My mother was, and is, an avid reader. To this day I can remember her reading us bedtime stories, as my siblings and I snuggled deep into our pillows to listen to her soothing voice read these spectacular stories to us. Right after, we would beg her to read us another one or sing a lullaby, and she would often oblige to at least one more story or song.
In my online classroom, I am constantly faced with children of all different skill sets. Some can read like they were born to do it. Others cannot even recognize sight words like ‘the’. Sometimes I leave the classroom beaming with pride from my student’s accomplishments, while other times I leave with about 500 new grey hairs on my head.
Now….I have timed classes, which means that I cannot doddle around teaching every single word to the child.
**In an ideal world, we would be able to start from scratch with our students and build up a proper foundation for reading. We also cannot force the students to go back to easier materials only for the reading portion if we are working with a lesson that is preplanned and timed. We need to find ways to work with what we have.**
Therefore, it is important to know where a student’s strengths lie. Some students catch on quickly, while others take a bit longer. This is why we need to have strategies ready, so when we are faced with a new student, we can implement them and find out which one can help our students the most.
Food for Thought:
Not all languages use the Latin alphabet. This means that when a student is faced with using a completely new system of writing and reading, it will take time for them to adjust and begin to read.
Below, I will give you 6 strategies that you can use to help your students learn to read by building a more solid foundation, even on a timed schedule.
Strategies for Reading:
1. Words of High Frequency:
What are they??? These are the words that you use in almost every sentence. Try to think of some examples of words that are regularly used?
For example: is, but, I, you, they, have, want, said….
These words are constantly used in reading, writing, listening, speaking. They are important for the child to recognize while reading.
Activity idea:
1. Go through the slides just before class and find those high frequency words.
2. Then write the words on your white board, in the lesson, or even on a piece of paper.
3. Once you write them down, have the student read them with you. If they are able to read some or all of them, great! If not, or they still need practice, have the student write them with you or, if they are younger (4-6 years old), have them clap the letters and repeat after you.
You can create so many games with these high frequency words, and it is important for them to recognize them, making reading much easier on both you and the student.
2. Find the word:
Let’s say you have some vocabulary that you just review with the student. Or maybe you practiced phonics and they were having some troubles reading the words on their own which is making them discouraged. One of the games I like to play with them is ‘Find the word……’
The game rules:
1. The teacher will say one of the words on the page.
2. The student will identify the word by finding it, circling it, and repeating it back to the teacher.
This game shows you that the student can recognize words. Once the child gets better at this, you can switch roles with the child. Have them become the teacher! This is so much fun for students. They are able to lead the class in a controlled activity, and you can test their skills as a teacher by purposely circling the wrong one. This will keep them on their toes, and if you are working with children, it makes them laugh like crazy to think that their own teacher messes up too. 😉
3. Phonics RULES!
Spelling. Spelling. Spelling.
There are so many times that students try to learn to read without knowing the rules of phonics. Phonics are the sounds that an individual letter makes. It is important to know the names of the letters, but you cannot read only knowing the names, you have got to know the sounds each letter makes.
On top of this, you need to know how vowels change depending on their placement in a word, whether there is an ‘e’ at the end, where the stress falls on a word, etc.
This of course is second nature to us native speakers, but second language students may not understand this, and if you get a student who doesn’t know the rules of the sounds, then it will be very difficult for them to read new words.
It is also important to know the irregular words.
Ideas:
Teach these concepts one at a time though. Start with something like the rule of ‘e’. When you have ‘e’ at the end of a word, it can make the vowel say its name.
For Example:
F+ame = fame
P+ete = Pete
T+ime = time
C+one = cone
C+ute = cute
4. Repetition:
This brings us to repetition of materials! This may be the most important parts of teaching a child how to read. Repeating is important because the student needs to store the information you are giving them in their long-term memory. Once it is in long-term memory, the child will be able to recognize the word without teacher assistance. This is will also allow the student to focus on the content rather than just the reading. Again, they need to be able to read before they try to decipher the content.
**It is not reading comprehension if you read it to them. That is listening comprehension. Which is still good, but they are two different things and should be noted as such!**
5. Review:
This is closely related to repetition, but they are different in some ways. Reviewing refers to looking back at the words previously learned, while repetition is a tool for remembering the words that were learned.
Reviewing can be part of a final game, if there is time, or it could be in the beginning of the class. This could be in the form of writing the words on the white board and having the student read and repeat them after the teacher. This will give you an idea of where the student’s word recognition is at, and/or where you will have to begin the lesson.
For little kids, you can make this fun, and allow them to review other parts of English in the process.
For example:
Game Prep:
You can cut out and laminate bugs or butterflies of different colors and write the target words on the backs of the butterflies or bugs.
1. They have to identify the type of bug or color of the butterfly to see the word. You can review adjectives, prepositions, and many other areas of language depending on how you structure the activity.
2. After identifying the bug or butterfly they want, they should read the word on the back correctly.
3. Then they can earn a point. If they do not read it correctly, then have them repeat it at least three times and spell it out loud once. Then give them the point.
** We do not want to discourage them by taking the bug or reward away, instead we should give them the reward for practicing and working hard. This will encourage them to try and read faster so they can receive more rewards at a faster pace. **
6. Parental Involvement (For children, not adult language learning):
This is key.
Parents can make or break a child’s learning. As educators, we need to give the parents examples of how their child learns best, because we are the ones teaching them. If we give parents clear examples of how to work with their children at home, this may inspire them to practice with them. It is important for students use what they learn outside of the classroom.
This is called, generalization.
Taking what a child learned and using it in their natural environment is one of the best teaching methods, and this cannot be done by the teacher, unless you are a daycare provider or someone who watches the children for the majority of the time. In this case, you can adjust the activities for all of the students to learn and have fun engaging in.
Even if we give the parents only 1 word to review at home, it will make all the difference. 😊
That is it for now! Enjoy the read and let me know your thoughts. Bye!
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