Reading with your Child- What To Do!

Prepare-
Allow time for your child to look at the cover of the book and look through the pages.
ASK:
What do you think this book might be about?
Do you know anything about ............. already?
What words do you think we might see in this book? (Taking information from picture cues on the front of the book).
Take a picture walk through the book. Look at the pictures and discuss what is happening.

Partner up-
Adult reads story to child.
Pair up and adult reads book with child.
Child reads book by themselves.
(Make sure your child is holding the book for themselves. At this early stage of learning to read, it is important that your child points to each word as they read. This ensures one-to- word correspondence).

Pause-
If your child comes to an un-kown word, PAUSE- give them a chance to work the word out for themselves. Time for reflection about a possible choice of strategy is vital to developing student independence. If we are always giving the word straight away, your child will always rely on you for the answer.

PROMPT READING STRATEGIES-
THINK- what are you reading? Do you know anything about this subject? What might the word be? Does this make sense in the sentence?
LOOK FOR CLUES- Look at the illustrations. What does it start with? Can you see any letter patterns that you know?
SKIP the word and read on.
GO BACK and read it again.
LISTEN to the sounds. What is the beginning sound?

PRAISE
PROBE- What did you see in the book? What is a .....? Tell me what happened in this story? What is a....? What made it happen? What if......?

REMEMBER, THAT OFTEN YOUR CHILD IS READING FROM MEMORY. WE ARE NOT YET AT A STAGE OF SOUNDING OUT WORDS AND BLENDING LETTERS TOGETHER. SOME WORDS, OUR NAUGHTY WORDS, CANT BE SOUNDED OUT- LIKE SAID OR THE AND WE NEED TO MEMORISE THESE WORDS TO DEVELOP AS A READER. THIS IS FINE- IT'S PART OF THE PROCESS THEY MOVE THROUGH IN LEARNING TO READ. WE HAVE TO CRAWL BEFORE WE CAN WALK:)