It is extremely important that your children understand what they are reading. Just using phonics to decode unknown words will not ensure comprehension. Below I have listed the strategies we learn in class to help your child preserve the meaning of the text when reading.
1. Sound out words when you can sound them out easily and quickly.
2. Get your mouth ready, say the beginning sound in the word, it can be a clue to help determine the unknown word.
3. Skip the unknown word and read to the end of the sentence. Think about what makes sense in the sentence. Go back and see if the word has the same beginning and ending sound in the unknown word as a way to see if the word is correct.
4. Making self-corrections: It is extremely important that your child self-corrects their own reading errors. This shows they are reading for meaning. When your child makes a mistake reading. They should notice that the sentence does not make sense and go back and correct their mistakes. This shows they are understanding what they read. The goal is to continually increase their self-correction rate until they self-correct all reading errors. If your child continues to read without realizing a mistake was made, simply say: "I am going to read this back the way you read it-see if it makes sense". Let them correct their mistake-help them if they need help.
READING FLUENCY:
Children learn to read by reading. It is extremely important for beginning and developing readers to practice their reading. Just as a child learns to ride a bike by practicing over and over, a child becomes a good reader by reading. It is important that children practice their reading by reading familiar text. Books they can read fairly well. This helps them practice reading the words but also gives them a feeling of confidence. As children become more competent readers they periodically need to go back and read books that are easy for them as a source of confidence. Reading famililar stories helps a child develop their reading vocabulary. Research says that a child must be exposed to a word approximately 5000 times to "truely own it". Familiar reading helps your child "own words" and develop a strong reading vocabulary. Your child also needs to be exposed to more challenginig reading material to help increase their reading level.
If your child reads at a slow rate you can help them at home by taking your finger and pointing to the words as your child reads. To increase their rate of fluency, move your finger quicker to help them begin reading at a more fluent rate. Continue to increase the speed of your finger as your child is ready.
Please remember to read to your child as well as have them read to you. It is important that they hear good reading. You can even switch back and forth while reading with your child so you both get a chance to read. Always remember to discuss the story to be sure they are comprehending what they read.
WRITING: My first goal in writing is for my students to write independently. We first work hard to get sounds in words on paper. They begin with the beginning sounds and go to ending sounds and finally begin adding the middle sounds in words. I stress the importance of getting their ideas on paper first. They are encouraged to sound out the words (phonetic spelling) the best that they can. This helps foster independence in writing. They should not be so concerned with spelling the words correctly. When spelling becomes more important than writing at this stage of development, children tend to become overly dependent on getting help from others. They also lose out on excellent words and ideas because they cannot spell them correctly. After my students write independently, we begin working on development of standard spelling. We are now doing a great job transitioning between phonetic to standard spelling. Getting good ideas and details is always the focus to help them develop as good writers.
MATH: Memorizing math facts.
1. Get addition and subtraction flashcards to 10 (you can print out flashcards on the web site: www.aplusmath.com) .
2. Help your child memorize the facts in groups. I sent home a copy of the groups.
For addition: begin with the zero and plus one facts, begin the leftovers, next go to doubles, neighbors, fast nines and fast tens.
3. It is important to memorize one group at a time or it becomes overwhelming.
4. Go back and revisit the groups previously memorized so they do not forget them. If your child misses a fact previously learned, put it back in the group being worked on.
5. Goal is for quick recall.
PLEASE ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILD TO ALWAYS DO THEIR BEST.
If they complete their homework or school assignments carelessly, have them redo it at home. Be positive about it by telling them that when they do their best they are showing others how smart they are. They have to develop a want and need to do well so I try hard to help them see how important good effort is in doing their best work. I also stress how doing their best work can really make them feel good about themself and how others will feel good about them also.
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