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Curriculum director Laurie Jones tells parents reading is foundation for K–8 success
Summary
Dr. Laurie Jones, director of curriculum and instruction for the Long Hill Township School District, told parents that daily reading routines, choice of texts and read-aloud time build the vocabulary, fluency and cross-subject comprehension students need from kindergarten through eighth grade.
Dr. Laurie Jones, director of curriculum and instruction for the Long Hill Township School District, said at a parent webinar that reading is the foundation of student success from kindergarten through grade 8, strengthening memory, concentration and vocabulary and helping students across subjects.
"When you read, when your children read, it strengthens their memory, it strengthens their concentration," Jones said, adding that reading helps students understand math word problems and science concepts by enabling them to read what is being asked.
Jones framed literacy as a developmental process, with early grades focused on phonics — letter recognition, sounding out words and learning sight words — and later grades emphasizing fluency and comprehension. "When you're a fluent reader, you don't sound like a robot," she said, noting fluency helps students answer questions about main ideas and analyze characters.
To support reading at home, Jones recommended daily reading routines tailored to age: "10 to 20 minutes" for younger children and chapter goals for older students, letting children choose appropriate books, and reading together. She encouraged parents to model reading at home and to make reading "fun, enjoyable, valued, and part of your everyday life."
Jones listed practical options beyond traditional books — audiobooks for children who struggle to sit still, comics, magazine articles, recipes and subtitles on movies — and highlighted district resources such as nonfiction articles delivered through curricular platforms like Newsela and planned novel studies and Socratic seminars in middle grades.
She also urged parents to celebrate effort and correct errors constructively so that children associate reading with positive outcomes rather than speed or perfection. "You don't have to be a teacher to teach reading and to raise a reader," Jones said.
The presentation will be posted on the district website and the district YouTube channel in the coming days. Parents were invited to submit questions in the chat during the webinar or by emailing Jones at ljones@longhill.org. The session was the district's sixth parent session of the year.
