About
Welcome To Parents For Better Reading
It’s time to make certain that all our children can read at or above grade level. The single most successful method for raising the reading performance of our kids is one-on-one tutorials. Our children do not receive the amount or level personal tutoring in school, and the cost for services charged by commercial tutoring centers is prohibitive, and the results are often spotty at best.
Hi, I am Dr. Mario Campanaro, founder of Parents 4 Better Reading. I have taught or tutored children at all grade levels and have taught reading courses at Texas A&M University-Commerce. (You can read about me on my bio-page- included). I started this movement because the reading performance of our children is seriously damaged. many kids remain unresponsive to any of the present treatments allegedly designed to improve reading.
What’s going on with the reading performance of our children?
What facts support the position that I have taken? When only 40% of U.S. fourth graders are reading at grade level according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress(NAEP)-the nation’s’s report card- the facts scream loudly that what we are doing to help our children be better readers isn’t working. The NAEP results clearly illuminates that as a nation we are going in the wrong direction. Something needs to be done and done quickly because kids who have difficulty reading, or those who don’t want to read, rarely catch up.
To be clear, the NAEP data informs us that classroom based reading instruction ALONE isn’t enough, or worse, doesn’t work for many kids. This is not intended as a criticism of teachers, rather it is a reflection of the realities of the classroom. In most classrooms of 20 plus students, there isn’t enough time for the needed one-on-one attention ALL students need. Moreover, it is likely that disruptive students impact reading instruction, and there are other daily interruptions during the reading block that also interfere with instruction-ask any teacher how many interruptions commonly occur during reading time each day.
Why Are So Many of Our Children Reading Below Level?
One of the reasons our children aren’t strong readers can be attributed to the endless reading wars that have existed for decades. The war between two opposing groups of reading professionals centers around the phonics only advocates and the whole language proponents. Both sides argue passionately for their views which has made the teaching of reading harder not, easier. For generations, teachers and the reading curriculum have been whiplashed between opposing points of view about the best methods for teaching reading. This war has created a terrifying lack of direction for teachers for what really works for teaching children to read.
Another compelling factor is a profound lack of application of research about how to guide children to read at higher levels. There are also very few research studies dealing with the motivation to read. Nor, has there been much discussion in the research literature about how to treat the anxiety that children who don’t read well experience.
Virtually every child that I have tutored experiences anxiety when it’s time to read. This condition is frequently overlooked when diagnosing causes for inefficient reading. Rather than following either point of view, the better solution, it turns out, is to look at the science of reading. The science of reading is a collection of research driven concepts that informs us about how the brain works when reading and the best practices to help kids be better readers.These are the same methods and practices I have used for years before the approach was called the science of reading.
The Story Behind Parents 4 Better Reading
The reason that I launched Parents 4 Better Reading began in schools during post Covid period when I began tutoring children.When schools reopened from the Covid interruption, I was stunned to see the damage to the reading ability of children. Students that I worked with had significantly lower reading ability as much as 2-3 years lower. Many of the skills and strategies that they had learned were forgotten. There were far too many children for me to help. Covid brought an avalanche of students who needed help. Because I couldn’t support the large number of children whose schools contacted me for tutorial services, I began hiring tutors -many of whom had little or no background teaching reading. I learned that with proper training and supervision every day people who cared could be effective tutors.
I developed a training program for the tutors designed to replicate the practices I used. I learned that with ongoing training, supervision, and hands on attention and support by me the tutors were able to help children grow as readers. The results proved to be what was needed to get kids back on track. Training and supervising more than 60 tutors, in any given year, sparked the idea that led to training parents. I simply asked who more than anyone else wanted kids to be better readers? The answer of course is parents. As a result, I began a pilot program for parents employing the same training program I had developed for the tutors who worked so successfully in schools. The results have been extraordinary. Parents who received proper training and ongoing support from me actually produced as good as or even better results than the in school tutors I had Trained. The pilot program identified critical elements that led to success. Factors such as keeping tutorials short and not requiring too much parent preparation and time. Analysis or the pilot program, for example, showed that shorter sessions were more productive for a variety of reasons including, but not limited, to factors such as the attention span of the child and the amount of time available to parents for personal coaching.
How Parents 4 Better Reading Works
happening in the classroom reading curriculum. (Connecting the tutorials to the classroom work helps the child succeed in school and advances their motivation for the at home tutorials.) Parents 4 Better Reading encourages the use of school materials used in school for the tutorials, but additional inexpensive materials discussed below are also available. (The Prices for the products are deliberately kept at a reasonable price point.
Parents are paying far too much for additional reading services)