatever we think is going to catch the kids' eye.

I think the best thing to do is like, you don't ask a kid, like, what do you like to read?

You just ask them, what do you like?

And then when they answer that, then you find the book that matches their interest.

Because a lot of times you say, "What do you like to read?"

They'll just say nothing.

And like, our children's librarian is great at it.

If you just walk in with just a general idea of my kid is this age, he likes this show, or whatever, like, she'll just start handing you books.

You'll end up with a big sack and guaranteed that they'll all be right on.

But, you know, that just comes from their years of experience working with the collection.

And staying up to date on what's new and exciting.

But, yeah, it can be overwhelming.

And, you know, sometimes just, if a kid picks a book because they think the cover's neat let's just let them check it out, right?

And if they end up they can't read it or they don't love it, whatever, you just bring it back, so.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Let the kid be the driver and see what they're drawn towards.

- Yeah.

Is it a similar pattern or a similar procedure for students when they go into their classroom, not their classroom libraries rather, but the library in their schools?

- Yeah.

They get to pick whatever they want to, whichever book they want.

I think sometimes the library teacher will help them, you know, if they like a certain thing or they're leading them in certain directions, but they don't have to choose a certain reading level.

They can choose any book that they want.

- When it comes to, going back to the developmental piece of reading, there's a lot of technology out there that promises to have answers in terms of encouraging kids to read or getting them to a fluent level.

What are some of the tools, Jenna, that you would encourage parents to use, whether they're apps, whether they're physical, manipulative things of that nature at home to help their kids read?

- So one program that we just started using in the district is called Heggerty, and we are linking it on the website.

They have an awesome YouTube channel where they teach, like, because there's different hand motions you have to use, they teach those hand motions and that's all on YouTube for free.

And they actually go through each lesson.

So you could actually play the lesson and have your child go along with it.

And it's a lot of stuff that I talked about, like the rhyming, the adding and deleting sounds, switching out sounds.

And that's really fun fundamental for our students when they're learning how to read.

If they can do that, then they're on the right path.

So I think starting there, you know, when they tap out sounds, sometimes we do use manipulatives, so you can use anything, like little blocks.

So each time they hear a sound in a word like for cats, they would pull down C-A-T, you know, one little manipulative for each sound that they hear.

Just lots of books.

Like I said, making little sight word cards or letter cards to help them, but making it fun.

That's always what I suggest.

- What I'm always astounded by when I walk into classrooms is seeing just students that are having access to books, they gravitate towards them.

And many of them, you know, especially in kindergarten, too, it's really funny.

I was talking to a student yesterday when I went into a classroom and I asked him what he was reading and he said, "I don't know, I can't read yet."

But he was going through all of the pages and was, you know, could explain generally what was happening and, you know, the pictures on the page.

But I always find, I guess, that really rich environment of just being surrounded by them is something that's remarkable.

- Yeah, my daughter, she's in kindergarten right now, but she'll pick up a book and just make up a complete story from the pictures.

And she pretends to be the teacher.

She's holding down the pages.

But every once in a while, she'll come to a word in the book that she knows because they're her sight words.

And yesterday she found the word "is" in the book and she was so excited that she found that word.

So eventually they'll go from maybe knowing one word on a page to being able to read the whole thing, so.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Even if they don't know how to read it yet!

Yeah, it's amazing and it's OK to allow them to do that, too.

Right?

- Oh, yeah.

Yes.

So Josh, this is kind of a big picture kind of question.

How is it that we, you know, I say we, how is it that books can compete, I'm not a book, how is it that books can compete, or literature can compete, with all of the other distractions that our kids are exposed to on a daily basis, whether it's video games or YouTube, things like that?

How do we get kids, in addition to that structured time we talked about, kind of away from those things or maybe bridge the gap between that and reading?

- That is a good question, and there's no doubt that it's a big challenge for a lot of parents, a lot of educators, all of us in the library world as well.

And we talked about it a little bit.

But I think that one of the key things is as an adult is that you have to make time to read.

You know, it's kind of a sad number of contemporary adults who read zero books a year, you know?

