Reading at Home

When you are reading at home:

- start with a prediction based on the cover page and the title

- follow with a picture walk, where your child predicts what is happening at each stage of the story

- return to the beginning of the story and begin reading the story together

What do you do if the story is too hard?:

- enjoy discovering the book together

- "echo read" you read the sentence first and your child repeats you

- "choral read" read the words on the page together

- Support your child as they experiment with reading. For example have your child tell a story by looking at the pictures, or support them through decoding the word by relating the word to the supporting picture.

What do you do if the story is just right?:

- your student will still have difficulty identifying all of the words, try some of the following suggestions

- remember it is not cheating to tell your child what you see or how you solved the word

- help your child by identifying and talking about supporting pictures

- look for smaller words within the larger word

- see if you can find a word family or pattern within the word

- cover the ending of the word...does it look familiar

- skip the word and read on...take a guess...does your guess make sense

What do you do if the story is too easy?:

Reading involves more than reading the words on the page, it involves understanding what you read. Try the following follow-up activities at home.

- complete a CSPPOT (identify characters, setting, plot, problem, outcome, and theme)

- have your child draw a picture of their favorite part and explain it in writing

- have your child write or draw a connection that they had while reading

- have your child write a letter to the main character or author