At school we teach children reading strategies that will help them to read unfamiliar words.  Please help support these lessons when reading together at home.  Refer to the Reading Strategies section of this site for further information.

Before Reading Strategies –

Before you read a story, take some time to preview and look at the book.  Discuss the title, pictures, chapter titles, and headings.  Make predictions or guess what the story may be about.  This gives the reader and idea of what the story is about and helps them guess at words they are unsure of or do not know.  This is very much like how we preview a movie before we watch it.  It helps to prime your mind as to what to expect.

·        Read the title and look at the cover together.  “What do you think the story will be about?”  Make a prediction.

·        Flip through the pages of the story, or the chapter titles,  and discuss together.  “What might happen in this story?  What might happen next?”

·        Praise your child for attempting to make predictions.  “Great idea!  I can tell you used the pictures, or chapter titles, to help you guess what might happen.”

·        Comment on how interested you are to learn what does happen in the story.  “I’m excited to see if any of our guesses were right!  Let’s read to find out!”

During Reading Strategies –

While reading the story, stop often to talk about what is going on in the story as well as make predictions about what might happen.  Discuss vocabulary that may be confusing or unknown.  Talk about the characters and how they may feel.  By talking about the story while reading you are building the readers comprehension, eliminating confusion, and creating interest.

Encourage your child to read on and skip unknown words.  Our main goal is for comprehension or understanding of a story.

Let your child make mistakes.  It is hard not to correct a reader with their errors, but it is important.  If the mistake does not harm the main idea of the story, then let it go.  (For example:  house/home, dog/puppy, is/as.)  If the error does affect the meaning:  (For example:  house/elephant) you want to ask:  Does it make sense?  What should that say?  Wait until the child finishes a sentence, thought, paragraph, or page before you interrupt them.  Corrections and interruptions will harm the comprehension of the story.  They also lower the reader’s self-esteem and beliefs of self as a reader.

While Reading to Your Child:

·        Make sure the child can see the pictures, or words, clearly.

·        Use plenty of expression, reading in a natural speaking voice.  Change voices to make the characters come alive.

·        As you read, point to each word, sliding your finger along the text.

While Reading with Your Child:

·        Begin reading the story to your child at a speed your child is comfortable with.  Stop after each page to retell events.

·        As you read, your child will begin to pick up the pattern of the story and read with you.  Encourage your child to point to each word, sliding a finger from word to word.

·        When your child comes to a difficult word, ask:  “Look at the picture, or words.  That didn’t make sense.  What word would make sense?  Look at the beginning letter of the word.  What word would make sense that begins with that sound?  Try reading that whole sentence again.  See if you can think of a word that makes sense.”

·        Use echo reading.  You read a phrase, and then your child reads the same part back to you.  This helps them to learn fluency as well as expression.

·        Choral read together, point to the words as you read. 

Reading by Your Child:

·        Once your child feels comfortable reading, allow him/her to read to you.  Praise them often!

After Reading Strategies –

After a story has been read, take a moment to discuss the story.  What were the favorite and least favorite parts of the story?  Discuss the characters and what occurred in the story.  Review the main events.  Use the Main Idea Glove, or just the concept of Who, What, Where, When, Why to help in the story retell.  This is important since it shows how well a child comprehends the material read.  Please review the information found in the “Reading Strategies” section of this site for further explanation.

·        Talk about the story.  “What was your favorite part?  Were there surprises?  What did you like best about the characters?  What would you change if you were the author?  What did you like about the events?  How did you like the way the story ended?  Did this story remind you of any other stories or of things that have happened to you?”

·        Ask the child to retell the story in his/her own words.

Strategies for Thinking:

·        Practice making pictures in your head while reading.  Encourage this by having your child explain what he/she sees in his or her head while reading.  Talk about how you imagine something happening as you are reading.

·        Predict often using background knowledge. Relate books you are reading to things that have happened in your child’s life.  The more background one has on the subject, the greater the comprehension will be.

·        Ask questions such as, “I wonder why . . .”  “What if . . .”  If you were . . ., what would you do?”  “How come . . .”

(Remember, it is okay if there is not a clear-cut answer in the book.  Our goal is to encourage deeper thinking.)

·        Set a purpose for reading, and decide what is important.  Ask your child why they are reading this material.  Is it for fun, information, to complete a project, to learn something new, etc.?  This sets a goal to work toward.

·        Choose “Just Right” books.  We use a five finger rule, where students read a page of the book, and then they put up a finger for each unknown/tricky word they read.  If five fingers go up for one page, the book is too difficult, and you should read this book to them.  One or two fingers are fine because they will be able to still figure out the story and comprehend what is happening.

·        Teach them how to choose a book.  Interest and choice is very important for motivation.  Let them do the choosing of what they are reading for pleasure.  Teach them with “CAN IT BE FOR ME?”

C – Look at the cover

A – Check out who the author is.  Ever heard of

this person?  Want to read more by this author?

N – Look at the number of pages

I –  Look for/at illustrations.  Are there any?

T – Check out the title.  Do I like it?

B – Blurbs (back inside cover, one sentence  

       summary).  Don’t read if you don’t like.

E – Excerpts (read a bit from the beginning, middle,

       and end of book)

F – First sentence, paragraph, or page (How does the

author begin these?)

O – Opinions (What have you heard about the

       book?)

R  - Reverse – Check the backside of title page for

one sentence summary/subject.

                M – My friends – What will they think?

                E – Entirety – How does the book look?  Large print? 

Small print?  Long chapters, or short chapters?

Miscellaneous Information/Thoughts –

·        Children should read or be read to 15-30 minutes a day.

·        Turn off the TV during the school week.  Read a book, play a game, or talk instead.

·        Visit the Public Library, and borrow some books.

·        Consider giving books as a present.

·        READ!  READ!  READ!

·        End your day in a pleasant way.  Snuggle up, and read with your child.

·        Ideas for reading with your child.

Read to your child
Listen to your child read
Partner read with your child taking turns  (sentences, paragraphs, or pages)
Echo read with your child (you read, they repeat)
Choral read with your child (together)

Even if your child is able to read independently, it is beneficial to still read to and with them for practice.  Practice is the key for children becoming better readers.  Read to them, with them, or listen to them read.  The more a child is exposed to reading and listening to stories, the better reader he/she will become.  Reading higher level material to your child enhances vocabulary development and allows you to work on comprehension and discussion strategies. 

Practice makes perfect.  Learning to read is like learning to play the piano, tennis, or golf.  When parents pay money for lessons, or drive a child back and forth to practice, they have a stake in the activity.  These parents generally ensure that their child will practice the lessons learned that day.  The same concept should apply to reading.

A professional tennis player will continually practice serving a ball.  No matter how may prizes that have been won, you can still expect them to practice serving a tennis ball.  The idea is practice, practice, practice.

When listening to children read, keep in mind that mistakes are natural.  We are all human, and without advance practice before reading, you will encounter errors.  If you correct the errors continuously, your child will become self conscious, make more errors, and finally stop reading.  Instead, allow your child to look at the pictures and get an idea of the story, before beginning to read.  We call this taking a “Picture Walk” through the book.  Look at the title, the picture on the cover, read the chapter titles, etc. to preview the book before reading.  When errors are made while reading, we let them go.  When there is a logical break, ask the child if he/she knows what that word is now.  Usually, the child has made the correction in his/her own mind.  Keep reading as a positive and pleasant experience always!