Each night I sit with my daughter, Logan, and I read to her. It is my favorite part of the day. I’ve done it since her birth. Each night, we take out one of our canvas bags of books and sit on the comfy chair. We chant the rhymes, sing the songs, and share the lines of our books. It is our routine, and I do not know how I ever lived without it. When I discuss this with any friends, they always make comments like, "She’ll probably read before she’s three with you as her father." Well, it would be great if she did, but for now my focus is developing her language, her knowledge of how books work, and mainly her love for books.

Seven years later, she's a reading dynamo.  Each night, she goes into her bed to read.  It isn't her homework she is reading. It is just her routine.  She is tops in her class, and feeling very successful.   

I hadn’t really thought of my knowledge as a reading specialist as such an advantage, but as I see her develop her pre-reading skills, I guess it is. That knowledge base, and my ability to use it, is what lead me to write this book and develop this site. From this information, I hope to give other parents the insight and ability to develop their own child’s reading skills.

When I originally outlined this book many months ago, I thought about all the parents out there working so hard to educate their children. I couldn’t help but wonder how many of them were struggling, not really knowing what to do. I wondered how many made up their curriculum from workbooks found in a teacher supply store. This troubled me. I went back and reviewed some parent training information I put together for my elementary school, updated it, revised it, and made it more reader friendly. This became the basis for my book.

When I began the writing this document, I pulled together all the major pieces of reading theory. The researched strategies and philosophies are embedded in my book, but I reworded them without the educational jargon. Some of the major researched components include:

• The three types of reading instruction your child needs every day.

• Reading to the child

  Reading with the child

  Reading by the child

• Learning Theory
• Phonemic Awareness
• Phonics
• Guided Reading
• Decoding
• Print Awareness

Reading to the child, reading with the child, and reading by the child, should be part of any reading instruction either at home or in the classroom. Reading to the child is one instructional strategy that is practiced in many homes, but it is not utilized to its best potential. In Section 1, there are some useful ideas and tips to get the most out of this time. Reading with the child is where most of the teaching takes place for beginning readers. This is the time when your child will read to you using a process called Guided Reading. Reading by the child is your child’s silent reading time. This is the time they use to read books at their level independently. (This will look different for children at each level. All three of these sections are discussed in detail in my book.

All reading instruction ( and any instruction in general) should follow the guidelines set by learning theorist. When developing all my lessons, I always base them on learning theory. My model for learning includes modeling what you expect the child to do, guiding them in practice, giving them time to practice without interference, and assessing for mastery. This process is necessary for all learning to take place.

Phonemic Awareness is the number one determiner of a child’s reading success. If students do not have Phonemic Awareness, they will struggle. What is Phonemic Awareness, and why is it some important? Well to start with Phonemic Awareness is made up of several components. First, Phonemic Awareness is a child’s ability to discriminate the sounds that make up words. Second, it is the ability to break up words by the sounds they make, and the ability to put words together after hearing its sounds. For instance, if I say, " What word is made from the sounds /d/ - /o/ - /g/. Finally, it is the ability to discriminate the position of the sounds within the word. Phonemic Awareness is developed through rhymes and word play. Examples of these are discussed in Section 2.

Phonics is the ability to know the sounds that particular letters make. Phonics not only covers single sounds, but blends, digraphs, and diphthongs. In my books, I cover all three of these, along with word families and letter clusters. Although I do not have a complete phonics program in my book, I do show you how to get the most out of your program, and how you can successfully teach your child this essential skill.

All this reading information is necessary to teach your child to read. Don’t let "canned programs" fool you. As your child’s main educator, you must know how to teach them correctly. No workbook or teacher guide can do it for you properly.

 

 

 

 

 

Section 1

Reading to Your Child

 

 

As I said in the introduction, the best part of my day is when I read with my two-year-old daughter. Each night after her bath, we sit on our green chair with a bag full of books and read. When she was very little (less than nine months), she really struggled during this time. She was more interested in tasting the book than reading it (and sitting was the last thing she wanted to do), but I stayed with it by reading for as long as she would let me, I found out which books were her favorites, and we began our nightly routine. Now at age two, she is a lover of books. Each night we grab one of our five canvas bags full of books and read on that same green chair.

I read differently at two, than I did when she was 9 months. For instance, I often stop mid-sentence, and let her finish it for me, question her about the book, and point out parts that are important.

I really enjoy this time, and I’m sure she can feel my enthusiasm.

 

Reading Aloud

Reading out loud to your child is one of the most important things you can do for your child’s reading development. It build prior knowledge, gives you an opportunity to model excellent book and reading skills, and develops your child’s love of reading. Even as an adult many of us can still remember being read to by our parents.

For home schooling, you will want to read to them more than once per day. As your child’s teacher, I would have it be part of your daily lessons. Here you would use it as primarily as a teaching tool, by modeling proficient reading skills. I would also have it be part of your day when you are the loving parent. The goal here is to be close to your child and enjoy your time together. Below is a list of things you can do to be successful when reading aloud. Although the first one is for the "loving parent" part of your day, I think it also works for your teaching part. There is nothing that keeps children more on task than routines.

What you need to do to be successful

Get into a routine

When there is a routine, both you and the child will be expecting it, so there wont be a thought of leaving it for the next night. Choose a comfortable place and time. Try to stick to the routine as much as possible. Make it a priority.

 

Use the time to model good reading skills

While your reading and you come to a word that is hard to decode, think out loud while solving it. Show them what you do as a proficient reader.

Ask questions, predict, clarify, and summarize while you read.

As a high school reading teacher, I still do this as I read to my students (actually, I do all these things). Beginning readers, as well as, struggling readers need to have this reinforcement as much as possible. This can be done by you, the child or both (I think the last one is the best).

4. Use your voice

When reading a story, make it interesting by doing different character’s voices, sounding surprised, or acting sad. Take what the story gives you and be dramatic.

Help build their vocabulary

While reading, and rereading books, take time to discuss the vocabulary. Point out words that are new or unfamiliar, and use some of the strategies below to help solve their meaning.

Use the story’s (or sentence’s) meaning to help solve the word. For example:

For my lunch, I ate a bologna sandwich.

This sentence is almost unreadable because of the word bologna. If you help them use the sentence’s meaning (It was something for lunch), then they have a better shot of solving it.

Teach these commonly used prefixes to help build vocabulary

Un = not unhappy =not happy

Re = again replay = play again

Non = not nonfat = not fat

 

Just remember that one of the main purposes of reading aloud is to make reading enjoyable for your child. They should learn that reading is fun, but if you get too carried away with questioning, predicting, and clarifying, you could do the opposite.

When you are going to pick a book to read aloud, you need to keep some things in mind.

The book should be one or two years above their reading level. This will help develop their oral language and vocabulary. I have a friend that tried Charlotte’s Web with his 3 ½ year old. He was so surprised by how well his son did listening to it.

It should be interesting. I try to find books that are both interesting to the child, and to me. You can beat a book that has both of you interested in it.

You should read both fiction and nonfiction. As you child gets older, most of their educational reading will move toward nonfiction. Keep a good balance between the two types.

Find books that teach your child something positive. Find strong characters. For girls, find books where the girls in the book are positive role models. This is not always easy to find.

 

Book Level

Since you are going to read this book to your child, the book should be harder than what they can read comfortably. At this early age, your child’s verbal ability (the age level that they speak at) is higher than their reading ability, and their listening ability (the age level that they listen and comprehend what is said to them) is higher than their verbal ability. Because of this, when they reach about 3-4 years old, you should be able to read small chapter books such as Charlotte’s Web. Each night you may have to recap, but they will remember.

Did I say this is a great way to build vocabulary!

Of course depending on your money situation, there are three ways to get books easily; the library, the bookstore, and a mix of the two. I think the third way is best.

The reason I say the third way is because I believe your child should own their favorite books. They should have books that they can call their very own, especially the ones they really enjoy. They certainly do not need to own them all though, so that’s the library’s function.

In my lessons, I use books based around a theme. Reading books around a theme, gets children interested. This interest can lead to further study (if it’s nonfiction), or it can lead to reading books by the same author or genre (such as mystery, drama, or realistic fiction). Checking out a number of books on the same subject or theme can be a great motivator for reading. Themes could include friendship or sharing, and subjects could include dinosaurs or farms.

Children at this age can enjoy both fiction and nonfiction. These can be mixed within themes, as in my lessons, or randomly. Remember, most of the reading that your child will do as they get closer to college, will be nonfiction. Give them the head start and the skills to be prepared.

There are six things you should do if you want to be successful reading to your child.

Get into a routine.

Use your time to model proficient reading skills.

Ask questions, predict, and clarify with your child as you read.

Use your voice to make the story more enjoyable and dramatic.

Help build their vocabulary.

Have fun!

When picking a book to read aloud to your child, you should keep these tings in mind:

Find a book that is above your child’s reading level.

Find books with good role models.

