Promoting Reading at Home
Students in Grade K-2 must develop two competencies to be readers:
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Phonological awareness - awareness of chunks of sound and individual sounds in spoken language
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Phonics -letters can be read as sounds, and strung together to form words
Additionally, frequent confirming and extending conversations build their Listening Comprehension, Content Knowledge, and Critical Thinking skills. With strong skills in these areas, students are more prepared to be successful with a variety of texts.
Lastly, students must understand concepts of print:
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Cover, cover, spine
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Left to Right
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Return Sweep
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First Word
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One-to-one matching
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Concept of word and letter: first word, first letter in a word, last letter in a word
Research has shown a significant association between parent knowledge of reading (basic sound structure of English and praising techniques) and child's later reading ability (Segal, 2019).
Reading Aloud to Your Child
When children are read to by people they love, children learn to love books!
Reading aloud to children is an important activity for building the knowledge required for success in reading. Reading aloud, with children participating actively, helps children
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learn new words
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learn more about the world
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learn about written language
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see the connection between words that are spoken and words that are written
adapted from The National Institute for Literacy publication: A Child Becomes a Reader, Proven Ideas from Research for Parents
Tips for Reading to Your Child
Read
Reading with your child helps your child learn new words and ideas, understand the purposes for reading, hear what reading sounds like, develop thinking and problem-solving skills, and enjoy reading and learning.
What to read:
Choose a book your child is interested in. It should be more difficult than a book they can read independently.
Discuss
Ask questions that are about ideas or words from the book, can be answered with more than one or two words, and need information from the story to answer.
Develop Vocabulary
Talk about new words that your child has read or heard. Ask them to make up sentences with the new words or use the words in other situations.
Listening to Your Child Read
Below are some strategies to use when listening to your child read
Pause
Pause whenever your child errs, but also at the end of a sentence or success. Wait - do not give the right answer right away.
Prompt
Allow your child to try! Think to yourself: Does that look right? and provide a prompt.
Praise
Praise whatever your child correctly accomplished; confirm: "Good! That says 'cat'."
Practice
Repetition is important; don't wait three days to find another word that begins with "c" and makes the /k/ sound. Read that same word or find a new word in that book that begins with "c" and practice that word.
Other Shared Reading Techniques
Choral Reading
Reading as a "chorus" together; adult is slightly louder than child as the adult models fluent reading
Varied Volume
Similar to choral reading, but the adults gets quieter as the child gets louder
Echo Reading
Adult reads a sentence while pointing to each word; child reads the same sentence while pointing to each word
