Wednesday Sep 8 2010

Literacy at Home

Reading with your Child

Here are some useful ideas to support your child's reading at home.

Reading with your child at home regularly is one of the most important ways you can help him/her do well at school. The more your child enjoys reading with you, the more progress he/she will make.

  • Be positive
  • Give lots of praise
  • Build up his/her confidence
  • Make the experience fun

Reading means making sense of text. Encourage your child to use and develop all these skills when reading with you. Readers do this by:

  • Using phonics (sounding out words)
  • Using the context (what is the text about, what sort of words would you expect for it to make sense?)
  • Using grammar (what sort of word fits into the sentence?)

 What should I correct?

You certainly shouldn't correct every mistake. It's very important to keep the reading going. If the error does not change the meaning, e.g. home/house, then don't stop the flow to correct it. If the error does not make sense e.g. the fireman pointed at the house at the fire, then you must correct it. Ask your child to go back and read the sentence again to see if it makes sense. Always encourage self-correction.

What do I do when we come to a new word?

You might ask your child to try to work it out for him/herself. Get him/her to read the rest of the sentence and see if he/she can work out the new word from the context of the sentence. Or you could get him/her to sound it out. Start with the beginning sound and build up the sounds of the word. But don't spend too long on it! Sometimes it's better to give him/her the word and carry on with the story.

Making it all make sense

There are lots of ways you can help your child to get a good understanding of what he/she is reading. The Golden Rule is to stop regularly and talk about the text. Ask questions to check understanding of the vocabulary and what the text is about, and to check recall of what has happened.

If you are reading a story

  • Talk about the characters.
  • Do they remind you of anyone?
  • Do you like them?
  • Do you sympathise with them?
  • Would you have reacted in the same way to that situation?
  • You could also talk about the plot
  • Where does the story take place?
  • What will happen next?
  • Can you think of a better ending?

Reading non-fiction

Encourage your child to develop these skills:

  • Picking out key words
  • Summarising in his/her own words
  • Using the index and contents page to find information quickly
  • Scanning the text to get a general idea
  • Skimming the text to find specific information

What if reading doesn't come easily?

It can still be fun and your help is even more important. Here are some ideas you can try.

All children enjoy being read to. How much you read to your child will depend on how good a reader he/she is. Even good readers can learn by hearing better readers e.g. how to read with expression.

If you child is less confident, you reading every other page keeps the story moving along. For some very unconfident readers the following can work well:

  • You read the text aloud to your child for a few minutes.
  • Make it dramatic.
  • You and your child re-read the same piece. You are very much the leader
  • You child now takes the lead in re-reading. You help where necessary.
  • Your child reads the piece on his or her own.
  • Try lots of different approaches. See what your child is happy with. See what works best.
  • Sometimes it is a good idea to get your child to re-read something they've read before . It's great for confidence.

Hints to Encourage Reading

  • Encourage your child to notice print all around them: street names, on food packaging, menus, recipes, catalogues.
  • Get your child to choose TV programmes by reading the lists.
  • Visit the local library regularly
  • Make sure your child often sees you reading and enjoying it.
  • Use non -fiction texts together for a purpose e.g. read and follow a recipe, read the instructions on how to make a model and make it.
  • Use your computer to help reading. There's an enormous amount of written information on the internet and even games often come with written instruction
  • Encourage a variety of reading: joke books, magazines, comics, newspapers as well as books.
  • Discuss TV programmes and films in " book language" by talking about characters and the plot.

Help you child to choose books that are "just right" for him or her. They shouldn't be too easy or too difficult. Children need a challenge, but soon get bored and frustrated by books that are too difficult. They need to be able to read and understand 19 out of 20 words to enjoy reading a book on their own. Books you read with your child should be a bit more difficult.

Just a reminder that High Down has it's very own online Book Club.  There is an excellent selection of great books and 20% of the value of all books bought will be credited to school to spend on free books.  The site can be entered by logging onto http://HighDownJuniorPortishead.MySchoolBookClub.co.uk