Reading Strategies
When students are reading out loud, it is a lot harder than when they read in their head! I have been working really hard with students to use self correcting skills while reading. Too often, students will read words/sentences that don't make sense, but they will keep reading. When this happens, students should hear that something doesn't make sense and try to correct it. This can be done by going back to the starting of the sentence and trying it again. This is called self monitoring. A lot of easy mistakes can be fixed by this, but they have to pay attention to what they are reading!
When students come to a word that they do not know, it is really easy to just give them the answer, but this doesn't help them when they are alone! Chunking is a strategy that we use most often. It is trying to break the word into parts that they already know and then sounding out the rest. It is important that students don't sound out letter by letter, because by the time they get to the end, they will forget what sounds they made at the beginning. That is why they should chunk the letters together.
For example: the word vanished can be broken apart into: van-ish-ed or van-ished.
Try this when you are reading at home with your child!
I find a lot of students aren't paying enough attention when it comes to reading and are just guessing when it comes to words. They just see the first few letters and say a word that they already know, Example: could becomes couldn't. They just quickly look at the word and say what comes to mind! I try to stop this by telling them to pay more attention and to finger track, that way they are looking at the whole word!
It is always a good idea to talk about the book after you are done reading, to see if your child can comprehend what they have read.
Some good questions are:
What happened at the beginning of the story (characters, setting, etc).
What was the problem in the story?
How was the problem solved?
What was the ending of the story? Did you like it? Why or why not?
How did the characters feel when.......
Does this remind you of anything? (making a personal connection to the text)
When students come to a word that they do not know, it is really easy to just give them the answer, but this doesn't help them when they are alone! Chunking is a strategy that we use most often. It is trying to break the word into parts that they already know and then sounding out the rest. It is important that students don't sound out letter by letter, because by the time they get to the end, they will forget what sounds they made at the beginning. That is why they should chunk the letters together.
For example: the word vanished can be broken apart into: van-ish-ed or van-ished.
Try this when you are reading at home with your child!
I find a lot of students aren't paying enough attention when it comes to reading and are just guessing when it comes to words. They just see the first few letters and say a word that they already know, Example: could becomes couldn't. They just quickly look at the word and say what comes to mind! I try to stop this by telling them to pay more attention and to finger track, that way they are looking at the whole word!
It is always a good idea to talk about the book after you are done reading, to see if your child can comprehend what they have read.
Some good questions are:
What happened at the beginning of the story (characters, setting, etc).
What was the problem in the story?
How was the problem solved?
What was the ending of the story? Did you like it? Why or why not?
How did the characters feel when.......
Does this remind you of anything? (making a personal connection to the text)