Lend
your child a hand…
with reading
by Susan Ramsay, Early Literacy
Specialist
Can’t make heads or tails out of it? He keeps
beating around the bush and it is making you feel bent out of shape?
Well, if you are in over your head, zip your lip, and let sleeping
dogs lie. No one is trying to pull the wool over your eyes…. but
someone may be using too many idioms!
The
Oxford Dictionary defines idiom as “a group of words whose meaning
is different from the meanings of the individual words.” “I can’t
make heads or tails of it!” expresses confusion to someone familiar
with this idiom but to a young child, or adult learning English as a
second language, the literal images are bizarre.
Our
conversation, print, and media are peppered with idioms. Miriam
Trehearne, international literacy consultant, tells us that
television uses four idioms per minute. Trehearne emphasizes that
reading comprehension can be thwarted by idioms. Poorly understood
idioms are one of the major reasons for the fourth grade slump – a
time when many children stop reading for pleasure.
Trehearne
explains that we cannot assume children will absorb the meaning of
idioms. We need to teach them their meanings. Trehearne suggests two
ways to do this. One way is through drawing. Write an idiom, such as
“It’s raining cats and dogs”, at the top of a piece of paper.
Draw a line down the centre from top to bottom. Ask your child to
draw a literal picture of these words on the left side of the page.
Your child might draw clouds with barking dogs and meowing cats
falling from the sky. On the right side of the line, have your child
draw what the idiom really means. Now your child might draw black
clouds with hundreds of falling raindrops.
Trehearne
also recommends using picture books to help you and your child
explore the meaning of idioms together.
“Monkey
Business” by Wallace Edwards uses elaborate, imaginative
illustrations that show a wide cast of animal characters in absurd
situations. Each one is a literal portrayal of an idiom. An
alligator, for example, eats her words as she sweeps books off a
table into her gaping mouth.
Denise
Brennan-Nelson’s “My Momma Likes to Say” includes a mother’s
sayings and her child’s literal translation of her words. The last
page is left blank for children to add their own mother sayings.
Denise Brennan-Nelson has also written “My Teacher Likes to Say”
and “My Grandma Likes to Say.”
“There’s
A Frog in My Throat: 440 Animal Sayings A Little Bird Told Me” by
Loreen Leedy is an illustrated collection of idioms grouped by animal
types. Though this book has no storyline, your child may enjoy
flipping to certain pages that are silly or fun to talk about with
you.
Successful
readers understand idioms. With so many to know, preschoolers and
young children will be over the moon if you take the time to help
them discover the coded meaning of words grouped so surprisingly that
they are in a class all of their own.
Susan
Ramsay is the Early Literacy Specialist for Hastings, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington. You can
contact her at 613-354-6318 (ext 32) 