Find books, subjects, or themes that your child is interested in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Section 2

Print Awareness

 

 

By four or five, children have varied levels of book knowledge. Many children I have worked with have little or no valuable book knowledge. This lack of knowledge has been one of the reasons for their lack of success. Print Awareness is the term that has been given to this early reading skill. Often we take for granted the child’s knowledge of how a book works. Think about these questions:

Does your child know where the title is?

Does your child know where the front of the book is?

Does your child know where on the page they should begin reading?

When your child gets to the end of a row, does he/she know where go next on the page?

These are some of the important pieces of Print Awareness that a child needs to know. Of course these are not the only parts to reading, but the knowledge of how to use a book, and how a book is organized is a very important part.

I am going to break Print Awareness into 3 categories. The first category is Book Handling. Second is Print Directionality, and third is Letter and Word Knowledge.

 

Book Handling

Book handling refers to the way your child manipulates the book. These are the things you should look for:

Where is the front of the book?

Does your child turn the pages left to right?

Does your child hold the book correctly?

You can assess these three skills very easily, by just observing your child while he/she uses a book by himself (herself). To test them, hand them a book, but hand it to them upside down and backward. Watch as they decide where to begin looking at the book. Second, ask them to turn the pages and tell you what is happening on the pages. Watch how they manipulate the book. Do they start at the beginning or just at a random page? Do they hold the book from the bottom or on the sides?

When assessing how your child holds their book, make sure that the book is level (parallel) with their face. Having the book at a slant causes the eyes to refocus with every new line. This can cause the eyes to get tired, especially as they get older and the number of words on the page increase.

If you find that your child needs work in any of these areas, explain how you hold the book, or how you turn the pages and why you do it that way. Each time you read together, remind them of what you discussed, until it becomes just a natural part of their reading.

 

Directionality

There are four main parts to directionality:

Does you child understand the top and the bottom of the page?

Does your child know to start on the top left of the page?

Does you child have one-to-one correspondence (the knowledge that one written word stands for one spoken word?

Does your child move his/her eyes (or finger) from left to right, and word by word, and then return to the next line’s beginning?

Your child’s ability to do these skills will be primarily based on their prior experience with books. If they were read to a lot in their early years, many of these skills were just absorbed, but that is not a guarantee. By asking your child to perform these skills, you will have a better understanding of their book knowledge.

If they do not know these skills, then you need to spend some time reading to them, and pointing these facts out. As I discussed earlier, point out what you do as a proficient reader. Do it each time you read, stopping periodically to ask questions.

 

Letter and Word Knowledge

This pre-reading skill is not the letters and their sounds. Actually, this part of Print Awareness is the ability to recognize a letter, a word, the first and last letter in a word, both in a book and in isolation.

Here are the skills to know:

Can your child locate one letter and then two letters?

Can your child locate one word and then two words?

Can your child locate a word’s first letter and then the last letter?

Can your child identify a capital letter and then the same lower case letter?

If you find a lack of any of these skills, you should continue to remind your child of these skills while you read to them. For "locating words", try reading a page, and while you read put one finger on each side of the words. Do this word by word to show them that you read each word individually.

Another strategy for developing one-to-one correspondence with words is after reading to your child, have them retell the story to you. Record what they say in large print leaving a little extra space between the words. After recording their retelling on paper, have them read it back to you (or read it to them). Point out each word with your fingers (by placing one finger on the side of each word). You can also have them circle capital letters or the first or last letter of a word, or have them find a capital letter and a lower case letter that match and circle them in a different color.

There is no limit to what they can look for within a piece of writing. Since it is their own language, they are more aware of what is written.

 

Final Thoughts on Print Awareness

Although these skills are not focussing on the sounds and the letters that match, they are the skills that a pre-reader requires to read. Most of them come naturally when children are read to on a consistent basis. If for some reason your child did not catch on to one of them, its not the end of the world. As you read to them, give gentle reminders. The skills will come.

Do not force these skills too quickly. Children need to enjoy books too. If not, they will not read even if they have the skills. Point out one or two things per reading, and do not overwhelm them.

The next two pages are checklists. If this would make it easier, check off skills that you see your child using. This will help you keep focussed on the skills you need to work on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading Checklist for

Print Awareness

Name _________________________

Print Awareness Checklist
Book Handling Does your child know: Date when observed
I. Front of Book
II. Back of Book
III. Child turns the book pages from left to right
IV. Book is held correctly (parallel to face)
Directionality Does your child know:
I. Top and bottom of book
II. Start in the upper left corner
III. One to one correspondence
IV. Tracks the print from left to right
V. Returns to next line when finished
Letter and Word Knowledge
I. Can locate one letter
II. Can locate two letters
III. Can locate one word
IV. Can locate two letters
V. Can locate first and last letter of a word
VI. Identify a letter (both capital and lower case)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading Checklist for

Print Awareness

Name _______________________

Print Awareness Checklist
Book Handling Does your child know: Date when observed
I. Front of Book
II. Back of Book
III. Child turns the book pages from left to right
IV. Book is held correctly (parallel to face)
Directionality Does your child know:
I. Top and bottom of book
II. Start in the upper left corner
III. One to one correspondence
IV. Tracks the print from left to right
V. Returns to next line when finished
Letter and Word Knowledge
I. Can locate one letter
II. Can locate two letters
III. Can locate one word
IV. Can locate two letters
V. Can locate first and last letter of a word
VI. Identify a letter (both capital and lower case)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Section 3

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic Awareness is the Number 1 indicator of a child’s reading success.

Yes, this is a true statement. So the question is then, "What is Phonemic Awareness?" Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in spoken language. Where as Phonics is the knowledge of sounds and the letters that make them, Phonemic Awareness is the knowledge of the sounds within spoken words. The term comes from "phoneme" meaning, "sound".

Why is it important?

It is important for reading, because children need to understand that words are made up of different sounds (phonemes) that are blended together. Later, when they begin decoding unknown words by using phonics, they will be more successful. If they didn’t have phonemic awareness, phonics would make no sense to them. This lack of understanding is the reason many children struggle with reading so early in their school career.

Haley Yopp, a reading researcher at Cal State University, Fullerton, breaks down Phonemic Awareness into seven categories.

For these examples, anytime you see letters in between slash marks, it represents the sound of that letter (Example /a/ is the short "a" sound)

Rhymes: The ability to hear and distinguish words that rhyme. ( fish/dish)

Phonemic Blending: When given two or more sounds, the child can blend them together.

Parent: What is /a/ - /t/?

Child: at

Phoneme Counting: This is the ability to count the number of sounds in a word.

Parent: How many sounds are in the word /b/ /a/ /t/?

Child: 3

Phonemic Isolation: This is the ability to find the beginning, middle, or ending sound of a word. Questions asked could include:

a) Parent: What is the first sound in dog?

Child: /d/

Parent: What is the last sound in dog?

Child: /g/

Parent: What is the middle sound in dog?

Child: /o/

Phoneme segmentation: This is the ability to break a word down into its Phonemes (sounds).

Parent: Name all the sounds you hear in spin

Child: /s/ /p/ /i/ /n/

Phonemic Substitution: This is the ability to change one of the sounds within a word.

Parent: If you change the /b/ sound in bake to a /l/ sound, what new word will you make?

Child: Lake

This can be done for any sound in the word. It could be the beginning or middle or ending sound also.

Phonemic Deletion: This is the ability to remove a sound from a word to make a new word.

Parent: What word would we have if we took /s/ off spin?

Child: Pin

As with Phonemic Substitution, this can be done for the sounds in different parts of the word.

 

This is probably the next crucial question. Phonemic awareness is taught through spoken language. Nursery rhymes and word play are two great ways to get your child the background in phonemic awareness that they need to be successful. Getting your child to play word games that manipulate sounds is also important. For instance, playing "I Spy" with things that begin or end with the /b/ sound, helps the child listen for sounds. Playing the same game, but change it by saying, "I spy something that rhymes with boat,"(coat) has the child manipulate the first sound of the rhyming word.

Recently in the news, phonics instruction has controlled the educational news, but even before that should and can be taught, the child needs some phonemic awareness. Of course, this ability does not come all at once. It is developed as a child is ready (just as a child develops any skill or ability), and continues to grow until the child has understanding. In a classroom, Phonemic Awareness is taught over the child’s first few years. At the first level, the child would focus on rhyming words, and beginning sounds. Later, the child would move towards middle and ending sounds, as well as, phonemic segmentation. Finally, the focus would be on phonemic substitution and deletion. This ability can be taught to older students that did not get read to enough, and missed out on it in their early years. As a matter of fact, I just did a lesson on it with my high school class last week.

(Phonemic awareness activities are included at the end of this section.)

Before beginning phonemic awareness activities, it is a good idea to check and see how well your child has developed their phonemic awareness skills. To do this, I have put together some assessments for you to give to your child (See Appendix A at the end of this section). Use these assessments to check on your child’s progress. By completing these tests, you will have a better understanding of what you need to focus on in the future.

