In our fast-moving, media-saturated world, reading with our children and talking with them about what matters is more important than ever before. Reading fluency, comprehension, and ability to relate the ideas in a story to yourself and the wider world are the building blocks of imagination, empathy, critical thinking, and creativity—all crucial qualities for success today.
The goal of Conversational Reading is to promote thinking and reflection. Unlike standard question-and-answers, the questions in Conversational Reading are meant to jumpstart a conversation and are not end points in themselves, but the beginning of new comprehension and curiosity; it’s less about what you know and more about what you think.
How Conversational Reading is different:
- It encourages reading for meaning
- It promotes thinking, reflection, and self-discovery
- It stirs the imagination and encourages richer, more satisfying conversations
- It helps build language, comprehension, and the ability to focus
- It helps children grow healthy and resilient minds
- It sparks curiosity, and fosters creative, emotionally intelligent adults
- It’s a give and take that sparks closeness, understanding, and respect between parents and children
Reading & Talking About What You Read
Talk is essential and the more meaningful the better. Talking to children about what matters, inside a story or outside a story, gives them the language they need to shape their thinking—it teaches them how to think. As E.M. Forster said, “How can I know what I think till I see what I say?”
What’s more, talking about stories teaches children to read deeply, and that gives them the ability to better understand themselves and find their place in the world. Stories are how children try the world on for size, see who they are at a moment in time, and see who they might become.
Through Conversational Reading, you can help your child discover who he is.
Conversational Reading
Buy Reading Together
“The subtitle of this book, ‘Everything You Need to Know to Raise a Child Who Loves to Read,’ may sound audacious, but it’s actually overly modest. Parents and educators who use this book will be raising children who love to learn.” – Milton Chen, Ph.D., Executive Director, The George Lucas Educational Foundation
Advice From Diane
Download 11 Essential Elements to Raise a Child Who Loves to Read.
Letter From a Parent
“I used one of Diane Frankenstein’s conversation starters and changed it up a bit. Instead of asking our daughters, “What would you do in this situation,” I asked them, “if Alfred (the dog) was a child, and the other animals were children what would you do in this situation? Our five-year-old daughter, Zoë, became extremely emotional.
She said, “Mom, don’t they know that everyone belongs? That it does not matter what we look like on the outside, because we are all the same on the inside?” The conversation evolved from there. It turned into a long successful conversation about how “judging” and treating individuals different because of the way they look is unacceptable.
The conversation brought our little family together in an amazing way. It was a joyous moment for us that there were questions we could ask that would help our kids get more from the books they read and continue their love of reading.” – Mom in New Haven, CT
