Avoid the Winter Break Reading Slide
Winter break, usually a glorious two weeks off for students, can adversely affect reading growth, particularly for elementary readers. From young kindergarteners who are still learning sight words to fourth graders who are engaging in more complex texts, 15 days without reading a single book is extremely problematic. Students can regress (or stagnate) in reading levels after extended periods of time not reading.
Reading aloud daily, and conversing/writing about books, is the key to improving reading and comprehension skills. Elementary students should read aloud for at least 30 minutes each day. This is most easily accomplished by reading 15 minutes after breakfast and 15 minutes in the evening. Students must read aloud to truly practice reading accuracy (pronouncing words correctly) and fluency (appropriate rate of reading and smooth expressive interpretation). All students should engage in conversation about what they are reading and/or a targeted writing activity to articulate what they have learned.
In my time as classroom teacher, and now as an education project manager, many parents want to help their child improve in reading. However, they are not sure about the best way to effectively do so.
Hopefully, this article will serve as a useful guide!
Reading Level
What is your scholar’s reading level? Many schools use the Fountas & Pinnell reading assessment to assess each scholar’s reading level four times a year (K- 6th grade). Reading levels range from A to Z. Contact your scholar’s teacher to find out his/her reading level.
Improving Reading Accuracy
It’s great to read aloud, but reading aloud without purpose does not result in significant gains. Knowing exactly what your scholar’s reading weaknesses are will make reading time more effective. What does your scholar struggle with most in terms of reading accuracy? Does he/she skip words? Replace similar sounding words with each other? Skip word endings? If your scholar’s teacher has not shared this information with you, ask for it or use the guide below to diagnosis your scholar’s weakness as you listen to him/her read aloud. The following are types of weaknesses that affect reading accuracy. Identify which one most impacts your scholar, and then implement the tips provided.
Phonics: Some students struggle with recognizing and saying specific single and combination letter and vowel sounds. Phonics skills are specifically taught in KG - first grade. Reach out to your scholar's teacher for their current special sounds list. Special sounds can include -sl, -ck, -ai, -tch, -ee, and -tion.
Recognizing grade-level Sight Words: This is specific to KG and first grade. Schools should have established monthly sight-words lists. These are words that your scholar must just recognize and say aloud when he/she sees it. Reach out to your scholar’s teacher for a sight words list. You can make flashcards to practice with your scholar.
Word Endings: Regardless of age, some students struggle to sound out entire words. Coach your scholar to read carefully and sound out all syllables in a word. Identify which word ending(s) he/she often skips or mispronounces, such as -ed, -ing, -s, -ly endings.
Reading Too Slowly: Students with low decoding skills (sounding out words) usually read slowly. The only way to increase decoding skills and reading speed is for your scholar to read aloud more.
Reading Too Fast: Reading too fast also impacts accuracy. Students who read too fast tend to skip or substitute words and make more pronunciation errors. Encourage your scholar to slow down. Readers should pause appropriately at periods and commas. Model reading expressively (using exclamation and question marks to inform reading tone) and have your scholar practice.
Substitutions: As a result of not sounding out entire words or reading too fast, readers will substitute similar words for each other (sense/since or strip/stripe). You can have the scholar trace along with his/her finger as he/she reads and prompt the scholar to reread a word when he/she substitutes. Reading aloud frequently (and actively correcting errors) should help decrease the number of substitutions a scholar makes.
Improving Reading Comprehension
It is wonderful when students can accurately read aloud, but do they truly comprehend what they are reading? Can they reflect on the text to answer several types of questions? Reading comprehension encompasses general recall and retell as well as being able to identify the most key details, character feelings, main idea, and author’s purpose. Readers must also be able to use concrete text evidence to support their answers and make logical inferences about the text.
Retelling: Readers should be able to give a summary of fictional texts including details of what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. For non-fiction texts, readers should be able to explain topics discussed by the author and share facts about each topic. After your scholar reads, you can prompt them with questions such as “Tell me what happened in the story” or “What did the author share in this book?” Keep prodding for more details and encourage him/her to reread if necessary.