The Phonemic Awareness Activities section is broken up into three parts. The first part is the pre-reader part. This is for the child that is just becoming aware of letters and sounds. On the Phonemic Awareness Assessments, he/she did poorly at all levels, although they may have had some success in the first few sections. The second part is the beginning-reader part. This is for children that are beginning to read. They did pretty good on many of the Phonemic Awareness Assessments, but struggled with the last few assessments. Finally there is the early-reader part. This is for the students that just need help in the last few assessments.

Phonemic Awareness for the Pre-reader

Phonemic Awareness at this young age consists mostly of rhymes and games. The purpose of the activities at this age is:

Help them hear and then create rhyming words.

Give them the skills to blend sounds together.

To use songs and rhymes to develop sound awareness.

These activities are not in any particular order. Feel free to use them as they are, or develop them into something that fits your needs.

Onset and Rimes

At the earliest of ages, children can begin to develop a sense of phonemic awareness. As I go through my day, I pose questions to my daughter. I might say, "Guess what time it is? It is /ba/ time." She will hear the beginning of the word, and guess "bath". What I am doing is giving her the onset of the word, and she is guessing the rime (different from the rhyme), The onset is the first part of the word, and the rime is the ending. I do not do this all the time, but I do it enough, so that she is aware of my goal. This is great way to start phonemic awareness.

Later, as my child develops some more phonemic awareness skills, I will do the same thing, but give the sounds separately. I might say, "Are you ready to eat /d/ /i/?" What I will expect is for her to say "dinner".

Nursery Rhymes

Nursery rhymes have been around a long time, and they have played an important role in developing phonemic awareness in generations of children. Until recently though, we did not know how important they are for development. They can be use to teach rhymes, and the fluency of language.

When I read them to my daughter or to a kindergarten class, I try to get the child to predict what will come next based on the word it rhymes with. I might read the first line and stop before the rhyming word on the second line.

As the child gets further along in development, you can write down all the rhyming words within the nursery rhyme, and look at patterns. For instance, if you read "Jack and Jill ", you might record these on some paper:

Jill – hill

down – crown

Have your child notice that the "rime" is the same on each set of words ( -ill, -own)

Another thing you can do with nursery rhymes is to change the first letter of all the words to focus on a particular sound. "Jack and Jill" might become "Tack and Till". The poem could go like this:

Tack and Till

Tent tup the till

To Tetch ta tail of tater

Tack tell town

Tand troke tis trown

and till tame tumbling tafter

Of course, some nursery rhymes work better in these situations than others, but the idea is to get your child to manipulate the beginning sounds of a word

Rhyming pairs

It is important for your child to be able to distinguish words that do and do not rhyme. A simple activity is to say sets of two words to your child. Some of the words should rhyme and others should not. Have them make a noise or action each time you say a rhyming pair.

For example, Every time you say a pair that rhyme, your child could clap two times, or snap their fingers.

Make up poems that teach sounds and blending

First you take a /f/.

Then you take a /ly/.

Put them all together,

And you get "fly".

These kinds of rhymes are easy to make up, and your child will enjoy doing it with you.

Onset and rime cards

Using 3x5 cards, record some beginning sounds and blends. On separate cards write down some or all of the 37 word parts found in Appendix B & C of this section. Pick one onset and one rime, and blend them together. Change the onset to a new sound and blend that. Next try a new onset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can continue this with different onsets and rimes. As your child skills continue to develop, you can keep the onset and change the rime each time.

Blending with moving

Some children are very active, and need some movement while they learn. Many programs now have children do movement, which help them physically feel the blend. This activity could really help these children.

Arm blending

As the child says the sounds of the word, they touch their arm. The first sound begins at the joint, and the next two or three sounds move down toward the hand. After they have made all the sound’s sounds, they slide their fingers along their arm and blend the sounds together.

It would sound like this, "/c/ - /a/ - /t/ - cat."

This same action can be done with a tap-tap-tap-punch. This action can take place in the air in front of them.

Try some of your own actions or have your child make them up (They are always more inventive than we are. When making them up, just be sure that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the movements and the sounds.

Phonemic Awareness at this young age consists mostly of taking apart and putting together the sounds within a word. The purpose of each activity at this age is to:

Develop a sense of the number of sounds in a word.

Help the child hear the beginning, middle, and ending sounds in a word.

Develop a sense of all the sounds that make up a word.

Syllable Counting

Syllable counting is one of those activities most of us remember from school. Our First Grade teacher would stand up in front of us and clap for each syllable in a word, "Happy" –Clap-Clap. This activity is important to your child. Later when your child learns to decode or spell larger words, syllables give clues that will help.

Some activities with counting syllables could be:

Graphing the number on a chart.

Tapping on a drum or surface.

Snapping fingers

Scavenger Hunt

When focussing on the sounds made in the beginning, middle, and end of a word, one fun activity is to have a scavenger hunt. Have your child look through the house (or a magazine) for things that have a particular sound in their beginning, middle, or end. They might even look for things that begin with a blend (such as "st" or "pr") or a digraph (such as "th" or "sh").

Phoneme Train

This is fun, but difficult activity (although once your child gets the concept, it relatively easy). You begin with a small word, like "hat". Then you take the ending sound /t/, and begin the next word with it (top). You continue this process, adding a new word on each time.

hat-top-pin-new-oops-sip…

If you were not sure about "new" to "oops", remember it is the beginning and ending sounds –not letters.

I Spy

"I Spy" is a great game to work on phonemic awareness. You can use it with beginning, middle, and ending sounds. Similar to the other games, this is a game that can be played anywhere or any time.

The game begins by you saying, " I spy something that begins with /p/." Your child would than look for things around the room (or where ever you are) that begin with that letter. As they progress, you can use the middle and ending sounds as well.

Push the Sounds

This is activity to help children blend together sounds. It is another activity that works well for children that are active, because it has movement. You begin by using a chart like the one below. As the child says a word such as "hot", they slide up one penny (or any object) for each phoneme (sound). If the word has more or less than three phonemes, you add or take away the squares.

1	2	3

Phonemic Awareness at this level consists mostly of sound manipulation. The purpose of each activity at this age is to:

Develop the ability to manipulate sounds at the beginning, middle, or end of a word by changing them.

Develop the ability to manipulate sounds at the beginning, middle, or end of a word by or removing them.

Since the main focus at this level is phoneme deletion and substitution, many of the activities are variations of earlier games. While playing word games like I Spy in the car, you could ask, "If you took the /ee/ out of seat, and replaced it with /a/, what new word would you have?" Many of the activities already have variations written for them.

Word Lists

Creating word lists on large sheets of paper are a good way for your child to see patterns for a particular sound. The chart could be labeled " Words That End With -----ish". Then on your chart, put on words like dish, wish, or fishing.

Be aware while you are reading.

Phonemic substitution and deletion also help in other areas. While reading books with your child, point out words that are slight variations on other words. For example, past and fast, or sick and sack, or with and will. Each pair has one different part. The first pair has different beginnings; the second have different middles, and last have different endings. By pointing this out, the child will become a better speller.

When they are sounding words out to spell, they will try the same procedure. For example, if your child is spelling wishful, say ‘Do you hear the /ish/ sound like in fish or dish?" Be sure to point out this when you are writing with them.

 

 

Summary

Phonemic Awareness is an important part of the reading puzzle. Children need to be proficient at the seven parts which include:

Rhymes: The ability to hear and distinguish words that rhyme. ( fish/dish)

Phonemic Blending: When given two or more sounds, the child can blend them together.

Phoneme Counting: This is the ability to count the number of sounds in a word.

 

Phonemic Isolation: This is the ability to find the beginning, middle, or ending sound of a word.

Phoneme segmentation: This is the ability to break a word down into its Phonemes (sounds).

Phonemic Substitution: This is the ability to change one of the sounds in a word.

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Phonemic Deletion: This is the ability to remove a sound from a word to make a new word

Before beginning the phonemic awareness activities, assess the student using the Assessment Activities in Appendix A. After you get a general idea of where your child is, begin the activities that will best support him/her.

Enjoy these activities. They are the type of activities that your child will love, and they can be used anywhere and at any time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix A

Phonemic Awareness Assessment

Each test consists of a series of questions. Use the following information to get an idea with each assessment. This will tell you whether you need to focus on that area or move to another.

Number Correct	What it means
10/10 9/10	The child understands this concept. If you feel it may be necessary, occasionally review this area
8/10 7/10 6/10	The child is moving toward mastery in this area. Continue to teach this concept. Look for particular sounds that might be troublesome.
Less than 6/10	Your child needs work in this area. **Continue to use some of the activities in the book each day to move them along.

** If your child is real young and immature, do not push them to a point where they begin to dislike the word games or rhymes. If this happens they may just shut down and not try any more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phonemic Rhyming A

Directions: Ask your child, Do these pairs of words rhyme? Then record the number correct.

Rhyming Words	Date the test was given
1. toy-boy
2. say-day
3. hot-cold
4. map-sap
5. lid-kid
6. fun-fan
7. honey-funny
8. top-tip
8. man-can
9. face-race
9. play-game
10. run-fast
Total Correct

 

 

 

Phonemic Rhyming B

Directions: Tell your child, What word rhymes with …? Record the number correct.

