Focus on Reading

This week in Reading: 

Daddy Played Music for the Cows (in class),  When Jean Comes Home (opening  story in reader), Gram and Me (main story in reader), Groundhog Day!

Reading Homework

Guided Reading in book bag. Library books are AR books.

Reading is a "group effort"

  The teacher, parent(s), and child must be involved to make reading happen. Here is what you can do to reinforce and continue reading skills at home...

Read "Just Right Books"
Goldilocks tried the Three Bears' porridge, chairs, and beds. She continued to try each one until she found the ones that were "just right" for her. The books your child reads can be thought of in the same way.

A book that is "just right" is one that your child can read independently. It is not too hard and it is not too easy. It's a good fit - it's "just right". Here is one way to help your child choose such a book:

FIVE FINGER RULE
While reading the first page of a book, count the unknown words (using fingers to keep track is fine). If there are five or more unknown words, the book is too hard for now. Read that book together.

Another important consideration - some first graders have learned to read many words. They even may be reading "chapter books". However they might not be understanding what's been read.  Ask your child lots of questions about the story in general and about specific pages to see if he really understands what was read. It also is important to monitor your child's choices for appropriate content.

Reading Strategies

Check Pictures
Look at the illustrations for a clue.

Guess and Go
Guess what word would make sense and try it in the sentence.

Guess and Check
Guess what word would make sense and check to see if the letters in the printed word match your guess.

Running Start
Go back to the beginning of the sentence and start again.

Word Find
Find the word on a previous page.

Sound It Out
Use the phonics rules that we are learning in class.

See our Phonics/Spelling link for more information.

Chunk it up
Break the word in parts containing 2-3 letters.

Word in a word
Look for words within words.

Baseword find
Cover suffixes and prefixes to find the baseword.

Consonants only
Sound out the word using just consonants, no vowels. 

Other Reading Suggestions:

1. Never stop reading to your child. It's the number 1 mistake of parents.  Children need to hear the adult fluency.

2. Have a child who is having a hard time learning to read?  Try this have your child read one page and you read the next.  Such a child reading the even pages and parent reads the odd pages.  This reduces the amount of reading for your child (and fustration level) and allows your child to hear the fluency from you.

3. Still having a hard time working with your own child. Let someone else do it - grandparent, aunt, uncle, older sibling, friend. Children love to read with other children.

Good Readers:

1. Point to the words with their eyes.
2. Read like they are talking.
3. Use the pictures to find clues.
4. Keep reading when they are stuck on a word.
5. Think about what is happening in the story while they are reading. "Go the the movies in your head".
6. Correct themselves when they make a mistake.
7. Check to see if what they are reading makes sense, sounds right and looks right.
8. Keep trying and trying and trying and trying.....
9. Ask for help.