Welcome to the world of reading!
Books and texts are categorized by types such as; technical (how to's) narrative (someone or something telling the story), expository including fiction (made up) and
non-fiction (true) and persuasive (trying to convince the reader about something).
Younger students need to focus on parts of a book, sounds and words. Older students need to focus on understanding different book types as well as sentence structures, conventions (punctuation and grammar) and comprehension (understanding what the author is trying to convey).
Ways To Improve Reading:
1. Have your child tell you the main idea (what the story is about) and give you supporting details (the ideas in the story that support the main idea or theme of the story).
2. Before reading a story, show your child the cover and flip through the pictures (don't look at any words at this time) and have your child make predictions (guesses) on what they think the story is about and what is going to happen in the story. This is called a picture walk.
3. Choose a word a day from your child's spelling list - a word they want to know or a word they use a lot. Practice using it correctly (example: the word might be saw. Practice saying "I saw a ball at recess". instead of "I seen a ball" or "I seen it". Have your child practice spelling it correctly: They can rainbow write the word/s using different colored crayons, say/spell it out loud in different voices and using the finger by writing the word in the air.
4. The student can sound the sounds such as the word CAT (say the sounds:
C-A-T) your child may need your help to hear 3 sounds.
5. Games with an education focus can be one of the easier ways to get children the skills and support they need to be successful readers without the child knowing they are learning. One gameis called road signs. The child can practice skills while on road trips. Find words beginning with certain letters, find words that rhyme with a word, have a certain number of syllables, etc. Another game is I-SPY. Children can find an object you can describe (color, shape, size, letters or sounds in the word. They tell your child "I-Spy". and choose one thing to describe.
6. Have a set family reading time every night. Everyone must read during this time. Share with each other what you are reading, your thoughts and feelings about what your are reading and encourage each other to continue to read!
7. Don't forget to visit the library. Go to the library and have your child choose books that are of interest to them and help them choose books that are different levels of
of reading difficulty. Easy books build reading confidence while more difficult books increase their skills.