Rhyming Word	Date the test was given
1. mop
2. sun-
3. rat
4. mit
5. took
6. lip
7. rub
8. fry
9. same
10 hand
Total Score

 

 

 

Phonemic Blending

Directions: You will be asking your child to give you the word by giving them the phonemes (sounds) of the word. For example on Number 1, your will say, What word is /a/- /t/? You will make the short "a" sound them the "t" sound. They should say "at".

Blends	Date the test was given
1. a-t
2. t-o-p
3. g-ir-l
4. r-e-d
5. h-a-pp-y
6. m-a-n
7. b-a-t
8. s-i-ll-y
9. g-r-a-b
10. p-a-n-t-s
Total Score

 

 

Phoneme Counting

Directions: Ask your child, How many sounds (phonemes) do you hear? Record the number correct. Number 1 would be two.

Blends	Date the test was given
1. a-t
2. t-o-p
3. g-ir-l
4. r-e-d
5. h-a-pp-y
6. m-a-n
7. b-a-t
8. s-i-ll-y
9. g-r-a-b
10. p-a-n-t-s
Total Score

 

Phoneme Isolation

Directions: Ask your child, What is the first (last or middle) sound you hear in…?

First
1. cat
2. fish
3. dog
4. little
Last
5. hot
6. big
7. drop
Middle
8. sat
9. duck
10. feet
Total Score

 

Phoneme Segmentation

Directions: Ask your child, Listen to these words, and tell me all the sounds you hear.

For example, in number one your child would give the /a/ and /t/ sound.

Words	Date the test was given
1. a-t
2. r-u-g
3. g-ir-l
4. t-i-p
5. h-a-pp-y
6. m-a-ke
7. b-a-th
8. s-i-ll-y
9. g-r-a-b
10. p-ai-n-t
Total Score

 

Phoneme Substitution

Directions: Ask your child, Replace the first sound you hear in _____ with _____. Tell me the new word. You will give your child a word such as cat, and tell them to change the /c/ to /b/. The new word would be bat.

Word	Sound that’s added	Date of Testing
1. cat	/b/
2. bull	/p/
3. jump	/b/
4. corn	/h/
5. pick	/s/
6. wig	/d/
7. bell	/t/
8. jug	/b/
9. mop	/t/
10. rip	/s/
Total Score

 

 

 

Phoneme Deletion

Directions: Ask your child, What word would we have if we took the ____sound from _____? Your child will drop the sound and tell you the new word. For example, if you took the /s/ sound from spin, you would have pin.

Word	Sound that’s removed	Date of Testing
1. spin	/s/
2. cat	/c/
3. trick	/t/
4. drip	/d/
5. pup	/p/
6. table	/t/
7. brake	/b/
8. fall	/f/
9. sport	/s/
10. draw	/r/
Total Score

 

Appendix B: Word Parts List

500 primary words are derived from these 37 word parts.

Word Parts

-ack

-ank

-an

-ap

-ash

-at

-ell

-est

-ick

-ill

-in

-ink

-ip

-ir

-ock

-op

-uck

-ug

-unk

-ump

-ail

-ain

-ale

-ame

-ate

-eat

-ite

-ide

-ight

-ine

-oke

-or

-ore

-ake

-ay

-ice

-ing

-aw

Section 4

Decoding

 

 

There are so many aspects of decoding, that I felt it was necessary to write about them separately. Decoding is what we do to solve unknown words. Often we just tell our children to sound it out, but there is so much more to it. To make it clear, I am going to give you some of the research on how we all read. I’ll try and stay away from education jargon, and make it clear.

When skillful readers read, they blend three strategies together. Without all three strategies, the reader will struggle in their reading. The three strategies are referred to by reading researchers as "The Cueing System". The cueing system is divided into phonics, meaning, and sentence structure. Each of these is interwoven, and plays an equal part.

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The Cueing System

When we read a book (or any type of text), we use many parts of the sentence to gain insight. These clues come in the form of phonics (the letter-sound relationship), the meaning of the sentence (or the whole text), and the sentence’s structure. These three parts are blended together to decode not only what is written, but to comprehend what it means.

Let’s look at the three parts in a diagram (See below). Each of these skills overlaps into the other, but without all three you never really get all the  text’s meaning. As a reading specialist, I assess my students on all three of these areas. What I have found is that usually the older readers (ages ranging from 9-18) are missing one of these three strategies. As your child gets older and the books get longer and harder, all three parts to the cueing system need to be in place. The best time to take care of these problems is now, before they start.

                                 Phonics

            

 

 

 

 

 

Sentence               Meaning

Structure

 

Phonics

In order to read, there is no doubt that the child needs to know the letters and their sounds. Even if the words do not sound like they are spelled, they still give us clues to the unknown word. But there is more to reading than just the individual letters and their sounds, There are blends (sl, br, st), digraphs ( ch, sh, th), and dipthongs (ou, ow), vowel families (ea, oa).

 

Teaching Phonics

The job of teaching your child has two parts. The first is learning the letters and their sounds individually, and the other is to know them in a word, and in different combinations. For the first part, I recommend getting a phonics program. It has to be a systematic, explicit program. Programs like "Hooked on Phonics" are good supplements to these programs, but should not be your whole phonics program. The second part is going to come within a book or story. As discussed in Section 2, Print Awareness, your child has to know that these letters and their sounds are put together to make words, and the words are used to build sentences. As you read with your child this can be pointed out to your child. If you read a rhyming book, use the words as a post reading activity to teach that family of letters. An example could be teaching the "-at" blend from The Cat in the Hat".

Meaning

The ultimate purpose of all reading is to make sense of the text. Even as an adult reader, there are times when I come to words I do not know. Sometimes they are in my spoken vocabulary (and I have never seen them in print), and sometimes they are not. When I am reading and this happens, the first thing I ask myself is "What does the word mean in this sentence?" For example, if your child did not know the word "breeze" when you saw it in a sentence, you might look at the way it is being used within sentence:

The breeze blew the leaves around the yard.

The sentence’s clues lead you to the word’s meaning. To model this to my child, I would say out loud, "The blank blew the leaves around the yard. What kind of thing could blow the leaves around outside? Wind could, but that doesn’t begin with br." Then I would model how to sound out the rest of the word. After sounding it out, I would need to check to see if it made sense in the sentence.

 

Sentence Structure

Here is a small quiz. Read this sentence and answer the questions.

The googly gloop dwiddled cloggingly.

Now see if you can answer these three questions.

What kind of gloop was it?

What did the gloop do?

How did the gloop dwiddle?

How were you able to answer those questions when they were not even real words? You did it, because you know sentence structure. You knew what kind of gloop it was, because in English the adjective always comes before the noun and after the article "The". You knew what the gloop did because of the "-ed" ending on dwiddled, and you knew "how it dwiddled" by the "-ly" ending of the adverb cloggingly. This information is important, because we do these things unconsciously. Most of us never knew we did it. This is something we need to point out to our child as the read.

When your child gets stuck on a word, point out any clues such as –ed or –ing. Explain to them what the suffix does to the root word.

 

How to teach the cueing system

A few years back, group of teachers at my school came up with a list of strategies our students could use when they were decoding unknown words. Some of these came from a list that was of an unknown origin. If I knew who first drafted this, I would have liked to give them the credit. These steps can be used to remind the student of the process.

	What to do when you are stuck on a word   1.      Picture the word – Look at the picture for clues.   2.      Blank the word – Reread the sentence, and say blank in place of the word.  What word would make sense there?   3.      Blend the word – Blend some of the sounds together.   4.      Break the word – Break the word into smaller words       (Example: Together/ to-geth-er , raincoat/rain-coat   5.      Ask the word – Do you really need to know this word to understand the sentence?   If so, ask someone for help.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like all learning, the cueing system needs to be modeled by the teacher/parent. Second, the child needs to have some guided practice, and finally some time to practice on their own. When you are reading aloud to your child, modeling can show the child how to put the three parts of the cueing system into action. For example, if your child read the sentence, "The puppy barked at the cat," but got stuck at the word "barked", you could try something like this:

Child: The puppy b-b-bar- I don’t know this word.

Parent: (after waiting 5- 10 seconds) What do you think the puppy might do in this sentence? The puppy Blanked at the cat. It sounds like a kind of action, because it did it to the cat.

Child: Is it barked?

Parent: Let’s say the sound of the first letters and see if that makes sense.

It begins B-AR

Child: Yes it is! That’s how bark begins.

By guiding the child through all three parts of the cueing system, you are teaching them how to be successful in reading.

 

When Your Child Makes a Mistake

When children are reading, they can make two types of mistakes. Some mistakes require you to interrupt their reading, and guide them to the correct word by using a decoding strategy. Other mistakes are good mistakes. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but it isn’t really. Let me give you an example of a good mistake and a bad one. Try to figure out why a good mistake is possible.

Original sentence – The boy ran back to his house to get his glove.

Good mistake - The boy ran back home to get his glove.

Bad mistake - The boy ran back to his horse to get his glove.

