Learning to Read Part 2: Picking books for your young reader

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Now that you have identified what reading level your child is, it is time to pick some books.  Because the young mind is always growing, your child’s reading level is always changing.  It is important to model reading at least one level above what your child can read on her own.  This helps to bridge the gap between levels.

   

Of course, when reading to your children, any book of interest will do.  However, when picking a book for your emergent or beginner reader to read to you, look for the following traits: 

Simple, repetitive  sentences

     Your emergent reader just sounded out a word. Great! Now for the rest of the book.  
Many early childhood books have repetitive sentences like, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  Once your child has sounded out a word, you can point to it through out the book, "You know this word.  You read it on the other page." Or she can practice sounding it out over and over again until she knows it by sight. Beginner readers benefit from repetitive stories because the repetition helps to increase their fluency, or speed of reading.
     Prereaders enjoy the poetry of repetitive stories.  They can memorize the story and mimic reading it themselves, an important step to becoming an emergent reader.

Song Books, Prayer books and other familiar stories 

     Because your child may have already memorized the words to common songs or prayers,  she will not have to rely on sounding out every word. Reading books like, Wheels On the Bus, or The Our Father,  may help to improve your child's reading skills and confidence because they already know what words to expect.  When sounding out "round," for instance, your emergent and beginner reader may sound out the first sound, then relay on her previous knowledge of the lyrics to finish the word.
     The illustrations in these books will bring new life to songs and prayers for the pre reader. These children will also practice the mechanics of reading, such as holding the book, looking left to right, turning the pages at the right times and looking for clues in the pictures.

It is important to note that all levels of readers will benefit from both Song books and Repetitive books for different reasons. A pre-reader will be able to recite the words on the page and gain understanding through the illustrations.  The emergent reader will recite the words she already knows, and then connect that what she is saying matches the words on the page. A beginning reader will read these books with a higher fluency because she does not read each word individually, but in chunks like a master reader would.

Repetitive Sight words

     Dolche Sight words are a list of commonly seen words, categorized by grade level.  They are known as sight words because many of these common words cannot be sounded out and therefore must be memorized.  Sight words can be practiced by flash card, by games like Bingo or Memory, or by rote reciting.  Most successful reading programs incorporate a combination of phonics skills and sight word instruction to successfully teach children to read.
     Although sight words are not a factor for pre-readers,  a main difference between emergent and beginner readers are the number of sight words they recognize.  This is because the less time a reader spends sounding out individual words on a page, the more of the story she will understand.  Go Dogs Go, by P.D. Eastman, is a fantastic example of a sight word book.  The text is made almost entirely of Kindergarten level sight words, making it a wonderful way to put the flashcards and rote memorizing into practical learning.     
     Another fun activity would be to use your sight word flash cards to make sentences and then create your own book, where your child is the main character.  

When your child is done reading a book to you, reward them by reading a story to them.    Modeling fluent reading is vital for children.  Proficient readers must model fluent reading for all levels.  Even master readers may need modeling when learning new vocabulary (such as in a Biology text book or a historical character’s name).  And beyond the mechanics of learning to read, the enjoyment of books and stories begins at home.  So make reading a part of your daily schedule.