Parenting Class at McAlister High School, Reseda

* Mission: Using children’s literature to teach pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers about the importance of reading to their kids.

It is Friday morning and teacher Claire McDonough is reading to her class. The textbook is “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.”

McDonough tells her students to pretend they are children.She encourages the girls to ask questions about the story. She has them point to the pictures. And she asks them to anticipate what might happen as the tale unfolds.

In the language of eduction, McDonough is modeling good reading practices. In simple terms, she is teaching her students how to read to their children.

And she is teaching about the importance of reading itself. Children who are read to ultimately do better in school, she tells the young mothers and mothers-to-be.

The morning is typical in McDonough’s class. She spends about an hour each Friday engaging her students in children’s literature.

The girls watch with rapt expressions as she reads about Alexander’s ice cream cone falling off and how he forgets a number while counting aloud in class.

Such problems may seem trivial to adults, but they can be exasperating for little children, McDonough tells her students. She says it is important to validate children’s feelings.

McDonough hopes that reading the literature will help the teenagers bond with their children.

* Quote: “It’s hard for a 15-year-old to be empathetic when she is going through her own stuff. Children are people, too. We need to see what they are feeling and be sensitive to their issues.”