I think it is obvious that the good mistake does not change the meaning of the sentence. This child is doing what all good readers do as they read; making sense of the text. By predicting the words based on the story so far, the child was able to surmise what was coming up. This would be one instance where I would not interrupt the child’s reading. (Although if it became a constant problem, I would.)

The bad mistake sentence is a place where you would stop the child’s reading. I would ask, " Did that make sense to you? Let me read it back to you the way you said it." By rereading it to them the same way they read it, you can point out how important it is for the text to make sense. If they still couldn’t get the word, then you would go to the decoding steps.

When giving constructive criticism, give some positive feedback first. Telling a child what they do right is as important as what they are doing wrong. The idea behind teaching is we add on to the skills they already have. Also, when your child does get stuck, wait 5 to 10 seconds before you do anything. If you jump in too quick, he/she will start to depend on you, and quit trying on his/her own.

 

Strategies

 

There are some useful rules for syllabication that you can teach your child at an early age. These "so called" rules do not always work, but they will most of the time. You can teach these skills, give some examples of words with them, and then model them as you read with your child.

Prior knowledge needed:

The difference between a vowel (a,e,i,o,u, and sometimes y )and a consonant (all the rest)

Vowels have two sounds. Their long sound and the short sound. They also need to know one is long and which one is short.

Words can be broken down into syllables. Often we have children clap them out. For example, the word hippo would get two claps (hip-po)

Rule 1. When a syllable ends with a consonant, it make the short vowel sound. This is called a closed syllable. (Closed syllables are words that end in a consonant; Cat, pot, dog, mat/ter)

Rule 2. When a syllable ends with a vowel, it make the long vowel sound. This is called a open syllable. (Open syllables end with a vowel. bo-nus, re-play, so)

Rule 3. When there are two of the same consonants together, divide the syllable between them. (bat/tle, hap/py)

Rule 4. When there are two different consonants together and they are between two vowels (unless they are blends or digraphs), divide between them. (sen/tence, en/ter)

Rule 5. Prefixes and suffixes are a syllable on their own. (Quick/ness)

 

Summary

Proficient readers use three strategies known to researchers as The Cueing System. Each part supports the other two, and without the all three parts of the cueing system in place, the reader will not be successful.

The three parts of the cueing system are:

Phonics – knowledge of the letter names and the sounds they make. (Including blends and digraphs)

Meaning – Unknown words can be decoded easier when the reader uses the meaning of the sentence to help them.

Sentence Structure – If we come to an unknown word, knowing its place in the sentence (noun, verb…etc.) can help us decode.

Wait five to ten seconds before helping a child. This help them to be problem solvers, instead of depending on you all the time. Also, before you give constructive criticism, tell the child what they are doing well, even if it’s a stretch. Nobody will work hard if they only get negative feedback.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Section 5

Guided Reading

How to read a book with your child

 

Learning theorist often agree that the best way to teach "anything to anybody" is to follow some basic rules.

Model or demonstrate what is expected of the learner. (As you model the skill, "think out loud" to give them some insight into what you are thinking.)

Give the learner time to practice with guidance from the instructor.

Give the learner time to practice alone without any consequences.

Test skill performance

Guided reading follows these steps. As the child reads, the parent/instructor guides them through the text. And then watches closely and rewards or instructs as needed. The focus is on the child’s decoding and comprehension skills. Acquiring these skills needs to start now, so the child will not be left struggling later in life.

Guide reading is a process. You can follow the steps and change them depending on the situation. This section will go through the steps of guided reading in depth.

 

 

Guided Reading

When reading a book with your child, it is important to follow three steps. The initial step is what reading researchers refer to as a "Book Walk". This prepares the child for what is to come. The second part is what to do while your child is reading the book to you (or with you). This includes strategies for both decoding and comprehension. The last step is what to do after the reading is completed. All three of these steps are important aspects for the reading instructor.

I will define each step separately; giving both an example and a list of strategies you can use with your child. This process should be done each time your child reads an unfamiliar book, and many of the strategies will be done every time they read with you.

 

Pre-Reading Strategies

At the early years of a child’s reading (anywhere from 4 to 11), many of the books that they read have words or concepts that are entirely new to them. Added on to that, many of the words that they know in their head have never been seen by them in written form. These two reasons are the basis for pre-reading. Pre-reading strategies are used to:

A. Build some knowledge of the book’s concepts, setting, or historical reference. For instance, if the child was reading a book about astronauts, and they did not know what astronauts do or what they have done I the past, the book would not have as much of an impact on them. By using a pre-reading strategy, background knowledge would be developed, thus giving the student a chance to more fully understand the material.

B. Pull out and discuss vocabulary that the student needs to be successful in reading the text.

Let me give you an example.

Image someone gave you a book on astrophysics, and asked you to read it. It would be difficult, because you probably have no background in that area. You probably would not understand the concepts or vocabulary, and so you would not get the gist of the book. This is how it is for your young readers. In order to be successful, they need to have a base of knowledge. Your job is to give it to them.

 

Strategy 1: The Book Walk

Step 1.

The book walk strategy is used to introduce to the child what will be in the book. As the parent or instructor, you will go through the book prior to reading it, and look for all the areas that might cause your child to be unsuccessful

Things to point out may include:

Difficult or unfamiliar vocabulary

References to other periods of time

References to unfamiliar settings.

d) Names that cannot be sounded out.

After you have determined the difficult vocabulary and concepts, it is time to begin the book walk with your child.

Step 2. You always begin a book by predicting what the book will be about. Look at the cover, the blurb of information on the back, the title, and the picture, anything that gives you a clue about the book’s contents. Model this process with your child by thinking it out loud. Once your child seems ready, let them do it with you. Ultimately, they will do it by themselves.

Step 3. Next, turn the pages and follow the story using the pictures as a guide. Continue predicting as you go, confirming and repredicting when incorrect. As you come to the words or concepts that you determined difficult, discuss them with your child. For instance, if the child is reading a book about a child running, and the author called it "sprinting", the dialogue might go like this:

Parent: What do you see in this picture?

Child: There’s a boy running to the ice cream truck.

Parent: Your right. That’s exactly what he’s doing. Do you know any other words for running? Especially if you’re running really fast?

Child: I know sprinting. That’s what Tommy calls it when we race outside.

Parent: Yes, that is another name.

This kind of dialogue would go on for every page, building your child’s understanding of what the story seems to be about, as well as, any words they might need to know later in the book. Remember you don’t have to point out the words on the page, just bring out the vocabulary, so they can use it later.

When you are done, begin the reading. This prereading strategy will help them be more successful.

Strategy 2: The Prior Knowledge Chart (KWL)

Before reading a book that is going to be used to gain knowledge (For example, a book on jungle animals), a KWL chart should be used with the child. This chart (See Diagram 1) has the child discuss what they already know about the subject, what they would like to learn about the subject, and after they are done reading, what they have learned about the subject.

 

What I know about ______	What I would like to know	What I have learned about _________

(Diagram 1, KWL chart)

The purpose of the KWL chart is to bring out everything the child knows about a subject. Researchers have concluded that all new knowledge needs to be attached to prior knowledge. Let me give you an example.

Lets pretend you read an article on the brain development of babies (something which you knew little about) in a parenting magazine. A few months later, you happen to turn to a TV channel that is presenting a special on the same subject, but in more detail. You would be able to understand more of that show, because you now had some background knowledge. If you had not read that article, you would have understood less.

By having your student do a KWL chart, you are activating their prior knowledge. The new material will be easier to read, and they will understand more of it.

Step 1. When filling in the first column (What I know), be sure to put what the student thinks she/he knows, even if you know its wrong. As you come to information that proves or disproves their statement, go back and discuss it. If they were wrong, you can revise their chart. At this age three responses will be sufficient.

Step 2. The next step is to find out what they would like to know about the subject. This can be done at different points throughout the reading. This is a harder skill than the first column, so your child will need some guidance. Model a few of your own, until they can contribute.

Before reading the book, do a book walk (see strategy 1) and see what the book is about. Then ask some questions, and record in Column 1.

While using the book walk strategy, you may come to things that your child wants to know. Put these questions on the chart. Later as you read, you may find the answer. This might lead to further study in other books on the same subject.

After you are done reading, new questions might be generated. This again can lead you to researching other books or types of media (Encyclopedias, CD ROM’s…etc) on the same subject.

Step 3. Begin to read the text with your child. As you read, periodically stop and either revise or add to the chart (Columns 2 and 3).

Step 4. Add the new information in the "What I Learned" column. The last two columns are ongoing. As the child generates new questions, add them to the list. This is a great way to promote interest in the subject matter. Ultimately, this is what real researchers do, just in another format.

Finally, it helps to do this on larger paper. You can have it visible, so it’s easy to see, and refer back to it while reading.

There is a copy of a KWL chart in Appendix A

 

Guided Reading- What to do while your child reads to you

As the parent/teacher, your job during the reading of a book is to guide the student through the book. You will direct their learning, by pointing out what they do well and what areas they need to work on, as well as, the parts of the book they need to focus on.

