Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.

~ Emilie Buchwald
Presented by the Avery-Parsons Elementary Title I Team March 19, 2013

Get cozy! Choose a special time every day to read with your child, and cozy up with a good book!

Choose a Just Right book

Use the five finger rule~
Open to the middle of the book and read a page. If you only miss one or two words on the page, its probably too easy for you.

If you miss three words, its probably just right for you.
If you miss four or five words, the book might be too difficult for you.

Discuss the cover

Make predictions about the book. What type of book is itfiction, biography, etc.? Whats the authors purpose in writing itto teach, to entertain..?

Keep it positive and fun! If your child isnt engaged or enjoying it, try a different time of day or a different book!

What do I do if my child gets stuck on a word?

Try to avoid telling your child the word!

Encourage your child to use the reading STRATEGIES he or she has learned in class.

What are reading strategies? A strategy is a fancy word that just means trick. Your child has been taught many strategies, and should be using them when reading at home.

Sound it Out This is the most common strategy that an adult might suggest to a young reader, but this strategy does not always work! Why..?

Many words in the English language are rule breakers.

Letters often work together in teams to make sounds (e.g. ou, ai, ey) that are different than when the letters are read in isolation.

Other letters change sounds depending on placement in the word. For example, think about how the letter y changes its sound in the following words: yellow (yuh) cycle (long i sound) barley (long e sound)

Students learn these phonics patterns at school, but they also need other strategies to help decode (figure out) words.

Here are a few other decoding strategies! Look at the picture. What makes sense? Look for chunks in the word. Flip the vowel. Skip the word.

Look at the Picture When your child gets stuck on a word, look at the picture to see if that can help your child figure out the word.

Does it make sense?

Also known as Cross-Checking Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?

As your child reads, stop often to check for understanding and to see if the text is making sense. If a word clearly does not make sense, have your child go back and think about what other word would be more appropriate.

Blend the first 2 or 3 letter sounds If the word is picnic, and your child blends p-i-c, chances are that he or she will figure out the word (especially if using other strategies, such as looking at the picture!).

Look for familiar chunks in the word

Point out these familiar chunks in words if your child needs help store bland tall flat

Flip the vowel! Each vowel (a,e,i,o, and u) gets more than one sound. Have your child flip the vowel (try a different vowel sound) if the vowel sound theyve already tried doesnt sound right.

Skip the word and come back to it

Sometimes hearing what comes next in the sentence will help your child figure out the tricky word. Encourage your child to think about context clues.

Remember
Good readers use all of these strategies! Its okay to suggest to your child a good strategy to use when trying to decode a word! Soon, your child will start using these strategies automatically.

One more thing Dont forget that the most important aspect of reading is comprehending (understanding) the text!

Ideas to help with comprehension

Discuss tricky vocabulary words (and start using these words in your daily conversations!) Connect this text to personal experiences, other texts, or the world around you. Discuss the setting. Use an atlas, globe, Google Earth, etc. to locate the setting.

More ideas to help with comprehension Make predictions Visualize Ask Question (I wonder?) Clarify Summarize