Reading Help Tips

Correcting Words Mid-Sentence

After your child has stopped to correct a word he has read, have him go back and reread the entire sentence from the beginning to make sure he understands what the sentence is saying.

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How to make reading a part of every day

Making reading an everyday part of your family's life is a lot easier than you may think...

• Share conversations with your child over meal times and other times you are together. Children learn words more easily when they hear them spoken often. Introduce new and interesting words at every opportunity.

• Read together every day. Spend time talking about stories, pictures, and words.

• Be your child's best advocate. Keep informed about your child's progress in reading and ask the teacher about ways you can help.

• Be a reader and a writer. Children learn habits from the people around them.

• Visit the library often. Story times, computers, homework help, and other exciting activities await the entire family.

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Why did they do that?

Ask your child why she thinks a character acted in a certain way and ask your child to support her answer with information from the story.

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If your child is reading

At school you should see teachers...

• Continuing to teach letter-sound relationships for children who need more practice. On average, children need about two years of instruction in letter-sound relationships to become good spellers as well as readers.

• Teaching the meaning of words, especially words that are important to understanding a book.

• Teaching ways to learn the meaning of new words. Teachers cannot possibly teach students the meaning of every new word they see or read. Children should be taught how to use dictionaries to learn word meanings, how to use known words and word parts to figure out other words, and how to get clues about a word from the rest of the sentence.

• Helping children understand what they are reading. Good readers think as they read and they know whether what they are reading is making sense. Teachers help children to check their understanding. When children are having difficulty, teachers show them ways to figure out the meaning of what they are reading.

At home you can help your child by...

• Rereading familiar books. Children need practice in reading comfortably and with expression using books they know.

• Building reading accuracy. As your child is reading aloud, point out words he missed and help him read words correctly. If you stop to focus on a word, have your child reread the whole sentence to be sure he understands the meaning.

• Building reading comprehension. Talk with your child about what she is reading. Ask about new words. Talk about what happened in a story. Ask about the characters, places, and events that took place. Ask what new information she has learned from the book. Encourage her to read on her own.

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Mistakes

When your child reads aloud to you and makes a mistake, point out the words she has missed after she finishes the sentance. Then help her read the word correctly.

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Patterns

As your child reads, point out spelling and sound patterns such as cat, pat, hat.

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Comprehension

To check your child's understanding of what he is reading, occasionally pause and ask questions about the characters and events in the story.

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Your Own Words

Ask your child to tell you in her own words what happened in a story.

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Quiet!

Choose a quiet place, free from distractions, for your child to do his nightly reading assignments. Voices, people talking, TV, and even music with lyrics, all interfere with the part of the brain that processes information and comprehension.

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What next?

Before getting to the end of a story, ask your child what he thinks will happen next and why?

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Success In School Starts With Reading

Learning to read is hard work for children.

Fortunately, research is now available that suggests how to give each child a good start in reading.

Becoming a reader involves the development of important skills, including learning to:

• use language in conversation
• listen and respond to stories read aloud
• recognize and name the letters of the alphabet
• listen to the sounds of spoken language
• connect sounds to letters to figure out the "code" of reading
• read often so that recognizing words becomes easy and automatic
• learn and use new words
• understand what is read

Preschool and kindergarten teachers set the stage for your child to learn to read with some critical early skills.

First, second, and third grade teachers then take up the task of building the skills that children will use every day for the rest of their lives.

As a parent, you can help by understanding what teachers are teaching and by asking questions about your child's progress and the classroom reading program.

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You get a bedtime story

Have your child read aloud to you every night.

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If your child is just beginning to read

At school you should see teachers...

• Systematically teaching phonics--how sounds and letters are related.

• Giving children the opportunity to practice the letter-sound relationships they are learning. Children have the chance to practice sounds and letters by reading easy books that use words with the letter-sound relationships they are learning.

• Helping children write the letter-sound relationships they know by using them in words, sentences, messages, and their own stories.

• Showing children ways to think about and understand what they are reading. The teacher asks children questions to show them how to think about the meaning of what they read.

At home you can help by...

• Pointing out the letter-sound relationships your child is learning on labels, boxes, newspapers, magazines and signs.

• Listening to your child read words and books from school. Be patient and listen as your child practices. Let your child know you are proud of his reading.

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