What Good Reader Do

Typically when you ask a child (at any age) "What is a good reader?" They will normally reply with, "They read fast." Well, that is the perceived answer, however good readers are skilled readers! Skilled readers use strategies to decode and comprehend written text.

Beginning Skilled Readers will: (from Dolores Hudson 2007)

1. Look at the pictures ~ pictures help beginning readers, so let your child look at the pictures!
2. Get their mouth ready to make the first sound of the word
3. Slide through the whole word ~ this is how we think of "sounding out"
4. Reread the sentence ~ and ask the questions Does it LOOK right? Does it SOUND right? or Does it MAKE SENSE?
5. Spell the word they are working on
6. SKIP the hard words and then go back and reread the sentence ~ sometimes hearing the rest of the sentence helps put the correct word in the "blank" spot
7. Try a different vowel ~ many children struggle with the correct vowel/letter relationship. Therefore, the word "coat" (with a long /o/) might be read as "cot" (with a short /o/ sound).
8. Think of a rhyming word ~ sometimes we call this reading by alliteration. This means if I know cat, then I can read rat, mat, pat, sat, etc.
9. "Chunk it" ~ look for smaller words within the word being read. For example, the word "into". I may know how to read "in" and then I need to use my letter/sounds relationships to read "to".

Posters of these skills are posted in each classroom here at Jefferson Elementary School. Talk with your child about these skills and demonstrate the skills by modeling while you are reading!