If you’re like me, you are wondering what is the best (and easiest) way to help our kids with school at home. More specifically… reading! I thought I did everything right by buying more books for their age level. I thought if I just found the right book to spark their interest… BOOM, like magic, it would be enough.
Sadly, 3rd Grade came crashing down on us this year. With the combination of the pandemic and the curriculum, our kids were (what felt like all of the sudden) NOT doing well in reading. They struggled with fluency and comprehension, two things I never really thought about or focused on.
So I’m on a mission to find a quick checklist of how to teach reading to kids. My goal is to make it short and sweet. We all need an easy to follow process that helps us think about the bigger picture at the beginning. This way parents might have all the tools needed earlier for the higher grade levels later…and not get so shocked by the 3rd Grade like we were.
There are a million resources out there and it is hard to know where to start. Some of the resources I found are linked at the bottom. From what I found and based on my experience, here is the quick list I came up with.
- Read to them – NEVER STOP and START EARLY! This gets more challenging as they get older. But if we can do this at EVERY age, using anything that interests them, I think it will help. Hearing you read also helps a child’s fluency (something we had to work on).
- Letters / Sounds – make sure they know the letters of the alphabet and what sound(s) each letter makes.
- Sight Words – If they don’t have to sound out these common memorized words, they have more capacity to sound out new words.
- Frequency / Interest – Practice, practice, practice… and make it fun. Find books that they like and characters that they relate to.
- Ask them questions about what they read – Comprehension is a big part of higher level reading (and standardized tests). More on this later.
I think I focused on the middle three and didn’t focus on the first and last ones on this list… and I think these two are the MOST important. Although it is important for them to practice and read to you… it is equally, if not more important for you to KEEP reading to them. Then ask them questions about what they read, every time if possible.
I also think Sight Words are a pivotal point in this list. There are a ton of resources, printables, games and methods to teach these. My goal with Candy Lemon Books is to not only create great reading materials that kids love, but also create unique materials to learn sight words in different ways for different brains.
I’d love to hear from you and how you are teaching your kids to read. What methods do you use? What do you focus on?
I’d also love to hear from any teachers. What standards do you use and where do you think the gaps are between parents and teachers?
Leave your comments below!
Resources:
https://www.readandspell.com/us/teaching-children-to-read
Not certain where this skill fits into a child’s reading ability, but it is vital. That skill is speed-reading. I remember my dear mother saying to me, focus on the important words for the meaning, skim the less important words. Hope others will contribute by commenting on ways to improve all of our reading skills.
Thanks, Joyce! This is a great skill to have! We will look into ways to teach more advanced readers how to work on speed reading! Thanks for the suggestion!