Question:

How can I help my student improve their reading skills?

Overcoming Reversals in Reading

Make flash cards with your child using the words that confuse them most often. Use a broad tip marker and write the beginning and the ending letter in a different color. You can review the cards daily for about ten minutes. Have your child look at the word, say it, close his/her eyes as if taking a picture in color and then write the word on another piece of paper.

Seven Steps To Guided Oral Reading

Guided practice in reading aloud is an important part of learning to read well.

1. Look through the story and its illustrations together. Point out different characters and objects pictured. Ask questions, such as "What is happening here?" "Why do you think the woman is doing that?" Encourage talk about the things in the pictures and what the story might be about.
2. Return to the beginning of the story. Have your child read the title and begin reading out loud.
3. Let your child read independently as much as possible.
4. If your child has very little self-confidence, try reading alternately with her. For example, you read one sentence, and your child reads the next one. You read a paragraph, then your child reads. As your child gains experience and confidence, read alternate pages.
5. Encourage your child to relate the illustrations to the text. Sometimes pictures will help your child to identify an unknown word.
6. After reading a story, ask your child to retell it in her own words.
7. Make reading together a pleasant social experience. Smile, talk, and laugh. Enjoy the story along with your child. 8. Compliment your child. After every session let your child know that she did something well. ("This story had some hard words, but you read it well"; "When you read the wolf's words, you sounded like a scary wolf yourself," etc.)

Listen to Learn

Your school-age child will soon discover that more and more of her day is spent listening to others. Becoming a good listener takes time and practice. Try a few of these ideas with your youngster each day.

•As you read stories, ask your child to respond whenever you say a particular word. For example, "I want you to cluck like a chicken each time I say 'hen.' " After watching a TV program together, see how many details he can remember. "What did the firefighter say you should never play with?" "Why was the fish laughing so hard?"
•Give your child increasingly complex directions to complete a task. Start with "Take the cans out of the grocery bag and put them on the shelf." Over time, work up to "Take the cans of corn and put them on the top shelf, the cans of tomatoes and put them on the middle shelf, and the cans of peas and put them on the bottom shelf."

Unfamiliar Words

Encourage your child to follow the following line of questioning when stumped by an unfamiliar word:

1. What word makes sense in the particular context?
2. How does the word begin? Can you figure out the word?
3. Are there spelling patterns that can help you sound out the word? Now do you know the word?
4. I still can't figure it out. Who will help me?

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