When your child is reading with you during a guided reading lesson, the appropriate book is one that is of high interest to the child, either nonfiction or fiction, and just above their comfortable reading level (they should have about 90% to 95% accuracy). You should have already done a book walk (and even a KWL chart for nonfiction), and picked out the places where you know you need to aide your child.

Before I start the Step 1of guided reading, I want to let you know that I will include the pre reading strategies as part of the guided reading process, so you can see the "whole picture". Earlier in this section, I went over it in more detail.

Also, before reading a new book, I always like to reread a book from the past few days. One that the child knows and is comfortable with. This teaches them fluency and builds confidence before the next book’s challenge.

Step 1

The first thing you will do with any book is read the title and look at the cover. Using this, you will have your child predict what they think will happen in the story.

Step 2

Begin looking through the book page by page. Discuss each page, pointing out the concepts that they might know. If you come to words they may not know, try to bring them out in conversation (See pre-reading). Go through the whole book this way, predicting and questioning with the child. This is how you set them up for success.

 

Step 3

Turn to the first page and read the title. This should be the title page. It usually restates the title and author’s name, and has another picture. Point out that this is the title page, and remind them of the authors’ name. When they need to find books on their own, finding favorite authors will be a great skill to have.

 

Step 4

Let the child begin to read the book. As they come to areas that they are stuck on, be patient. Give them time. Usually I like to wait 5and 10 seconds before I give any advice.

This is the time to use the decoding strategies discussed earlier in Section 4.

 

Decoding strategies

Picture it

Blank it

Blend it

Break it

Ask it

Every few times your child gets stuck, model out loud how you would solve the word. For example, let’s say your reading a book and the sentence goes like this:

The little girl ran to the counter, and gave the lady some money.

Now the child is reading along and gets stuck on counter. You wait 5 to 10 seconds, and she is still stuck. The parents thinking out loud could go like this:

Parent: Mary, let me show you how I would figure this word out. First, I looked at the picture and saw the girl was in a store, and that she was probably going to buy something (Picture it). Next I looked at the word, and thought " The little girl ran to the blank, and gave the lady some money". I tried to figure out what made sense (Blank it). Then I looked at the word, and saw it began with "c". I also notice that it had the "ou’ sound like in "out". Now the word made sense to me (Blend it). "C" "ou", it’s counter.

By modeling your strategies out loud, the child will start to use them. In time, your strategies will become their strategies.

 

Step 5

While the child is reading the book, you will be guiding them in another way. Questioning, predicting, connecting, clarifying, and summarizing with the child, as they read, is the other important job of the parent/instructor. These are the skills that teach your child how to comprehend the story. By monitoring the story as they read, they become active readers, and active readers are going to remember the story better.

Many of us only have the memory of being questioned at the end of a book, but as a proficient reader, you ask your self questions all the time. Let us take a mystery for an example. While you read, you constantly look for clues. As things happen in the story, you ask yourself their importance. "Why did he do that?" "Will she recognize the man’s voice?" This self-questioning guides you through the story. It makes you think about it, as you read. As a reading specialist, I have seen many children, beginning reader through high school, suffer from poor comprehension, because they do not monitor their reading!

 

Questioning

When reading with a child, I always ask two types of questions. The first, is a literal type of question. This usually goes something like; " What color was the boy’s jacket?" There is only one answer to this question. This is the type of question they might get on a standardized test. The second type is the inference-type question. By making them infer, they need to think about what has happened so far in the book, and make an informed decision.

The literal question is the lowest level of questioning, but it does serve a purpose. Many parts of the standardized tests that are given are based on literal questions. It is not as important to the reading process, mainly because it doesn’t cause the reader to think while they read. How often have you asked yourself a literal question while reading?

As I am reading a book with a child, I am always looking for a part in the story to generate a question. When I find a good part, I pause the child at the end of a sentence and ask, " Do you know what I’m curious about? Why did the boy _______?" The purpose is to get them to think about the story, and use what they already know about the story, as their guide.

 

Predicting

Prediction is an easy skill to teach, but it seems so easy that often it is left out. Before reading the book (with or to your child), you can make predictions about the book’s contents.

Predicting while you read causes the reader to guess what will happen, based on what has already taken place. This in turn, promotes active reading. Model predicting at first (until your child can do it without you) by stopping at interesting places in the book.

The inference question is one of the keys to reading. Let us use that mystery example a second time. While reading the mystery, you start to put all the information together. Why did the characters act the way they did? Why was something was missing from the room? You make an inference based on all this evidence. Another example could be in a piece of drama. You might predict that a couple will not be compatible based on things that happened in their past. It could have been something he said, something she did, or even a mix of the two. Ultimately, you come to some kind of conclusion. This is inference, and you make predictions based on it.

Predicting is also one of the main reasons books are fun. When readers predict what is going to happen in a book, it gives them a reason to move on. I love to read John Grisham novels. Some nights I stay up way to far into the night, because I don’t want to stop. My predictions keep me going.

 

Clarifying

One reading skill that I wish I spent more time teaching in elementary school is clarifying. Now as I work with high school students, I see how valuable it can be. Many struggling readers that I work with skip right over words they do not know (although it is not as troublesome in fiction as it is in nonfiction). In nonfiction, every word can carry meaning. Usually in nonfiction there are few wasted words.

When I teach clarifying, I usually begin by looking ahead in the child’s book for a word that they probably will not know. As they read the word and ignore the fact that they do not know its meaning, I stop them and ask, "What did that word ______ mean?" Usually they do not know, so I need to model my thinking. I might say something like this:

(Sentence Example - The elephant only eats plants and grasses, so they are herbivores.)

Child: The elephant only eats plants and grasses, so they are herb… herbe… herbores.

Parent: Tommy, did that sound right to you? Do you know that last word?

Child: No

Parent: Let’s look back at the sentence for help. Since it tells us that the elephant eats only plants and grasses, and then says it is a herbivore, then a herbivore must be an animal that eats plants and grasses.

As your child gets older, and the vocabulary becomes richer and more varied, this skill will be needed. Certainly the best time to learn it is at the beginning, when the framework for later skills is developed.

 

Connecting

Although it is not discussed in many books, I find connecting to a book one of the most important pieces of good comprehension. Connecting is when a book makes you think about or reminds you of something. It might remind you of a moment in your life. It may remind you of some other book you read, or a show you watched. What ever it is, you have made a connection. The memory of the book is there to stay.

Connecting helps a reader two ways.

The feeling of connecting to a book makes the reader enjoy the book more. For example, many of my favorite books are the ones where I see myself as the character, or they take place somewhere that I have been. I internalize these books. They become part of me.

The second reason is based on the first. When I do connect with a book, I remember it. Ultimately, that is comprehension.

Connecting naturally makes the reader think more about the book as they read. Their comprehension goes up and so does their motivation to find more books. Your child may not be that good at this at the age of 4 or five, but if you continue to model it for them, you will ultimately get results.

 

 

 

 

Summarizing

When you are done reading, you should have your child summarize, or model the process yourself. Summarizing, like connecting, is something that your child is not going to be strong at in the beginning. You still need to model it, so they can absorb the process.

Step 1

Model the process for a while, until they seem to get the gist of the process. Tell something about the characters is in the story, where it takes place (setting), what the problem and solution were, and how it concluded. This can be done out loud, or on paper.

Step 2

After modeling the process, let your child get involved and help out. Let them slowly take over until they can do it by themselves. If they make mistakes, remember to first tell them what they did well before giving advice. This will keep them confident and willing to try again.

Summarizing not only helps comprehension, but also can be used to teach a story’s structure.

Post Reading

When your child finishes their book, the lesson has not ended. Post-reading activities are then used to bring closure to the lesson. Writing assignments, art activities, discussions, and drama are just some of the hundreds of activities you can choose from after reading. What you need to remember when choosing an activity is it should strengthen the child’s knowledge of what they just read.

Appendix B includes a list of post-reading activities. These activities do not need to be done exactly as I suggest. Have fun with them and make them your own.

 

Picking a book for guided reading

Picking a book for guided reading can be a difficult job. You need to look at a number of attributes. Here is a list of things you need to look for. I will go into them in more detail below.

Find a book a little above their reading level

Find a book that they are interested in.

Use both fiction and nonfiction.

Find books that have patterns and rhyming in them for early readers.

Find books that are worthy of your time.

 

Finding a Book at the Correct Level

For guided reading at any age, the correct level is one where the student has some mistakes, but not so many that they can’t read and comprehend it. I like to see the book be at about 90-95% accuracy. Anything easier will be too boring and anything harder will be too frustrating.

If you are on a tight budget, I would suggest repeated trips to the library. If you cant find some of these books, look at the ones you can find and locate books that seem close (In terms of difficulty).

 

Find a book that they are interested in reading

We all love to read books on certain subjects, or from different genres (drama, comedy, love stories…etc.). Your child is the same. Find books that interest them, and they will want to read them.

 

Use both fiction and nonfiction

As your child lives their life, they will do a lot of reading in nonfiction. At an early age, they will read a lot of stories, but as they get on toward the college years, nonfiction will dominate. To help your child in their later years, read nonfiction at a young age. Show them how to get information out of the book. This will be a valuable skill later in life.