And I think if you want your kid to read and they never see you picking up a book, they're going to, you know, what you do carries more weight than what you say.

So you want to model good behavior for them, you know, and just, you know, just, hey, just, you got to, if you got to reward yourself with the pizza, then you got to do what you got to do as an adult.

But hopefully you're enjoying it yourself and you're teaching your kid that a book can do something for you that, you know, nothing else can.

So there's a reason that, books are a technology, there's a reason that technology's been around with humans for hundreds and hundreds of years.

And there's some way that we connect with them that really continues to be meaningful as long as you find the, you know, the right book at the right time.

So we always say that there's there aren't any kids who don't like to read.

They're just kids who haven't found what they like to read yet, so we remain optimistic in that way.

- Well, that's excellent.

Jenna, how do we see that play out in schools, too?

Because I imagine you see it on a daily basis, right?

- Yes.

Well, when you asked that question, I immediately thought of a kindergartener who didn't know how to read, but pointed to the word start and said, I know that word because it's on my video game.

So even though they're not actually reading books, they're picking up that environmental print.

But again, you're thinking as a parent to limit those things and then say, OK, well, if you read a book for ten minutes, then you can go on your video game for ten minutes and making it about that balance.

- So I'm going to ask, we have a couple of minutes left.

I want to ask each of you, and Jenna, I'll start with you.

What is the first book that you read or what was that that kind of moment that made you a reader when you were younger?

- Oh, my gosh, it was probably an Amelia Bedelia book because I used to love her books and I used to read them to my second graders too, and that's what I try to model when I'm with my students.

Like, I always chose the read-alouds for the books that I loved as a kid, like Wayside School is Falling Down.

I would read that to my second graders every year and they loved it and then they all wanted to borrow it.

So it's all about that, like, you have to make it fun and then they're going to want to read it also.

- That's excellent.

Josh, same question for you.

- The first book I really remember really reading that was like a longer book was The Phantom Tollbooth, which is just like, yeah, buckets and buckets of fun in between the covers and, like, puns and jokes.

I was just like, so proud of myself that I read that book.

My sister is a little older than me.

And she was always like a super advanced reader.

And I always like wanted, like, a little competitive.

And then, so that was, like, maybe a 300-page book, like, maybe.

There's a lot of illustrations and space on the page but still I remember being so proud and so we can get a kid to have that feeling of, like, this is something I conquered and I'm proud of, you know.

I still remember that feeling, yeah, and I still remember that book, so.

- That's amazing.

So, as a resource, what are some upcoming events at the library, very briefly, that parents can look forward to attending in addition to the summer programs that you have?

In the fall and winter months we have a regular story time schedule at the main library downtown and also at the South Side branch.

And then we have a new location in Bethlehem Township, the Coolidge Building.

And there's story time schedules at all of those.

We have story times for all ages from babies up to older kids and some family story times so you can all come together.

So bapl.org is the library's website and you can find the calendar is packed full of stuff for kids of all ages.

- Excellent.

And Jenna, what are some of the resources that you would like to guide parents to?

I know that there will be a few on the website, but if recommend some.

- Yes, definitely Heggerty for those younger grades and getting them to understand phonemic awareness.

I always tell parents to reach out to the teacher, see if the student needs help with anything.

But I would say when you're reading, just asking basic comprehension questions, starting out with, like, "Who is the character?"

The setting, problem and solution.

And then maybe getting into some of those higher level questions like, "Why do you think the character did that?"

"How does he feel?"

And just having conversations about the text while you're reading.

- That's excellent.

Jenna Cole, thank you so much for being here, reading specialist in the Allentown School District.

And Josh Berk, executive director of the Bethlehem Area Public Library.

I appreciate both of you so much coming on tonight.

Thank you.

So, as the proverb goes, it takes a village to raise a child.

And we hope that you'll consider our program a part of your village.

Do you have questions or comments?

We'd like to hear from you.

Go to pbs39.org/classroom or join the conversation on social media.

I'm your host, Joe Pacitti.

Goodnight.