5 things kids
need… before they’re ready to sound out words
Many parents are excited to teach their children to
read. When deciding what to teach first, I imagine that many parents start with
what they know— sounding it out.
/C/ /a/ t/. Caaaat. CAT.
Sounding out words is a developmental skill.
We can introduce it gently, reintroduce it later, and provide
opportunities for practice when it’s finally “clicked.”
But did you know that kids need to know quite
a few things about reading before we should teach them to sound out
words?
1. Concepts of Print
If yours is a reading house, you may find that your children develop concepts
of print without a lot ofinstruction from you.
§ They hold books correctly and turn pages in the
right direction.
§ They know that each word on a page represents a
spoken word.
§ They understand that text is read from left to
right.
How to develop concepts of print
§ Read to your child often.
§ Introduce books by their title. Sometimes,
draw attention to the author and illustrator.
§ Make sure some of the books you read have large
bold print, and point to the words as you read.
§ Point out signs in your environment (the Cheerios
box, an EXIT sign, and the sign at your grocery store). Help
your child see that print is all around you.
2. Language and Listening Skills
As you read to your children, they’ll develop language
and listening skills which they need before they can become
readers.
§ They can retell a familiar story in their own
words.
§ They engage with a story as you read to them —
asking questions (“Why did he say that?”) and making personal connections (“I
wish I could have that much ice cream!”)
§ They can answer simple questions about a story.
How to build language and listening
skills
§ Ask open-ended questions as you read. Ask
more “why” and “how” questions than “who” and “what.”
§ Explain unfamiliar words as you read.
§ Encourage your children to play pretend.
3. Letter Knowledge
Obviously, kids need to know their alphabet before
they’re ready to sound out words.
§ They recognize both upper and lower case letters.
Obviously if you teach your child to sound out words with capital
letters, he doesn’t need to know the lowercase alphabet. But since
most books are written with both upper and lower case letters, it’s important
that your child can recognize lowercase letters as well.
§ They can name each letter’s sound.
How to teach the alphabet
§ At our house we start with our kids’
names.
§ We learn the rest of the alphabet by reading
alphabet books and by playing a variety of games.
§ We also like to explore the alphabet letter by
letter in many hands on ways.
§
4. Phonological and phonemic
awareness
While we’re learning the alphabet, we play games
and do activities to lay a solid foundation of phonological and phonemic
awareness. Sounds like teacher talk, right? Just remember that
these are different from phonics because they are about LISTENING,
not LOOKING. The following statements are true of children with
phonological and phonemic awareness.
§ They can count words.
§ They can count syllables in words.
§ They can rhyme.
§ They can put sounds together to make a word.
If you say these sounds to your child, /f/ and /ish/, can he put them
together to make fish? If you stretch a word and say it like this —
mooooon – does your child know the word is moon?
§ They can identify the first and last sound in
a word. This is not the same thing as knowing the letter. For example, if
you ask your child the first sound in the word phone, she should be able to
answer /f/.
How to promote phonological and
phonemic awareness:
§ Give your child a cup with counters. Say a sentence
in the normal way and then recite it very slowly. (“The sky is blue.”)
Can your child give you a counter for each word of the sentence?
§ Teach your child to count syllables by starting
with his own name. Then move on to other familiar words.
§ Read rhyming books. (Check out my rhyming book
lists for babies here.
Also visit my list of rhyming books for toddlers and
preschoolers.)
§ Play rhyming games. (I’ve got a great collection of
these in this post.)
5. An Interest in Learning to Read
If you’re attempting to teach your child to sound
out words and one or both of you are consistently frustrated, it will not end
well. It may be that your child simply isn’t ready for this skill (see
the above points), or it may be that it’s not on her list of priorities.
If children are motivated to learn to read, you can expect the
following to be true:
§ They enjoy being read to.
§ They frequently ask you to read aloud.
§ They pretend to read.
How to help children get
excited about learning to read:
§ Let your child see the value of knowing how to read
by reading in a variety of ways in her presence. This might mean reading
a recipe, your favorite magazine, devotional material, or even your e-mail.
§ Let your child choose books he loves when you read
to him — but don’t feel tied to books you’re bored with. Pull out some
winners from my book lists so
that you’ll both enjoy yourselves!
Here are some excellent reading and writing tips for parents.
Writing is a crucial
component in the development of your child's literacy ability. Here are 6 important activities you can undertake as a parent.
1.
Practise Opportunities
Give your child
plenty of opportunity to practise their writing and drawing skills. Create a
space in your house where your child can use crayons, pencils or chalk to write
on paper, in a workbook or on a chalkboard. ie a prescribed spot on a mat, a
small table etc.
2.
Activity Sheets
Teach your child how
to write by demonstrating how letters are correctly written. A range of
worksheets are available to download with fun activities that will develop your
child’s
ability to write. Most worksheets start by having a child trace a letter over a
printed example. Children are then able to practice writing the letters
freehand thereafter.
3.
Names
Typically, the first
word that your child is likely to recognise and the first word that they will
attempt to write, is their own name. Encourage your child to write their name
on any pictures they draw, as a way of practising their name.
