Reading & writing your way to success
What can you do to insure your child’s success as a reader? Take out insurance policies! And the best part is that these policies don’t cost a dime- just a little time!
Insurance policy #1: ‘Concepts of Print’ Policy
Insurance policy #2: ‘Habits at Home’ Policy
Insurance policy #3: ‘The Best Questions’ Policy
Insurance policy #4: ‘Writing your way to reading success’ Policy
Insurance policy #1: ‘Concepts of Print’ Policy
Listed here are the important bits of information successful readers know and use. The technical is ‘Concepts of Print’. Each includes something you can point out to your child as you are reading together
Directionality
• Left-to-right page sequence- Read the left page first, then the page on the right. • Left-to-right in sentence- Read sentences from the left to the right. • Return sweep- read from the left to the right, and when you get to the end of a line, return to the left and continue reading to the right. • Top to bottom- Read from the top of the page to the bottom of the page. • Beginning and End of book- Where does the book begin? Where does it end? Reading concepts • Print tells the story. • One-to-one correspondence- Each printed word is a spoken or read word. Book concepts
• Cover- At the front of the book, it displays the title and author. • Title- The name of the book, found on the cover and title page. • Title page- A page after the cover which displays the title and author. Words/letters
A letter- Count the number of letters A capital letter- Find a capital letter. in a word. Point out the difference Point out that the first word in every between a letter and a word. sentence is captialized. Can you find other words that starts with a capital? A word- Compare letters and words. Count words in a sentence. A small or lower case letter- Find lower case letters. Are there more capitals or The first word on a page- Ask, "Can lower case letters? you find the first word we should read?" Can name letters- Have your child find letters that he can name. Point out The last word on a page- Ask, "Where others and name them. is the last word?" Knows key words in isolation- Notice A first letter- Have your child find and name words that appear often, like the first letter in a word. 'I, go, to, will, you, we, not, a.'
A last letter- Locate the last letter in several words.
Punctuation
• Question mark • Period • Comma • Quotation marks Strategies used- Which strategy does your child use? He may use more than one, and eventually he will use them all! • Relies on memory for reading • Uses pictures to tell story in own words • Uses pictures to help with words • Uses own language patterns • Uses beginning letter sounds • Uses many letter sounds Uses background experience
Insurance policy #2: ‘Habits at Home’ Policy
Ever wonder what you might do at home to give your child the best chance of success? Not everything looks like it applies to school- but these all impact your child’s attitudes and abilities. Here are just a few suggestions:
• Turn off the television! • Set a specific amount of time that the tv will be available for children to view. Many adults resort to using the television as a babysitter, something to keep their children busy so the parents can get something done. While the television does entertain most children for long periods of time, it most definitely does not have your child’s best interests at heart.
• Involve your child in what you are doing at home. • It is much easier to do things when children are not under foot. Everything takes less time and less mess. But the very best thing for your child is to keep them close while you are working. If you are cooking, let them measure. (Broken eggs and spilled flour clean up!) If you are doing laundry, let them sort. If you are paying bills, let them practice numbers on a calculator. It will be your example that influences the adult they will become.
• Limit computer time. • As much as children are excited and motivated about computer programs, the computer is no replacement for exploring, building, putting together and tearing down, measuring, mixing, experimenting- all those activities that give children the foundations they will need for constructing future knowledge. • Eat family meals around the table. • Mealtime conversation offers children an opportunity to learn turn-taking, listening, and staying on the subject. It also makes them feel important as they share their ideas and as others respond to these. It strengthens family bonds as everyone catches up with what each one has done that day. It also offers the only chance your child may have of developing appropriate table manners.
• Set up a specific time and place to do homework. • Homework is one of the two most reliable indicators in determining a student’s overall success in school. (The other is consistent attendance.) Children need to know the depth of a parent’s commitment to homework- if you’re convinced that it is important, they will see it the same way. Have the most common homework supplies readily available- sharpened pencils, markers, glue, scissors, tape, eraser, paper. Schedule the time that works best for your family. Stick to it! The hardest thing parents have to do is to be consistent. Homework is not only hard for students- it’s hard for parents! But, in the long run, it’s worth the sacrifice.
• Read to your children 20 minutes a day. • Plan to read to your children for 20 minutes every day from birth until they leave 3rd grade. This can be daytime, bedtime, laptime, anytime reading! This reading time will accumulate to over 700 hours by the time your child enters kindergarten! What a great start! This is assigned as daily homework in kindergarten at Walcott, but since everyone should already be doing it… no apologies!
• Assign daily chores. • Children entering school should be expected to have a few jobs for which they are responsible. Have a family meeting and decide who does what at your house. If you put these on a chart, it’s easy to see if your child is doing jobs consistently. Remember, most children work best when they are working alongside someone they enjoy being with- this is another great time for conversation!
• Give your child focused attention every day. • Focused attention is when you stop everything and look directly in your child’s eyes, giving him/her your undivided attention. This is one of the ways you can make sure your child feels loved. Many times, adults talk at children rather than with them, telling them what to do, how to do it, etc. When a topic comes up, ask questions and let your child explain and justify their thinking. Give lots of hugs and kisses- moms and dads alike!
