How can parents support their child ’ s literacy?

How can parents support their child’s literacy?

Supporting Children’s Learning • Why are parents important in education? • Important areas in Reading Research – the “five pillars” • How does reading develop and improve? • How/why students struggle with reading • Strategies for reading improvement

Building Blocks of Reading Phonemic Awareness Reading Ability Vocabulary Phonics Comprehension Fluency Reading Readiness Listen Read Print Talk

Phonemic Awareness A Phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a spoken word. Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words. • cat – how many phonemes?/c/ /a/ /t/ • cake – how many phonemes? /c/ /a/ /k/ • manipulating sounds • Beginning sounds - bat /b/ …. • Ending sounds - bat /t/ • Rhyming /b/ /a/ /t/ … /c/ /a/ /t/ • Hearing syllables – clapping, etc.

How can I work on phonemic awareness at home? • Rhyming • Nursery Rhymes • Dr. Seuss books • Poems • Songs • http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/phonologicalphonemic

Phonics Phonics is the predictable relationship between phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters). • Systematic and explicit instruction • Connecting sounds to symbols • Consonants and vowels • Combinations and patterns • Assists in decoding efforts to make reading less of a struggle

How can I work on phonics at home? • Help your child learn the letters of the alphabet and the sounds the letters make • Review the spelling test phonics skill of the week • Ask the teacher to send home the decodable reader they are working on that week and practice them with your child

Sight words • Sight word are words that cannot be fully decoded using phonics rules because all or part of the word “breaks the rule” • Examples: of, said, one • Most need to be memorized

How can I work on sight words at home? • Practice spelling them and reading them instead of sounding them out • Write them on sticky notes and post them around the house (on the fridge, on the mirror in the bathroom) • Use multisensory activities to practice spelling and reading the sight words (as they spell the word they write the letters) • Writing them in shaving cream • Tracing them in sand or on a bumpy surface • Build the words with playdoh

Fluency Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression. • Bridges word recognition and comprehension. • Different than speed reading. • Changes with stage of development, familiarity with words, amount of practice

How can I work on fluency at home? • Modeling good reading, read to your child and let them listen to what reading with expression sounds like. Show them how you pause at punctuation marks and change your voice depending on what is going on in the story. • Repeated reading, have them reread a short story or poem a couple of times. Funny poems are great for this because children love reading them! • Choral reading (I read, we read you read) Read a part to your child, then have them read that same part with you, then have them read it to you on their own

Vocabulary Vocabulary: the words we use and understand in reading, listening, and writing. We have a harder time reading and understanding those words whose meaning we do not know. • oral – speaking and listening • reading – recognize in print • Sometimes taught directly through word learning strategies like dictionary, word lists and parts, context clues • However, most vocabulary is learned indirectly through everyday experiences • talking, listening, reading • repeated exposure to words – read, write, say

How can I work on vocabulary at home? • Read books that are above your child’s independent reading level to your child. This will expose them to vocabulary they can’t access independently yet • Stop while you’re reading and explain unfamiliar words mean, make connections to words they already know

Comprehension Comprehension is understanding what we read. It’s the reason for reading. Good readers think when they read: • Purposeful – know why they are reading • Use background knowledge – decode, recall, compare • Active – think while reading Monitor comprehension and use strategies • Identify where the difficulty occurs • Identify what the difficulty is • Restates in own words • Look back through text • Look forward for info that helps resolve difficulty • Able to use graphic organizers • Able to ask and answer questions • Use prior knowledge, predict and summarize

How can I work on comprehension at home? • Ask questions before during and after reading… who are the characters, what is the problem, what do they think will happen next? • Help them make connections from the book to themselves, other books they’ve read or their background knowledge (text-text, text-self, text-world)

Story Map Main Characters Setting Problem of the story A story event Another story event How the problem is solved The ending

Parent’s Role in Reading • Provide support • Read and have your child read – get them thinking and talking • Help them find interesting sources of reading • Visit the library and other places – give them background knowledge • Don’t make reading time at home a chore: be positive - “Now we get to read” instead of “You have to get your reading done.” • Read, read, read…

Emergent Reader Library • What is it? • How can I use it?

Website • Access through Chandler Website, Teacher Pages, Kristin Thomas or Kellie Holden • http://www.duxbury.k12.ma.us/Domain/432

Online resources for parents http://www.readingrockets.org/ http://www.maketaketeach.com/ http://www.scholastic.com/parents/

Resources for kids http://www.starfall.com/ http://www.softschools.com/language_arts/phonics/ http:// www.familylearning.org.uk/phonics_games.html Check out the reading website for even more links

Questions?

How can parents support their child ’ s literacy?