 

Find books that have patterns and rhyming in them for early readers.

Early readers need pattern and rhyming books to help them read. By finding patterns in the book, they can solve unknown words easier. It helps them predict the words as they read, helping them develop fluency. Also, children at this age like to play with language, and this is a perfect opportunity. It also develops phonemic awareness (See Section 2, Phonemic Awareness)

Find books that are worthy of your time.

When I search for a book for my two-year old daughter, I am very picky. I try to find books that have a good plot, a good pattern or rhyme, but I also try to find books that will leave a positive imprint on my daughter. For instance, I might look for books that show how to share, how to be a good friend, or books with a strong female role model. Other times, I have looked for books to teach shapes, letters, colors, or numbers. Recently, she has shown interest in some rubber reptiles she was given as a gift, so I bought a book on reptiles. If you are going to buy books, make them books that are deserving of your money.

 

Summary

Steps for Guided Reading

Pre-read the book using a book walk and other pre-reading activity.

Begin reading the book. If your child gets stuck on a word, wait five to ten seconds for "thinking time" before giving help. When you do help use the decoding strategies.

Picture it – Look at the picture for clues.

Blank it – Reread the sentence, and say blank in place of the word. What word would make sense there?

Blend it – Blend some of the sounds together.

Break it – Break the word into smaller words

(Example: Together/ to-geth-er , raincoat/rain-coat

Ask it – Do you really need to know this word to understand the sentence?

If so, ask someone for help.

To help increase your child comprehension skills, try modeling and promoting these strategies

Ask questions while you read with them (or to them).

Predict what is going to happen in the book from the beginning to the end.

Model and promote clarifying when the book doesn’t make sense

Model and promote summarizing, to increase comprehension and story structure.

By doing these four things, you will not only increase your child’s reading comprehension now and in the future, but you will also help your child learn to love books.

Finally, you need to find the right book. You should:

Find a book a little above their reading level

Find a book that they are interested in.

Use both fiction and nonfiction.

Find books that have patterns and rhyming in them for early readers.

Find books that are worthy of your time.

 

 

 

Appendix A

KWL Chart

 

What I know about ______	What I would like to know	What I have learned about _________

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix B

Post Reading Activities

Post Reading activities are great way of pulling the book’s ideas together. After reading a book, the child should do an activity that gets them to think about what they read. Post-reading activities include drawing, art, writing, drama, letters, and questioning.

Questioning

When your child is done reading a story, you should ask a few questions. Some can be literal questions like, " Whose house did Goldilocks sleep in ?" and some can be inference (opinion) questions where the child needs to go back and think about the story. A good example of an inference question might be, " Do you think it was right for Goldilocks to go into the Bear’s house?

Keep the number of questions low. Go for quality questions not quantity.

 

Draw and Record

The purpose of this activity is to get children to retell a part of a story, and then use their own words for further reading.

Step 1. When your child finishes the book have them draw a picture of an important part of the story in the top ¾ of the paper. It could have been a funny part, a happy part, or just their favorite part. It doesn’t really matter at this point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 2. When they are done with the picture, have them tell you about it. Record what they say and try not to change their language if possible. Also write big enough to use the writing in some other activities. For beginning readers write only one or two sentences.

Step 3. Have them read what they said back to you. As they read it, point to each word as they say it. It is good for early readers to read their own language, because it came from them, it is easier to read.

Other activities you can use from this writing include:

Have the child circle all of the capital letters, or all of the letters that they are having difficulty learning.

Use it to teach the concepts of words or letters to early readers. You can do this by framing the words with two fingers as you say them.

Find capital letters and lower case letters that go together.

Find all the common words that all young readers need to know such as the Sight Words List (See Appendix C)

Have the student copy the story (or part of it if it is too long).

As the child becomes more capable, they can write all or part of their story.

Story Sequence

Before reading the story, pick out the most important parts of the book. Record the how it began, who was involved, what was the problem, how it was solved, and how it concluded on strips of paper.

After the child has finished the story, how them reconstruct the story using the strips. At first, you may want to choose fewer events. After they are more capable of this task, you can add more story events.

Some story parts you may want to teach using this activity are:

The beginning

The main characters

The setting (where it took place)

The problem

The events that lead to the solution

The solution

The conclusion

These terms are good for the child to learn. Later, as they begin writing their own stories, you will want them to include most of these parts.

Early readers or pre-readers can resequence the beginning, middle and end of the story.

 

Story Map

This is another way to learn story parts. After the student finishes a book that has a story line, you can fill out a story map. A story map is just a way of organizing the information. (See Appendix D)

 

Drama

There is nothing more fun than acting out a book. Find basic costumes and props to retell the story. Join in or get your child’s friends to join in.

As your child gets older, you can get them to change the ending or add new problems.

 

Art

Art is a great way for your child to retell the story. Artwork could include:

A picture of a story event. Try different media: crayon, marker, or paint.

Cut up construction paper, and use it to make a picture.

Go to craft stores and see if there is anything that goes with the story. For example, if the story is about friendship, buy some thread and beads, and make friendship bracelets to give to a friend.

Have fun with the art. You can use it alone, or bring in writing.

 

Letters

Have the child write or dictate a letter to you. Have them write to authors, artists, or people in you books. Send them off. You would be surprised how many write back. You could even keep a collection. Often you can find the addresses to authors on the Internet, or you can write to them in care of their publisher. The publisher’s address is on the copyright page of the book.

You could also write to relatives or friends and recommend the book.

Write a book review with them and send it to a children’s’ magazine like Highlights. Often these magazines have a section for these types of things. My local bookstore publishes children’s book reviews in their monthly newsletter.

Vocabulary

Take new or interesting vocabulary and draw pictures that match the words. For instance, if the child was reading a story about winter, and a new word was "icicle", your child could draw a house with icicles.

Depending on you child’s level, practice copying or tracing the words.

Record the vocabulary words into a tape recorder. Have them say, "Icicle, ***pause*** a piece of ice that hangs down from a house during the winter." Later have them play it back. At the pause, stop the tape and guess the word’s meaning.

Sight Words Appendix C

Pre-Reader	Beginning Reader	Early Reader Part A	Early Reader Part B
a and away big blue can come down find for funny go help here I in is it jump little look make me my not one play red run said see the three to two up we where yellow you	all am are at ate be black brown but came did do eat four get good have he into like must new no now on our out please pretty ran ride saw say she so soon that there they this too	after again an any as ask by could every fly from give giving had has her him his how just know let live may of old once open over put round some stop take thank them then think walk were when	always around because been before best both buy call cold does don't fast first five found gave goes green its made many off or pull read right sing sit sleep tell their these those upon us use very wash which why

 

 

Appendix D

Story Map

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Section 6

Phonics

The Letter/Sound Relationship

Before reading this, I need to make something clear. This is not a phonics program. The phonics programs you choose to use should be detailed, systematic, and sequential, and I do not have the expertise or time to write something that complete. What I can do for you is show you some ways that you can do to improve your phonics teaching. Programs such as the "Hooked on Phonics" are not an entire phonics program either. The strategies I will share will be lessons you can use together in unison with your phonics program.

Phonics plays an important part of decoding unknown words. Without it, reading would be impossible. Proficient readers use phonics with sentence meaning and sentence structure. By using all three parts of the Cueing System (See Section 4, Decoding), the reader has the best chance of success.

When I work with children that are struggling readers, I have found that they either do not have good phonics skills or they use only phonics and not sentence meaning or structure. Let me give you an example.

Correct sentence: Mary put the dolly in the basket.

Without using phonics: Mary put the doggy in the basement.

(This shows the reader does not try to sound out the word, but guesses instead.)

Without sentence structure Mary pink the dolly in the basket.

This example shows the reader did not think about the type of word that goes after the noun. Proficient readers would be thinking action word (verb).

Without using meaning Mary putt the dolly in the basket.

As you can see, without all three parts of the cueing system, reading can be a challenge. When teaching phonics be sure to use it in conjunction with sentence meaning and sentence structure.

Phonics Facts

Phonics are the letter/sound relationship that you child needs to know. Early readers should know their letter names, letter sounds, and some blends and digraphs.

Blends are two consonants that go together in a word. When they are combined they make two distinct sounds that are blended together. (Examples include st, fr, sp, str,…)

Digraphs are two consonants or vowels that are put together to make one new sound (Examples include th, sh, ch, ph, …)

Also, They should begin to put those sounds together to make words. Also, many of the words they come into contact with at this age do not follow the rules of phonics, so they should learn some of the sight words ( the, of, to, are,…).

As they get more proficient, they should be taught digraphs and blends, letter clusters (such as igh, ough, tion, er,…), and vowel combinations (such as es, ai. oy,…). Words that do not follow the rules should also be taught at every level. Many of these words may cause your child problems for a while, until they can learn them. I have a list of the 37 word parts in Appendix D. These 37 word parts make up part of 500 primary words.

As the children get to be close to ten, they should be familiar with all of the clusters that are widely used in English.

