READINGAT HOME
A Parents handbook: helping your child become a better reader. Developed by: Elizabeth Hylkema, 2004
Table of Contents
Purpose and Rationale…………………………………………………………………….2
“Parents Can Help” checklist and poem……………………………………3-4
Stages of Reading……………………………………………………………………………5
Reading Process………………………………………………………………………………..6
Characteristics of a good reader………………………………………………….7
How to motivate your child ……………………………………………………………8
Strategies to use at home …………………………………………………………9-17
Resources for parents……………………………………………………………………18
Glossary of terms……………………………………………………………………………19
Resources used to create this manual………………………………………..20
Purpose:
This handbook was created for parents in an effort to help prepare our children for the future by focusing on raising awareness about reading and how to help our children become better readers. This handbook provides information on the stages of reading, the reading process, characteristics of a good reader, how to motivate children to read independently, and strategies to use at home.
Rationale:
Everywhere we turn there is something we must be able to read in order to understand the world around us. Our children are faced with signs, posters, newspapers, books, mail, and commercials; all of these things require the ability to read. It is imperative that we teach our children how to read so that they have the opportunity to become successful adults.
Stages of Reading: Characteristics of reading behaviors
Emerging Readers: Infants and Toddlers These are the kind of things that lay the foundation for becoming a reader. Some things emergent readers may do include, imitate sounds they hear, react to a rhyme, or song, point to objects in pictures, like to hear their favorite story, can name objects in a book, and/or can help sing a song.
Developing Readers: Pre-K through first-grade As children start to attend more to the print around them they start to develop as readers. They start to recognize words and signs with the help of adults. These children may show characteristics like, hold a book properly, write their name, pretend to write stories, recognize signs (McDonald's), recognize letters of the alphabet, tell a story, know letter sounds, read simple books, use inventive spelling, make predictions about a story, and/or retell a story.
Transitional Readers: Second and Third Grade These readers are making the transition from needing a lot of support while reading to being independent. These children start reading easy books on their own, and become more confident. These children may show the following characteristics; show off reading skills, start to read chapter books, don’t need as many pictures to help understand the story, use many strategies to help them read, recognize sight words, sound out unknown words, tell the main idea, enjoy reading time, and/or able to use dictionaries and other resources to find information.
Fluent Readers: Fourth and Fifth Grade Fluent readers understand that they read for a purpose and read independently most of the time. They can relate the stories they read to their own lives. These readers are able to understand schedules, recipes, and instructions, read for pleasure, can tell fact from opinion, can compare stories, build their vocabulary threw books, can use tables of contents, indexes, and glossaries, see reading as a part of their lives, and/or read to find out information.
Independent Readers: Sixth through Eighth Grade Independent readers are fluent and use reading as way to gain information, answer questions, and for pleasure. These readers can make judgments, analyze stories, and start to read newspapers and magazines.
The Reading Process
Reading requires more than looking at letters a page. A person must be able to recognize letters, associate sounds, blend sounds together, organize the words into sentences, and understand what the sentences mean. A child must learn the following skills to read successfully.
Visual Scanning:
Recognizing individual letters, letter order, and whole words.
Sounding Out:
Matching distinct sounds to written symbols, and combining those sounds and symbols together to form words.
Analyzing Sentence Structure:
Using rules of grammar, mechanics, and spelling to connect words to form sentences.
Deriving Meaning from Text:
Relying on prior knowledge and real-life experiences to see and understand the written message.
Characteristics of a Good Reader
· use pictures to help read words or understand the story · blend sounds together (sh ow) · self-correct when they make an error · compare what they have read to their own lives · recognize sight words · break long words into parts (in de pen dent) · use prior knowledge to figure out an unknown word · look for context clues · look for little words within big words · back track and reread for understanding · look for patterns (if you know “cat”, you know “bat”
How to MOTIVATE your child to read Learn more about your child’s interests and suggest readings such as books, magazines, and articles related to those topics. Use movies as a starting point for reading; children may be more motivated to read a book based on a movie they really like (i.e. Holes) If you travel, provide your child with books about the place you will go. They may find it fascinating to discuss this information with you. Have books available at home that are on your child’s level and easy to get to. Read books with your child!!!! Be a good role model, let them see you reading and enjoying it. Discuss the book your child is reading with them and be interested in what they have to talk about. Do a hands on activity with your child about the story they have read.
Strategies to use at Home
v Establish a routine: set a time and place for reading with you or another adult everyday. v Praise every effort: help your child feel good about what they can do. v Treat your child as an individual: don’t compare their reading skills to that of their siblings or other children. v Be a role Model: Let them see you read. v Show your child that books are worth it: give books as gifts. v Encourage the use of a library: take them regularly to the library and let them roam around and find what interests them. v Make a book: Create a book with your child using cardboard and some white paper stapled together. v Read the same book your child is reading and discuss it with them. v Get books on tape to help increase vocabulary skills. (listen to them in the car). Some children are interested in books that they can not read; this is a great way to give them exposure to these books. v Let your child choose what they want to read. v Let your child subscribe to a magazine in their name. v When on trips read road signs, and billboards. Show them how to read a map. v Read with expression. v Read for short periods of time (about 20 minutes a day)
Resources for Parents
2. www.ldonline.com (learn more about disabilities and tips for parents) 4. www.howstuffworks.com (learn about science, computers, etc.)
Glossary of Terms
Context clues: the words around unknown words that allow a reader to figure out the meaning by its context.
Developmental stages: as children learn they go through different stages in their development that provide a foundation for the next stage.
Independent reading: reading practice without adult assistance.
Invented spelling: a child’s attempt to spell a word based upon the sounds he/she hears.
Prior knowledge: knowledge based upon previous experiences.
Sight words: words that are recognized without having to sound out.
Word recognition: quick and easy identification of a word previously met in print.
Bibliography
Davis, D., & Lewis, J.P. (1997). Tips for parents about reading. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.
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