Three Important Things For Parents:
All parents want the best school experience for their children. And all parents want their children to learn to read. Yet, it is not always easy to tell if your child is on track or if you are doing the right things to help your child.
Here are three things to keep in mind:
First- Learning to read is like learning anything else: It happens over time, with practice, and with the help of others. Just like learning to talk, to dance, or to cook, children develop reading (and writing) behaviors in a developmental sequence—they do certain things at certain times as they become more and more knowledgeable.
Second -Many experiences and activities help children learn to read. The following things contribute to a child’s ability to read:
• Talking and interacting with others—kids and adults
• Recognizing and connecting sounds and letters
• Experiencing going places and seeing things
• Instruction on specific reading strategies
• Exposure to all types of reading materials from a child’s earliest days throughout the school years.
Third- Children learn to read best when they have books and other reading materials at home and plenty of chances to read. This means not only having lots of books around—from libraries, bookstores, and book clubs, as gifts, and as treats—but many chances to read and talk about what they are reading.
Transitional Readers: Second- and Third-Graders
Transitional readers are making the transition from needing a lot of adult support as they read to being independent as readers. They start to read easier texts on their own, and become increasingly more confident with more difficult books and chapter books.
Second-graders:
• Take pride in showing off their reading skills to grandparents, neighbors, and care providers
• Understand more difficult stories than they can read
• Are able to read early reader and “transitional” books, and may start reading chapter books
• Rely on print more than illustrations to make meaning of a text
• Use more and more ways to read, including sounding out using letter patterns, sight words, context clues, and illustrations
• Retell the beginning, middle, and end of a story
• Recognize most frequently read words and words by sight
• Are able to read silently
• Understand basic punctuation—capital letters, periods, and commas
• Can work out unknown words, reread, and self-correct
• Are able to talk about the main idea of story and relate personal experiences to it
• Begin to be interested in series books like Goosebumps, The American Girl, Superfudge, Sweet Valley Girls, and others.
Third-graders:
• May choose to read independently and silently most of the time • Use reading strategies appropriately and with ease
• Retell the plot, characters, and events from stories
• Recognize and choose different types of books: fiction, nonfiction, mystery, adventure, historical fiction, poetry, folktales, and so on
• Use encyclopedia, atlas, and computer resources to locate information • Can read assignments and follow directions
• Are able to make predictions of what will happen in a story
• Make inferences or “read between the lines” in a story
• Write stories with a beginning, middle, and end.
Things to do:
1. Follow your child’s interests—if she loves sports, find fiction and nonfiction books that tie into this interest.
2. Have your child help you with recipes from cookbooks or mixes. Ask them to read ingredients, measure, mix, and clean up!
3. Help your child become a more fluent reader by having him read to younger brothers and sisters. This gives them practice and helps them share the fun of reading and books.
4. Get blank books—or make them. Kids should be encouraged to write down what they think and feel about books they read.
5. Make thank you notes, birthday cards, valentines, and invitations together. Use stamps, stickers, or cut-outs to decorate them and have your child write or copy the message.
6. Limit television viewing to shows the child selects from the listings. Try to use the “no more than 14 hours a week” rule in your house for TV and video games—use the extra time to read, talk together, or play games.
7. Play games that involve reading. Good choices are Monopoly, Concentration, Life, Careers, Risk, Clue, and many others.
8. At the grocery store let children find items on your list and cross them off. Have them find coupon items, read ingredients, and compare prices.
9. Play with words by rhyming, finding opposites, and naming synonyms or words that have similar meanings like hot and scorching. These types of activities give practice with thinking and vocabulary development.
10. Continue to read increasingly harder books aloud to your child.
Some favorite books: • A Chair for my Mother by Vera B. Williams. Greenwillow, 1982.
• Annie and the Old One by Miska Miles. Atlantic Monthly, 1971.
• Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery by Deborah & James Howe. Atheneum, 1979.
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B.White. HarperCollins, 1952.
• Dr. De Soto by William Steig. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1982.
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. HarperCollins, 1971.
• Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. Viking, 1982.
• Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale by John Steptoe. Lothrop, 1987.
• Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman. Putnam’s, 1995.
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. Philomel, 1987.
• Wanted Dead or Alive: True Story of Harriet Tubman by Ann McGovern. Scholastic, 1977.
• Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold. Scholastic, 1991.
