Reading is More Than Just Calling Words
Do you remember the first time your child “read” a book? He was probably looking at the pictures and remembering what you had read to him; although, this is an important form of beginning reading. Using picture clues is the first strategy a child can use to understand the meaning of a story. Many parents get so excited when their child can read their first book in this way, as well they should, but then the child must learn to actually read the words on the page rather than the pictures. There are many components involved in learning to be a good reader, but anyone can learn to read with desire and confidence. Among the skills used in reading are:
Sight Words:
These are words that can be automatically recognized. A beginning reader should work hard on learning many words this way. Learning the Dolch Word List is a great way to build a good sight word vocabulary.
Phonics and Word Analysis:
Letter and sound correlation: This is matching the sounds to the letters in a word and blending the sounds together in the correct order. We call this “sounding out” words. Word endings such as “ing, and “ed” are also used in helping to read the word. This is an important strategy, but not the only way to determine what the unknown word is.
Picture and word clues:
This is using the pictures and the other words in the sentence to help read an unknown word.
Comprehension:
This is the reason for reading. Comprehension is the understanding of what is being read. Some of the ways I like to teach my students to understand the passage is to visualize the action in the story, ask question as they read, and make predictions about what will happen next.
Plenty of successful practice:
A reading student will excel when they are getting lots of practice within their reading level. They should not try to read books that are too hard. A good rule is if there are five words that are unfamiliar on a page, the book is too difficult.
An important thing to remember is that learning to read takes time. It is very similar to a child learning to speak. It is an on-going process that builds upon itself. With practice and patience, a sight vocabulary and understanding will grow and confidence will increase until the child becomes an independent reader.