Be a Wise Advisor

At Unite Books, we spend a lot of time promoting the power of family and community for supporting literacy growth to ensure that children become capable and avid readers. Reading accomplishments will benefit every aspect of children’s lives.?

We are family and neighbor engagement fanatics, believing that there are many simple, yet important roles adults and older siblings can play to support their new readers. Among them are guiding children in their casual selection of books; reading to them?with full, even dramatic, expression, and eventually with children - always, always, taking the time to enjoy a casual, spontaneous conversation with little ones about the personal impacts they experience from what they hear and see in their books.??

Many schools invite volunteers to work with the children who are somewhat slower than their classmates in moving along the path to independent reading. Adults are invited to mentor students (not to teach them) about the joys of books and reading. Indeed, the term “mentor” can be defined in many ways, but “wise advisor” seems to capture the essence of the role one plays when nurturing another. This definition of a mentor adds to the idea that caring individuals are welcomed onto a school campus for the contributions they can make to enrich the lives of almost-readers in so many ways. And this invitation comes with suggestions for reading aloud to students, taking turns reading with them, casually discussing (not quizzing) children’s responses to the meaning of what is being read, and speculating upon next book choices. The emphasis is on positive experiences with books and reading.?

At the beginning of a mentoring relationship, wide-eyed primary school students are introduced to their mentors and then off they go together to the library where they journey together down its halls of reading wonders to the road to rich language and learning. The target impression should always be that these youngsters are, like their classmates, becoming readers (and soon, writers) and that adults eager to do so can help, if only they are invited.?

It’s important to note that with today’s increasing vigilance to keep school children healthy and staff safe by limiting school visitors, unfortunately volunteering inside the school may not be invited. That said, none of us needs an invitation from a school to support up-and-coming readers. There are hundreds of opportunities for well-meaning adults to mentor children outside of classrooms and schools, e.g., through public libraries and neighborhood groups.?

Every relative or neighbor, serving in the wise advisor role for an emerging reader, contributes to their community’s culture of respect for the multiple benefits of books and for every child’s life of joyful and fulfilling readership. Children glow under the attention of caring individuals and their self-confidence soars when they are gently and regularly recognized as legitimate participants in the literate-life of their communities.?

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