Article from: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory’s Comprehensive Center, Region X and Curriculum and Instruction Services
All parents want the best school experience for their children. And all parents want their children to learn to read. Yet, it is not always easy to tell if your child is on track or if you are doing the right things to help your child.
Here are three things to keep in mind:
First- Learning to read is like learning anything else: It happens over time, with practice, and with the help of others. Just like learning to talk, to dance, or to cook, children develop reading (and writing) behaviors in a developmental sequence—they do certain things at certain times as they become more and more knowledgeable.
Second -Many experiences and activities help children learn to read. The following things contribute to a child’s ability to read:
• Talking and interacting with others—kids and adults
• Recognizing and connecting sounds and letters
• Experiencing going places and seeing things
• Instruction on specific reading strategies
• Exposure to all types of reading materials from a child’s earliest days throughout the school years.
Third- Children learn to read best when they have books and other reading materials at home and plenty of chances to read. This means not only having lots of books around—from libraries, bookstores, and book clubs, as gifts, and as treats—but many chances to read and talk about what they are reading.
Transitional Readers: Second- and Third-Graders
Transitional readers are making the transition from needing a lot of adult support as they read to being independent as readers. They start to read easier texts on their own, and become increasingly more confident with more difficult books and chapter books.
Second-graders:
• Take pride in showing off their reading skills to grandparents, neighbors, and care providers
• Understand more difficult stories than they can read
• Are able to read early reader and “transitional” books, and may start reading chapter books
• Rely on print more than illustrations to make meaning of a text
• Use more and more ways to read, including sounding out using letter patterns, sight words, context clues, and illustrations
• Retell the beginning, middle, and end of a story
• Recognize most frequently read words and words by sight
• Are able to read silently
• Understand basic punctuation—capital letters, periods, and commas
• Can work out unknown words, reread, and self-correct
• Are able to talk about the main idea of story and relate personal experiences to it
• Begin to be interested in series books like Goosebumps, The American Girl, Superfudge, Sweet Valley Girls, and others.
Third-graders:
• May choose to read independently and silently most of the time • Use reading strategies appropriately and with ease
• Retell the plot, characters, and events from stories
• Recognize and choose different types of books: fiction, nonfiction, mystery, adventure, historical fiction, poetry, folktales, and so on
• Use encyclopedia, atlas, and computer resources to locate information • Can read assignments and follow directions
• Are able to make predictions of what will happen in a story
• Make inferences or “read between the lines” in a story
• Write stories with a beginning, middle, and end.
Things to do:
1. Follow your child’s interests—if she loves sports, find fiction and nonfiction books that tie into this interest.
2. Have your child help you with recipes from cookbooks or mixes. Ask them to read ingredients, measure, mix, and clean up!
3. Help your child become a more fluent reader by having him read to younger brothers and sisters. This gives them practice and helps them share the fun of reading and books.
4. Get blank books—or make them. Kids should be encouraged to write down what they think and feel about books they read.
5. Make thank you notes, birthday cards, valentines, and invitations together. Use stamps, stickers, or cut-outs to decorate them and have your child write or copy the message.
6. Limit television viewing to shows the child selects from the listings. Try to use the “no more than 14 hours a week” rule in your house for TV and video games—use the extra time to read, talk together, or play games.
7. Play games that involve reading. Good choices are Monopoly, Concentration, Life, Careers, Risk, Clue, and many others.
8. At the grocery store let children find items on your list and cross them off. Have them find coupon items, read ingredients, and compare prices.
9. Play with words by rhyming, finding opposites, and naming synonyms or words that have similar meanings like hot and scorching. These types of activities give practice with thinking and vocabulary development.
10. Continue to read increasingly harder books aloud to your child.
Some favorite books: • A Chair for my Mother by Vera B. Williams. Greenwillow, 1982.
• Annie and the Old One by Miska Miles. Atlantic Monthly, 1971.
• Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery by Deborah & James Howe. Atheneum, 1979.
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B.White. HarperCollins, 1952.
• Dr. De Soto by William Steig. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1982.
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. HarperCollins, 1971.
• Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. Viking, 1982.
• Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale by John Steptoe. Lothrop, 1987.
• Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman. Putnam’s, 1995.
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. Philomel, 1987.
• Wanted Dead or Alive: True Story of Harriet Tubman by Ann McGovern. Scholastic, 1977.
• Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold. Scholastic, 1991.
Article from: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory’s Comprehensive Center, Region X and Curriculum and Instruction Services