Assessing Your Child’s Abilities and Needs

A major part of my job as a reading specialist is assessing my student’s abilities and needs. As your child’s teacher, you should assess your child’s skills. I have added some checklists for you in Appendixes A - D to help with this task. First is a copy of the Print Awareness Checklist (Appendix A) that is also in Section 2, Print Awareness. Check off and/or date the chart as your child shows these abilities.

The second (Appendix B) is an unsequenced list of the alphabet. This can be used for two purposes. The first use is to see which letters your child knows by name, and second to see if your child knows their sounds.

Begin by letting her/him read the letters off to you out loud. As she/he reads them correctly, mark it off on the parent sheet (Appendix C). Focus future instruction on the letters that were not read correctly, but continue to reinforce all letters.

Appendix E is a list of the high frequency words. These are the words that are used in books the most. Also, many of these words are not easily sounded out, so memorization may be helpful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phonics Activities

Alphabet books

Creating your own alphabet book is a lot of fun. It can be used to teach either letter or sounds. Each page of the book would have a letter and a drawing of something that goes with that letter. Older students can add writing to each page.

Magnetic letters and stamps

Buy some magnetic letters or letter stamps. Children love to manipulate the letters to spell words. You can teach word families (word that are based around the same ending; cat hat, mat). Begin by spelling an easy word for your child. Take off the first letter and ask your child to add a new letter. What does the new word say? Use the common word parts in Appendix E. The same activities can be done with the letter stamps.

Find Opportunities to Write

Writing with your child is a great time to teach letters, words, and sentences. This writing can be done either formally (as a lesson) or informally (as a part of your day). Formal writing could include:

Writing about a book they have read.

Writing a story

Writing names of the people in your child’s family

Writing a letter

The writing does not need to be done by the child. Early learners could have their writing dictated, and read back to them. (See the Draw and Record part of Guided Reading for more information)

Informal writing could include:

Writing a grocery list

Writing with sidewalk chalk

Making words with magnetic letters

Writing lists (Christmas, birthday, or any other type you can think of)

Write letters in sand

Family journals

Painting, or making letters from clay

The ideas for writing opportunities are endless. Be imaginative. If you are writing, include your child. The more exposure to writing and reading, the better off they will be.

Word Families

Put the consonants on small pieces (approx. 2x2) of card stock. On separate squares of paper, write some of the word parts in Appendix D (or use any word parts). Use the cards to spell words. I also made some larger word parts that you could cut out if you wish in Appendix E.

Record each word that is made. Change the consonant, and make a new

Word. As your child gets older, you can use prefixes and suffixes too.

 

 

 

 

 

I Spy Game

While in the car or sitting at the park, you can practice letter sounds playing the "I Spy Game". Begin by telling your child, " I spy something that begins with SSSSS." Have them guess what you see. This can be done with ending sounds, blends, and digraphs as well. (For example, "I spy something that begins with /spr/".)

 

Books and Magazines

Cut out letters from magazines. Not only is this a good way to have them search for particular letters, but it introduces them to different fonts.

Searches could include:

Letters

Matching upper and lower case letters

Blends, digraphs, and word parts

Frequently used sight words (of, the, this…)

 

Rhyming Books

Many rhyming books are full of word families. The Cat in the Hat is a good example. From the title alone, you could makes lists of words with "-at". By finding the words families within the context of a book, the child will make an even bigger connection.

 

 

Word Banks

Keeping track of different words can be a great way to focus on reading, spelling, and word families. Groups of words can be kept on large sheets of paper or in a file box. Word lists may include things like:

Words that begin with /th/

Words that contain /ight/

Words that mean the same as "good" (This is really good for writing. Any time the child wants to write "good". They can find a better word in the word bank

 

 

Summary

Phonics is an important part of reading. A proficient reader combines it with sentence meaning and sentence structure to decode accurately.

To teach phonics, you should have a systematic, sequential program.

Lessons taught to early readers include:

Letter names

Letter sounds

Blends (two consonants that go together in a word. When they are combined they make two distinct sounds that are blended together. Examples include st, fr, sp, str,…)

Digraphs (Two consonants or vowels that are put together to make one new sound. Examples include th, sh, ch, ph, …)

Word parts

Word families

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix A: Print Awareness Assessment

 

Name _________________________

Print Awareness Checklist
Book Handling Does your child know: Date when observed
I. Front of Book
II. Back of Book
III. Child turns the book pages from left to right
IV. Book is held correctly (parallel to face)
Directionality Does your child know:
VI. Top and bottom of book
VII. Start in the upper left corner
VIII. One to one correspondence
IX. Tracks the print from left to right
X. Returns to next line when finished
Letter and Word Knowledge
VII. Can locate one letter
VIII. Can locate two letters
IX. Can locate one word
X. Can locate two letters
XI. Can locate first and last letter of a word
XII. Identify a letter (both capital and lower case)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix B: Unsequenced Alphabet Chart- Child’s Sheet

 

Q W E Y R T

U I K P A S

D F G H J M

L Z X C V B

N O

_______________________________

 

h j k l a s

d f g b n m

z c x v q w

e r t y u i

o p

 

 

 

Appendix C: Unsequenced Alphabet

Parent Record Sheet

Capital Letter	Knows Letter’s Name	Knows Letter’s Sound	Lower Case Letters	Knows Letter’s Name	Knows Letter’s Sound
Q			h
W			j
E			k
Y			l
R			a
T			s
U			d
I			f
K			g
P			b
A			n
S			m
D			z
F			c
G			x
H			v
J			q
M			w
L			e
Z			r
X			t
C			y
V			u
B			i
N			o
O			p

Appendix D: Word Parts List Assessment

500 primary words are derived from these 37 word parts. Introduce them one at a time. Too many at one time will only overwhelm your child.

Word Part	Date learned	Date learned
-ack
-ank
-an
-ap
-ash
-at
-ell
-est
-ick
-ill
in
-ink
-ip
-ir
-ock
-op
-uck
-ug
-unk
-ump
-ail
-ain
-ale
-ame
-ate
-eat
-ite
-ide
-ight
-ine
-oke
-or
-ore
-ake
-ay
-ice
-ing
-aw

ack

ank

an

ap

ash

at

ell

est

ick

ill

in

ink

ip

ir

ock

op

uck

ug

unk

ump

ail

ain

ale

ame

ate

eat

ite

ide

ight

ine

oke

or

ore

ake

ay

ice

ing

aw

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Section 8

Independent Reading

I came from a family of avid readers, but I hated reading. Not only did I hate it, but I would not do it. I guess my parent’s love for reading did not wear off on me. Not until I was much older did I begin to enjoy books. The change was spurred on by a train trip and nothing else to do. I bought a book to waste some time, and found that I really enjoyed it. Later, I found more books by the same author, and I read them too. Now that I look back at that time, I realize that all I needed was a book that I chose to read and time to read it.

I believe that everybody has had a book that made them want to read. When I asked my wife, she agreed. For her it was the Little House on the Prairie series. For any child to become a real reader, he/she need time to read, and books to enjoy. I stress this in my own classroom every chance I can get.

Promoting silent reading in your house will be one of the most valuable things you can do to help your child. Working with struggling readers has proven to me the power of finding a good book and reading it. Most of the high school students that I work with have never finished a book independently in the past 8-9 years. Just promoting silent reading every day has helped over 50% of them to read their first book.

Time for silent reading is a time for your child (or preferably the whole family), to read a book of their choice. You should find a regular block of time when it becomes "Reading Time". Having the whole family read is a great way to model your love of books. When I work with teachers, I tell them, "Cherish your silent reading time. Give up something else before you give up this."

Silent reading for a beginning reader will look much different than for a proficient reader. For many children it will be just looking at pictures, or reciting a book they have already memorized as the look at the pictures. Other early readers will read books that they have already learned and are confident reading. These are all acceptable forms of silent reading.

For the parent, silent reading can be a good chance to check on comprehension. Before your child reads their book, take time to read it yourself. When they are finished, ask them about the book. Do not make it a test, but more of a discussion. Tell them what you liked about the book. Discuss the characters and their actions.

 

The main goals for all levels of silent reading are:

Make a daily habit of reading.

Promote good books, to encourage your child to enjoy books.

Show them that you find reading to be important and enjoyable.

Do not make reading a punishment (For example: Making them read instead of TV). I knew a family that allowed their child to read in bed each night, if they did their chores. The two girls always worked so hard, because they didn’t want to miss out on their reading time. Sometimes it is just the way you word it.

For pre-readers:

Let them look at a stack of books. I keep my daughter’s books in canvas bags. She can take a bag out, and have the choice of several books.

Have older siblings read to them. It is important for young readers to have positive role models.

Keep the length shorter than for an older child. Do not make it a time where they begin to dislike it, because it feels like a punishment.

For Beginning Readers

This is a good time for the children to reread books that they already know. Rereading a book that they are familiar with builds fluency and confidence.

Have them read to younger siblings

Find books on tape. By following along in a book, the child learns to track the letters faster with their eyes.