Learning to Read Part 3: Reading Strategies

Reading strategies are the tools children use when reading.  The more strategies an adult can teach their reader, the more independent a child can be when reading a book.  Here are a few common strategies.

Sound it out
Phonetic awareness is only one tool a new reader can use when learning to read fluently.  It is often unreliable if your child hasn't mastered phonetic rules and acceptions used in the English language.  In order to use this tool effectively when reading with your children, it is important to know what phonetic rules your child has already learned (like silent E; When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking, Th, Sh and Ch, and so on).  Sound it out is most effective when reading a word that follows the most common phonetic rules such : C-A-T or J-U-M-P.


Picture Clues
Using illustrations to understand words is very useful and increases a child's reading comprehension and fluency.  When your child gets stuck on a word or sentence, instruct them to use a picture clue.  Because most modern children's literature is illustrated in a way that tells the story, observing the picture will give your little one a good idea of what the words say.

Rhymes or word families
Remember all that rhyming you did with your child when she was a pre reader? It's about to pay off.  If a child can recognize rhyming words, then they are also likely to visually connect word families.  Rhyming words (and word families) all end the same way.  So all words that end in -at should rhyme.  If your child can read cat, then she can read a number of English words.  Cover the beginning of the word and tell her, "This word is in the -at family."  Then cover the -at and show her the beginning of the word. "What does P say?"
Breaking down the word in this way makes it less intimidating and helps your child to connect her rhyming skills with her reading skills.

Chunking

Chunking, is vital to fluent reading.  It is the process of reading more than one word at time, or relying on prior knowledge to comprehend the text instead of understanding each word individually.  Chunking is important to beginner readers because the faster a child reads, the more he comprehends.  

The best way to help your child to chunk words is to repeat what he has read before you turn the page.  A new reader spends a lot of energy phonetically reading  and may not connect how each word makes a sentence.   

Co reading or lead reading
     A major obstacle for many beginner readers is fatigue.  Sounding out words and reading independently takes more energy than being read to and may decrease your child's enjoyment of reading time. This is simply a problem of reading fluency.  When a child hears the words being read to at a fast enough pace, the story will make sense.  If your child is intimidated by seeing a page with more than once sentence, or is just getting tired at the end of a book, you can offer to read it together.
     This strategy is called Co-reading.  The master reader should slow their reading pace to one beat above your beginner's natural pace.  Read the first few words in a sentence and listen to make sure your reader is following along.  You're reading is helping your child to chunk the words on the page, and that is helping her better understand the words being read.