Main Idea: The foundation of reading comprehension is identifying the main idea of text. To help your scholar improve in identifying the main idea of a text, your scholar should stop every few paragraphs/pages to reflect on the text. Ask "What idea is connecting the significant events or details?" For fiction books, ask "Is there an important lesson that a character learns?" For nonfiction books, ask "What is the overall idea that connects all facts and details?"
Key Details: Readers should be able to identify and recall the most key details from a text. Some students become distracted or fixated on minor details that do not encompass the main theme of a story. Ask your scholar "What is the main idea of this text?" After this, then direct the scholar to review the text and identify the key details related to the main idea.
Understanding Author’s Intent: Readers should be able to explain why they think the author wrote a text. For nonfiction books, you scholar should be able to answer, “Why do you think the author wrote about this topic?” For fiction books, you can ask “What do you think the author wants you to learn from this story?” or “What lesson do you think the author was trying to teach readers through the characters?” Students should also reflect on questions such as “Why do you think the author picked this title?” and “How did the author help you understand the topic better?” Older students should be able to comment on the importance of text features (photos, captions, section headings, glossaries), and author moves (humorous character dialogue, descriptive words, figurative language) that enhance a reader’s understanding of the book.
Character Feelings: Starting in kindergarten, students should be able to identify character feelings. To improve this skill, have the scholar stop reading after a big event in the story to ask “How do you think [name character] feels? Why do you think he/she feels that way?” After the end of the story, ask the scholar “What did [name character] learn in the story? How did he/she feel at the end of the story? How did his/her feelings change? Why did his/her feels change?” Always encourage your scholar to reference text evidence.
Using Evidence: Students must consistently be able to reference text details (evidence) to support their answers. Encourage students by having them give responses in this format "I think _____ because in the text I read that ____" Or the "In the text, I read _____, so this tells me that _______." Formal text-based writing response questions will ask students to provide two pieces of evidence to support a claim.
Making Inferences: Making logical inferences can often be a difficult skill for students to master. To help students improve inferencing skills, encourage the habit of reflecting on the text before, after, during reading. Students should be able to make inferences about why a character did something, find significant lines from the author, recognize significance of text events/details or book titles. Regularly reflecting on the text will help a scholar become better at making logical conclusions based on evidence and reasoning.
Resources
Borrow books from your scholar’s classroom or school library
Register for a library card at your local public library
ReadWorks.org | Read Works is a free website with a robust offering of reading passages, comprehension questions, and answer keys. You can print material for your scholar to use at home or make them an online learning account. You should know your students reading Lexile to select appropriate texts.
Readtheory.org | Read Theory is also a free website with an expansive offering of reading passages and comprehension questions. Read Theory does not have printable materials, but it has an excellent progress tracking feature that analyzes scholar mastery by comprehension category. The program increases the difficulty of passages as your scholar passes reading quizzes.
Raz-Kids.com | Though not free, Raz-Kids is also an amazing reading practice website that offers online reading, read aloud audio, and comprehension questions based on your child’s reading level. Students enjoy earning special badges and growing levels. You can reach out to your child’s school to see if they have a school-based account, or you can make a parent account on your own. Raz-Kids currently offers 14-day free trials-perfect for winter break!
A Few Ideas to Make Reading Fun
Children love drawing and coloring. Encourage them to draw pictures of their favorite character. They can tell you about the story as they show their artwork.
For older students, have them draw a comic strip (10 -15 frames) that clearly explains the main idea in the book they read.
Organize a reading group with your child’s friends. You will be amazed at the passionate decisions that a group of 10-year-olds can have about their favorite book series.
Hold a themed reading night with neighbors and/or family-- food, reading, and good company can only bring happiness!
And my personal favorite. . . (one that will really challenge reading accuracy) engage in a competition to see who can flawlessly read Fox in Socks, a tongue-twisting enjoyable book written by Dr. Seuss!
Note: This article was originally published here on LinkedIn.