Reading Strategies

The quicker students can recognize words, the more fluent their reading will be. Fluent reading is very important, as fluency allows students to comprehend what they are reading more easily. Reading is a very complex task. Readers use many strategies when they read. Effective readers always ask themselves if what they are reading makes sense. Often readers use the meaning of the story to help them solve words they do not know. This is one of the best ways to solve an unknown word. Other strategies readers use are: looking for known parts of words within an unknown word (i.e. "I see the word "and" in grandma"), sounding out words, rereading etc.

We have begun to work with our students to recognize some high frequency words. This week we have worked on the word "the". We had students come up to the whiteboard and unscramble the word with magnetic letters. We've also had students write the word "the" on the whiteboard as fast as they could 3 times. Today we had students search for the word "the" in the morning message. Some students had the chance to come up and circle the word "the" when they found it. 

Book bags have gone home today. Some of the books you will have to read to your child, while others they will be able to read to you. Please try and read as often as you can with your child. When you return your child's book, they will receive a new one within a day or two. Sometimes your child will bring home a book they already had. This is a great opportunity to work on their fluency and expression. Often students find a book easy, but are reading the words very slowly or lack any intonation and expression. If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to ask us!