Helping The School-Age Child Become A Better Reader Page One of Two Your goal is to help your child become a successful, independent reader. One who reads smoothly, with expression and understands what s/he reads. All the tips I provide will help you accomplish that goal. Over the years, I have discovered five obstacles to reading comprehension: Trying to read text that is too difficult Limited vocabulary A lack of reading fluency (smoothness) Inactive reading Incorrect phrasing Helping Your Child Choose Books at the Correct Reading Level: Most parents do not know how to help their children choose books on the correct reading level. There are actually three different reading levels for each person. You should help your child select books at both his/her independent and instructional levels. Independent level - a child can read these books easily with very few words too difficult for him/her to read. S/he can read these books on his/her own. Instructional level - a child can read most of the words, but will be challenged by some words on each page. s/he should read these books while a more able reader is there to help him/her. Frustration level - a child has to stop often and try to decode words. If s/he tries to read a book at this level, s/he will become frustrated. When helping your child choose a book, use the five finger rule. Have him/her choose a book s/he thinks s/he would like to read and open it to any page. As s/he reads the page, count how many words s/he has trouble reading or understanding. If it reaches 5, the book is too difficult and will frustrate him/her. You want his/her reading experiences to be pleasurable. Allow him/her to choose some books on his/her independent reading level, so s/he can practice reading smoothly with expression. Then help him/her choose a book that will be a little bit of a challenge for him. Helping Your Child Develop His/Her Reading Vocabulary: One thing that many parents and teachers often neglect is the building of useful vocabulary. It is very important to your child's reading comprehension to know as much about everything as possible. The brain wants to attach new information to old, so the more your child knows about common things in life, the better s/he will understand what s/he reads. To build his/her vocabulary and background knowledge: Take time to discuss things with your child during the day. Tell him/her what things are called and how they work. By doing this you are increasing his/her vocabulary. When s/he comes to a word that s/he is unfamiliar with, try these ideas: Have him/her guess at what the word means by how it is used in the sentence and in the story. If s/he is not correct, help him/her see clues to the meaning in the sentence. This will help him/her determine the meanings of unfamiliar words on his/her own later. Sometimes tell him/her what the word means, but relate the word to something s/he has experienced [EX: say, "A smirk is like a smile, but it shows... Like when your sister..."]. This will help him/her understand the word better because it is being related to his/her own life. At times, but not often, have him/her look the word up in the dictionary, but be sure s/he chooses the definition that fits the way the word is used in the sentence. As my students read grade level books each day, I was amazed at the many things they did not know. I mean common, everyday things mentioned in assessments, books, poems, etc. I started a list of these things and the list became a book called The New Book of Knowledge. It is a wonderful tool for parents and teachers seeking to build children's vocabulary and background knowledge. Click here for more information. Helping Your Child Develop Reading Fluency (Smoothness): It is difficult for your child to understand what s/he reads if s/he has to keep stopping to sound out words (called decoding). All that time and attention to individual words takes away from understanding the whole story. What can be done? Perhaps your child does not read smoothly because s/he doesn't have a large enough sight vocabulary. These are words that a reader needs to know instantly, so that s/he doesn't have to keep stopping to "sound them out." You can print a list of 300 instant words from this website. Begin with the "First Hundred Instant Words" list. If your child learns these words, s/he will know about 50% of all written material. Go through the list with your child. Ask him/her each word. Work with him/her on groups of no more than 6 unknown words at a time. Put each unknown word on a separate index card or paper square. Tell him/her the word. Work with him, helping him/her memorize the words. There will be some words s/he has trouble remembering, so have him/her makeup a sentence containing that word used correctly. You write the sentence on the back of the card and have him/her read his/her sentence. Review the words daily until s/he knows them. Add new words as s/he learns the ones on the flashcards. Sometimes, read to your child. Read smoothly with expression as a model of correct reading and simply for his/her enjoyment. Sometimes, read along with your child very smoothly, but at a pace slower than your normal reading speed. Run your finger under each word as you read it, so s/he can read along with you. Your child needs to experience the feeling of fluent reading. Each day, either you or your child should choose a few paragraphs (not a whole page) for him/her to reread until it sounds smooth. Rereading until s/he reads it smoothly develops fluency. Anytime your child struggles with a word, it is very important to have him/her reread the sentence that s/he did not read smoothly. There is a wonderful strategy for determining unknown words that is simply amazing. You'll have to try it to believe it! When your child comes to an unknown word, have him/her make the first sound in the word, (sometimes the first letter makes the sound, but sometimes it takes 2 or 3 letters to make the sound th, sh, str). After making the first sound, your child should go on and read the next few words. Many times the unknown word just occurs to the child, because it would make sense in the sentence. When this happens, tell him/her s/he is correct and have him/her reread the sentence to make sure the word makes sense. You can get a list and activities to help him/her remember each onset from this website. Onsets - Click Here Sometimes your child will have to sound out a word that s/he cannot read (called decoding the word). Many words look difficult to read only because suffixes (ing, ed, ment...) and prefixes (re, un, mis...) have been added to small words making them long and hard to read. Your child should cover up the prefixes and/or suffixes in the word, leaving only a small word, a word your child already knows how to read. You can print a list of common prefixes and suffixes from this website - Prefixes and Suffixes - Click Here. After you print the list, read it over to your child and have him/her read the prefixes and suffixes to you. It is very important that s/he knows how to pronounce each one. I suggest that your child: cover the suffix and/or prefix in the word read the small word that is left uncover the prefix at the front of the word and read the word uncover the suffix and read the whole word Another quick way to decode a word is to see if it contains a double consonant (bb, cc, dd) in the middle of it (rubbed). If it does, have your child cover the second consonant and the end of the word. Then s/he will probably be able to read the short word that is left. Then have him/her uncover the ending and read the whole word. This should only take a few seconds. Have him/her read the word and then reread the entire sentence. Page Two - Click Here Back To Previous Page P.O. Box 5581 Sun City Center, FL 33573 Phone: 813 642-9932 FAX: 1-(866)-350-4502 Click Here