When children read less, they get less chance to develop the decoding abilities, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic understanding and content richness that good readers need...Motivational issues then compound the problem. When you are not good at something, you tend to avoid it. Children who are not good at reading read less...(and) reading is communication. If we begin our search for the best way to help a struggling reader with the idea that language is meaningful and reading is about making sense of written language, then we have a better chance to help struggling readers...rather than doubling down on phonics instruction, we need to double down on meaning making...Phonics is not reading any more than spelling is writing. " - Russ Walsh
This is the fifteenth blog entry focused on Home Reading this school year,
intended to help families successfully support children as they learn to read :)
I grew up learning to read in a variety of ways - sight words carried me into Kindergarten as a 'reader' before I even started school, although I certainly knew how to sing the alphabet like every other child of my generation! In school, we studied how the alphabetic letters worked together, and spelling rules (such as 'when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking..), but it was the shape of words that was our focus as readers in my early years of school - a reading strategy that briefly flared in popularity during the early 1960's and then quickly lost momentum. Later, in middle school, I learned the roots of the English language were primarily grounded in Greek and Latin and I found that fascinating - nothing was greater fun for me as a reader than trying to figure out where the root word originated and what meaning it held!
The point in relating these experiences is that all readers learn to read in a wide variety of ways, yet most everyone does learn to read - in 30 years, I have only worked with one child with a severe memory impairment who could not eventually learn to read every word clearly - yet none of them learned to read in exactly the same way. Probably because no two children learn anything in exactly the same way, whether it is walking, talking, reading or to ride a bike! We may have similar experiences but our specific stories will each have their own elements and details. And that is why, now writing a fifteenth blog entry about home reading this school year, that I feel very comfortable offering a 'smorgasbord' of suggestions for developing readers - that will carry into the sixteenth blog entry as well.
Developing readers are children who have grasped many of the basic ideas about reading already - they understand text goes left to right in English; that sentences begin with capitals and end with punctuation; they have acquired at least a basic set of sight words they recognize rather easily on the page and they are aware of the presence of both narrators and speakers in text. Developing readers have a sense of letters working together to generate a word; that words clump together in particular ways to create sentences and that words and sentences together can tell both a story or relay information. Often, these children are in grades 1 and 2, although many children are still firmly in this phase of reading through grade 3 and, occasionally, even grade 4 or beyond (although these children may have been diagnosed with learning disabilities or have experienced significant gaps in learning for a variety of reasons). Regardless of grade level, developing readers will always benefit from exposure to, and support learning and practicing, similar reading strategies such as those noted here.
Predicting
Prior to reading a text with a child, it is always beneficial to take a little tour of the book, looking at the pictures and noticing specific features (for example, a word emphasized in some way, or words on a sign rather than as part of the text) to highlight with the child. During this activity, encourage your child to tell you what they see and notice; try not to tell her what you notice. If she misses something you think is key to the story - like a sign, for example, embedded in the picture, you could point that out once she seems ready to turn to the next page. We call this a 'picture walk and predict' based on what the child sees in the pictures and text features and it often prepares readers for what to expect, improving the likelihood they will recognize particular sight words by anticipating what words might appear. I have heard this strategy called many things (from a coat hook theory to prepping the brain); what it does is activates the reader's prior knowledge and greatly improves opportunities for successful reading.
Sight Words
Developing readers are acquiring a set of 'sight words' (or words they know by sight and do not need to sound out), usually words they see frequently (such as and, the, I, me) as well as words that they immediately identify with a visual image that has been reinforced through shared reading experiences (like mom, dog, cat, cake, bike). In school, we practice sight words with our earliest developing readers virtually daily for just a few minutes. This is not necessary to practice at home as well - identifying them in the text as reading occurs is almost 'automatic' for the child who has begun to develop this memorized set of words. At home, encouraging children as they expand their sight word base - or 'noticing' - is an easy way to help your child build confidence in their reading. Sight word knowledge is a consistently growing foundation for developing readers - sometimes, as adults, we find it frustrating that a child will not recognize a word even though it has appeared three or four times in succession over a couple of pages in a book. This just means the reader has not attached meaning to the word yet - sometimes, if it is a reoccurring word (such as dinosaur in a dinosaur text), it helps to stop and talk about the word briefly and why it is important in this particular story, or to have the child create a sketch to accompany the word. This gives them a 'hook' in their memory that attaches the word to a memory or thought. And sometimes they just aren't ready to assimilate that word into their sight word vocabulary yet - if that happens, just let it go for now and come back to it later. Learning to read doesn't happen instantly; sometimes the path is longer and more circuitous than we adults would like and that is perfectly find for the child!
Decoding Clues
Developing readers are usually beginning to be aware of 'rhyming words' and other phonetic similarities in printed words. The crazy thing is that they sometimes do not know them consistently yet, or recognize words that rhyme that have meaning for them but not how to rhyme with a word they do not attach a meaning to - this is most frustrating for adults who already have rhyming well in hand but completely reasonable for developing readers! For example, your child may be able to identify 'cat', 'mat' and 'sat' because they have a mental image for those words, yet identifying 'pat' may not have any particular meaning for them and they may attempt to decode the word in any way that makes sense for them, saying 'play' or 'puppy' or any other word that begins with 'p'. When this happens, gently prompt with a sentence such as 'well, it rhymes with cat - let's try it - what's the first sound? What's the last sound? Let's try together: p - p - a - a - " and they are more than likely to chime in with 'pat!'. Eventually, after playing with word families at school as well, children begin to see the elegance of rhyming words, onsets and endings and decoded words become sight words with meaning attached.
Story Parts
As your child is reading, ask questions and talk about what they are reading. Who are the characters? Where is the story taking place? What is the problem? What is the solution to the problem? If the book is a non-fiction story, talk about the differences between fiction and non-fiction, how the story is told (eg. in chronological order or not; is there a problem and solution, etc), and provide evidence. Once children have clearly identified story parts, Learning incidentally about characters, setting, problem, solution, fiction and non-fiction are critical thinking skills all readers will benefit from as they improve their reading skills.
Sequencing the Story
When your child is finished reading the story, casually discuss the story with her - what was her favourite part? What happened at the beginning? middle? end? Who was the main character? Was there a funny part? A sad part? Which picture did she like the best? why? How much of the story can she remember and retell? If there are parts she skips, or can't remember, just let that go for the day - sometimes sequencing the story in their mind for retelling is a very challenging activity and may take time to develop.
Re-Read for Clarification
If your child is interested, re-reading the story always supports clarification and reinforces sight word awareness. However, if the first read took more than 10 minutes, do not push your child to re-read - she has already given this a tremendous effort. There is always tomorrow - re-reading text is an amazing reinforcement for word awareness, vocabulary development and content knowledge, but is not everyone's favourite activity! There is always tomorrow - or next week :)
Make Connections
If the story is familiar in some way to an experience your child has had before (with another text, a movie or a real life experience) and they do not naturally bring it up, make that connection for them with a 'remember when' statement to provoke their prior knowledge and awareness. Sometimes a child will want to look something up on google (many children will want to 'ask Alexa' when we pose a question in class!) and this is perfectly fine - helps reinforce for them that text has meaning and connection and ultimately always makes sense.
These are just a few strategies to reinforce at home with your child as they are reading with you, when they are in the stage of developing reader. Next blog entry will include some more advanced strategies to use with developing readers as they grow and learn on the amazing journey to becoming proficient, joyous readers!
Lorraine Kinsman
Principal, Eric Harvie School