4.
Everyday Writing
Teach your child to
write cards, notes or letters to people. You can start off by writing the
message for your child and having your child copy the message in their own
writing.
5.
Story writing
Encourage your child
to write different types of stories. Be positive with the result – regardless of the accuracy!
6.
Build Confidence
Generally, children
go through a range of development phases with their writing. They will start by
trying to write words known to them such as ‘it’,
‘to’ and ‘the’.
They then will start
to spell more complex words by correctly using the first letter for a word. As
their ability to spell improves their ability to include more correct letters
will increase... drh to dg to dog
Tip:
When your child is learning to write make sure that you focus on what your
child has done well (don't start correcting the mistakes right away!)
Getting your child reading from an early age is one of the most important things you can do as a parent.
Luckily, there are some simple things you can do to make learning to read fun and easy for your child. Firstly, develop a love of books by regularly reading fun and interesting stories. The greater the enjoyment your child has when being read to, the more interested they will be in learning to read.
Once your child is enthusiastic about books, this will make the next step easier - teaching them the principles of reading. Here are activities you can use to build these early child reading skills.
Reading
Start Early
Start reading books to your child as early as possible. The earlier you read to your child, the earlier an enjoyment of storytime develops, and as a result, the development of early reading skills.
Variety
Think about the different books you read to your child. Your child will have some books they will favour. However, make sure you regularly include unfamiliar and new books in your reading sessions to help expand your child's vocabulary and understanding of language.
Child reading can be much more enjoyable when you include a variety of book types. Assorted styles and designs provide different experiences for your child. Pop up books, books with lift flaps, textured books, books with beautiful illustrations, books with wonderful rhyme, books with rhythm or nursery rhyme books all provide a unique child reading experience.
Try to include as much variety as possible when reading to children by developing a good library of books and supplementing it with books from your local library.
Routine
Create a ritual around reading time. Try to read books at the same place at the same time of day. For example, before bedtime or after a bath are good times to ‘wind-down’ at the end of the day.
Make reading sessions fun and enjoyable for your child. The more fun you have reading together the more your child will want books read to them. Then as your reading repertoire expands, your child will have better opportunity to develop their language skills.
Access to Books
Leave lots of suitable books around your house where your child can easily find them and read by themselves. ie board books or similar that your child can’t rip easily. You are encouraging your child's desire to read by demonstrating a level of trust (that the child is capable of 'reading' a book themselves).
In fact your child will probably pretend to read books well before they are able to actually read. This is a great sign of ‘reading readiness’.
Read Everything
Use the materials around your home to teach your child the practical application of reading. Reading everything from party invitations, recipes, letters and other material around the house is a wonderful way to highlight to get your child reading
Displaying the Learning
At school, every reading, writing and maths group lesson has a specific learning intention (WALT/ We are learning to) that we want the children to learn and achieve. Different groups may have different learning intentions because we teach to student's learning needs.
For example, a reading lesson learning intention could be "WALT: read new words".
The teacher then co-constructs with the students how we can be successful in achieving our learning intention. This is called a success criteria.
The success criteria for "read new words" could be...
-Look at the picture
-Sound out the word
-Check if it makes sense.
Success Criteria are the steps for the children to take to be successful in achieving the learning intention.
At Glenfield Primary School we display our learning so that children can access it if they need reminding on how to do something we have previously covered.
In our Room 2 library, students can access reading learning intentions that we have achieved in the past to remind themselves of how to achieve that particular learning intention.
For example, this an example of a reading lesson with one reading group.
These are different groups learning intentions easily accessible for students in our classroom library.
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Welcome to Glenfield Primary and welcome to Room 2. I am so excited and looking forward to working with your wonderful child. Here is some information about how homework will work in Room 2.
Your child will take their notebook home every day and it is to be used as a reading log and spelling book.
Your child’s literacy homework is to read at home every night, practice our weekly spelling words and to practice reading his or her sight words.
You should find all of these in your child’s book bag.
The front of the notebook is to be used to keep track of your child’s daily reading and progress. Please write the name of the story and the date that you read together each night.
Feel free to use the comments section as a home – school communication tool and write any queries, observations or comments you may wish to share. I will try and get back to you as soon as possible.
Reading should always be a fun and positive experience!
At the back of the book you will find our weekly spelling words. These will be given out on Monday and we will have a spelling test on Friday. Please practice these words with your child.
Our classroom blog is www.superseahorses.blogspot.co.nz. You will find lots of fun learning activities that your child can practice. You will also find some reading activities that you can do at home with your child.
If you wish to contact me directly, my email address is kirstya@glenfield.school.nz.
I look forward to getting to know you and your child and sharing your child’s progress with you.
Kind regards,
Kirsty Andrews
Classroom teacher.
Learning to Read
The main skills which children need to develop are:
 | Pre-reading | ||||||||||||||
| Phonics | ||||||||||||||
| Word recognition Pre-reading skills are the skills children need in order to help them to become a reader. Many of these skills are learnt naturally, during the course of a normal childhood, at home and in the nursery/preschool environment. By talking and reading with your child, you will be doing a great deal to help these essential skills to develop.
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