Comic Strip Writing

Dear Readers,

Comic strips can help with writing. Cut apart the segments of a comic strip and ask your child to arrange them in order. Then ask your child to fill in the words of the characters orally or in writing.
Have your child draw their own comics!

Your child will have written a short story line that can become a paragraph or short story later.

Comic Strip Reading

Dear Readers,

I remember as a child the first thing I would read on Sunday morning was the Sunday comics. I think I was drawn to them as a child because of the colorful drawings. In fact, this was the only section of the paper that was available because my mom was looking at the sales papers while my dad read the other sections of the paper.

I quickly saw myself in my daughter when she began reading the comics in the daily newspaper. This alone was enough for me to continue the home subscription instead of the purchasing the online edition. Every morning before we leave for work my daughter runs to pick up the paper out of the driveway and take it to the car. The trip to school takes about 20 to 25 minutes, just enough time for her to read her favorite comics.

I made a mental note to always keep something for her to read in the car. Parents this is the easy way to make sure that your child reads 20 minutes a day.

Have you ever wondered if your child is reading to his or her level of achievement? Take a look at these Predictors of Reading Achievement from the National Early Literacy Panel to evaluate your child.

Predictors of Reading Achievement
Six moderate to strong skills predict overall literacy development:

1. Alphabetic Knowledge: knowledge of names and sounds associated with printed letters
2. Phonological Awareness: detecting, manipulating, or analyzing parts of words
3. Rapid Automatic Naming of Letters/Digits: naming a sequence of random letters or numbers
4. Rapid Automatic Naming of Objects/Colors: naming a sequence of random sets of pictures or objects
5. Writing or Writing Name: writing letters in isolation or one's own name
6. Phonological Memory: remembering spoken information for a short period of time
7. Five additional skills are moderate predictors of some aspect of later literacy development:
8. Concepts About Print: knowledge of print conventions (read left to write) and concepts (book cover, author)
9. Print Knowledge: combination of alphabetic knowledge, concepts about print, and early decoding
10. Reading Readiness: combination of alphabetic knowledge, concepts of print, vocabulary, memory, and phonemic awareness
11. Oral Language: producing or comprehending spoken language, including vocabulary and grammar
12. Visual Processing: matching or discriminating visually presented symbols

SOURCE: National Early Literacy Panel