In the Reading Center I am learning...
to use oral language in a variety of situations.
to recall important facts of a story.
to understand cause and effect.
to become aquatinted with a variety of literature.
to retell a story in my own words.
to select books for my needs and interests.
to make choices and decisions.
Reading Readiness: Reading with your child nightly is one of the most
important things you can do to improve his/her reading abilities. Parents
can also use this read-aloud time to model skills such as tracking (placing
finger under letters/words as you read) or identifying words/letters. Also,
practice reading phrases using sight words such as a, my, the, I, see, that,
they, said, have, for, of, we, has, was, here, what, are.
HELP STUDENTS RE-READ CLASS BOOKS EVERY NIGHT! These rhyming, decodable, or
predictable books will help students develop reading skills, and they are an
integral part of our daily literacy routine.
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** Things to Help Your Child With Sight Word Recognition and Reading **
Sight Words refer to words that are learned to read by 'sight'. They are
typically words that cannot be "sounded out". They require a lot of practice
to memorize or read them.
* MAKE FLASH CARDS - write one word on each card. Have your child read the
words several times. If your child does not know a word, tell it to him. Put
it at the back of the stack and try again.
* MEMORY/CONCENTRATION - make two sets of cards and have your child try to
match the two words that are the same. Each time they turn a card over, they
have to read it!
* WHO'S LOOKING! - Give your child a piece of newspaper or an old magazine
and have them find a specific sight word. They can use a highlighter and
highlight the word. Looking for sight words in storybook text works GREAT
too!
* BASICS - give your child a piece of paper and a pencil and let them write
or copy the sight words and then read them back to you.
PRACTICE - PRACTICE - PRACTICE - PRACTICE - PRACTICE - PRACTICE - PRACTICE!
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** Things to Help Your Child With Reading Comprehension **
* Read A LOT of stories with your child.
* Before reading a story---
- BOOK WALK - works best with a new story or an unfamilar story. Before
reading any of the text, look at each picture and talk about it. Use
sentences like, "I wonder where that huge bean stalk is going to end
up", and "I noticed that boy looks scared or worried about something.
I wonder what he is upset about". After doing this for each page - some
pages will be more brief than others - read the story and see if any
ideas or guesses about the book were accurate. It is a lot of fun to see
how the children's minds work with this activity.
* While reading the story ---
- STOP along the way (when you know something is about to happen) and ask
your child to predict what they think will happen next. Accept all
responses, then read to see if they were right!
- STOP just before the end of a story and ask your child how they think
the story will end.
* After reading a story---
- ask your child if the story was "real" (fact)or "make-believe" (fiction).
- ask your child to tell you his favorite part of the story.
- ask your child to tell you who the characters were.
- ask you child to tell you what happened first, what happened next,
and what happened at the end of the story.
- ask your child what happened after a particular part.
- ask who, what, when, where, why and how questions about the story.