Reading
Reading is a very
important skill. When children become good readers in the early grades, they
are more likely to be successful throughout school and beyond. My job is to
give your child a good start in reading.
I will do this by building their pre-reading and reading skills in 6
different areas. Please read about each area below. |
Oral Language
Oral
language is the ongoing process of communicating through the spoken word. Talk
is the foundation of oral language development and helps in language
acquisition and language development skills. Oral language development starts
in infancy and accelerates through toddler hood. Some children can be seriously behind in their oral language
development by the time they get to school.
Providing a literacy rich environment, reading aloud to students,
providing opportunities for informal and formal conversations, and building
vocabulary are some of the things I do to build oral language development in
the classroom. Things
to do at home to build oral language skills: 1.
Talk, talk, talk! 2.
Walk and Talks – go for a walk with your child and talk with your
child about what s/he sees. 3.
Provide different types of experiences and talk about them with your
child. 4.
Question your child about his/her day. 5.
Sing! 6.
Read to your child and talk about the books. |
Phonemic
Awareness
Phonemic
awareness is the ability to hear, identify, think about and manipulate the
individual sounds in spoken words. Things
I do in the classroom to build phonemic awareness:
1. Explicit
instruction in phoneme (sound) identification and isolation. 2. Games
and instruction in putting sounds together (blending): c-a-t = cat 3. Separating
sounds (segmenting): cat = c-a-t 4. Instruction
in other types of sound manipulations:
deletions: chat-c = hat;
additions: s + and = sand;
substitutions: changing hat
to ham Things
you can do at home: 1. Play
rhyming games: “How many words can
you make up that sound like cat?” 2. Sing
rhyming songs or read books that rhyme. 3. Practice
identifying letters and sounds at home. 4. Help
your child separate the sounds in simple words and then put sounds back
together. 5. Play
a walking game: Say a simple two or
three letter word and have your child take a step for each sound s/he
hears. You may also do this for
simple sentences and have your child take a step for each word s/he hears. |
Phonics
Phonics
instruction helps the child to learn the relationship between the sounds of
the spoken language (phonemic awareness) and the letters of the written
language. Things
I do at school for phonics instruction: 1.
Systematically teach how sounds and letters are related. 2.
Provide lots of guided practice for students in large and small
groups 3.
Read and write with the students every day. 4.
Provide spelling instruction using word families. Things
you can do at home: 1.
Reinforce the letter sound relationship whenever you can- while
reading, on boxes, labels etc. 2.
Read every day. 3.
Encourage your child to read every day. |
Fluency
Fluency
is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. Fluent readers read effortlessly and with
expression. They read as if they are
speaking. Fluency is important
because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding words and can
focus on comprehending what they are reading. Three
very important things you and I can do to increase fluency are: 1.
Model fluent reading – Your child’s fluency will increase if they
hear fluent reading. 2.
Provide practice reading aloud.
Your child should be reading about 20 minutes every day. 3.
Rereading- Children who read and reread books/passages aloud and
receive feedback about their reading become better readers. The
magic Three A
great way to do all of the above is the practice the “Magic Three” way of
reading. When something is sent home
for reading homework follow this
procedure. 1.
A parent or fluent reader should read the book/passage TO the
child. 2.
Then a parent or fluent reader should read the book/passage WITH the
child. 3.
Lastly, the reading should be done BY the child as the parent
or fluent reader listens and helps in difficult spots. 4.
It is even better a book/passage can be read this way three separate
times. |
Vocabulary
Building
a child’s vocabulary is important because children use the words they know to
make sense of what they read. The
larger the vocabulary, the more they can make sense of and learn. Children
learn the meaning of most words indirectly by engaging in conversations,
listening to adults read to them or reading on their own. Some vocabulary is learned directly by
teaching specific words, their meanings and other word learning strategies. A
great way to build vocabulary is to use words other than common words. For example: Instead of saying “I am tired”. Say, “I am exhausted”. Repeated use of words over a short time
makes it easier to children to learn them. |
Comprehension
Comprehension
is the reading for reading. If a
child can read the words, but not understand what they are reading- then they
are NOT reading. Things
I do and you can do to increase comprehension: 1.
Use pictures and graphic organizers to organize and illustrate events
or concepts in books 2.
Do a picture walk. Look at
the book before your child reads it.
Have your child talk about what they are seeing in each picture and
what they think is happening. 3.
Ask questions before, during and after reading a book. Don’t just ask
easy questions that can be answered by one word. For example, “Who was Little Red Riding Hood going to
visit?” These questions are OK, but
also ask harder questions such as: “Why do you think… or
“How did…” Also ask your child if s/he liked the book/story and
why/why not? 4.
Have your child retell the story to you with the events in
order. This can be difficult, so give
them the support they need to be successful. For early readers, it is good to
concentrate on just the beginning, the middle and the end of the story. AS your child becomes a better reader, you
can expect more events in sequence and more details from the story. Happy
Reading!
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