Insurance policy #3: ‘The Best Reading Questions’ Policy
Before reading:
• Read the title, author and illustrator. What does each of these people do? • Why did you choose this book? • Look through the book at all of the pictures. What is happening? What do you think the story might be about? What might be happening? During reading:
• Read the story together. Are there any words your child can read? • Where we right about what would happen in the story? • Stop at certain places in the story. What do you guess/predict will happen next? What if (give an option)…? Why do you think that will happen? After reading:
• What was your favorite part? The saddest part? The funniest part? (whatever is appropriate to the story) • Did something like this ever happen to you or in another story? When? Do you think you would like to read this story again another time?
Insurance policy #4: ‘Writing your way to reading success’ Policy
Children learn to read not only by reading but by writing as well. Both require making connections between letters and sounds. Opportunities to write increase ability to read; opportunities to read increase ability to write.
Find out how to best support your child in their developmental writing. Stages of developmental writing- Discover at what stage your child is writing so you’ll know what to expect and how to help.
Independent writing- Find out the steps you can go through to help your child do his/her homework!
Interactive writing- Learn how to share the writing responsibility with your child.
Stages of developmental writing
Writing is a great way for children to apply what they know about letters and sounds. Here is a progression that many children follow as they learn that letters represent sounds, words and thoughts. Find where your child is in this progression so you can support their stage of development. (This is what is expected from your child on the weekly book report homework!)
• Beginnings- A child may use a ‘scribble’ writing or may write a string of random letters like this: "AFLKSN TROSNTLSA" This child knows that adults make symbols to write or that adults use actual letter, but he hasn’t made a connection that a certain letter has a specific sound. • Consonants- One letter, usually the first one heard in a word, is used to represent the whole word. "I went to school on the bus" might look like this: • "I w t s b." (vowels are harder to hear and are most often ignored; words like "the" are not even acknowledged.)
• Initial and final consonants- Children hear the first and the last sounds in a word. "My dog had puppies" might look like this: "mi dg hd ps." • Vowel/consonant combinations- Consonants and vowels begin to be heard and written. "I brought snack today" might look like this: "I bot sak tda." • Words- A child begins to write sounds for every syllable. "My baby sister crawled under the stairsteps" might look like this: "my bab sistr crold undr thu strseps." Standard or conventional spelling- As children make connections with most of the letters and the sounds they make, they begin to remember spelling patterns and learn words by sight. More and more words will be spelled correctly. "I spent the weekend with my grandma" might look like this: "I spent the weeknd with my granma."
Independent writing
One of the best things about developmental writing is that children can write about anything they want to write about! This isn’t ‘spelling’; it’s hearing a sound and writing the letter that goes with that sound. Here are some ideas on how you can support your child’s writing progress!
• Encourage them to think about what they want to say or what they want their picture to say. It’s important for children to realize that their words will be telling a thought or a story. • Repeat their sentence to be sure that’s what they want. • Determine what developmental stage your child is writing at to know how many sounds they might be able to identify. • Have them say the first word and ask what sound they hear. Depending on the stage of writing, help them isolate the first sound. • Looking at an alphabet picture chart, help them match the sound with the beginning sound of one of the pictures. Help them name the letter, if necessary. Have them write the letter, and move on to the next sound. • At first, skip over blends (sh, ch, th), sounds that are inconsistent (like many of the vowel sounds) and silent sounds. • Reread the sounds/words your child has written several times while you’re working your way through the sentence. This will reinforce letter sounds. • When the sentence is complete, name and use the appropriate punctuation (usually a period). • Somewhere on the page, in small print, write what the letters/sounds say so I will know at school what they wrote about. • As your child progresses through the developmental stages of writing to the "Words" stage, some rules and some sight word spellings can and should be introduced. • THE VERY BEST WRITING IS THE WRITING THAT YOUR CHILD WANTS TO DO- WRITING FOR REAL REASONS. • Grocery list • Daily diary • Christmas or birthday wish list • Letters to friends & family • Thank you’s • Invitations • Story writing • Messages ‘To do’ list
Interactive writing
Interactive writing will give your child the chance to practice applying letters and sounds, and, because you will fill in the inconsistent and silent letters, the finished product will be spelled correctly
• The main difference between independent writing and interactive writing is that the finished product is all conventionally spelled. Your child identifies and writes all of the sounds that are consistent, and you write all of the letters that are inconsistent or silent. • It will be helpful to have an alphabet chart handy that has a picture with each letter for reference. This will keep the connection of which sound goes with which letter in front of them. • Looking at an alphabet picture chart, help them match the sound with the beginning sound of one of the pictures. Help them name the letter, if necessary. Have him/her write the letter, then move on to the next sound. • • An example of interactive writing would look like this: M y c a t l i k e s t o c h a s e m i c e .
(The underlined letters are the ones you would write- these have inconsistent or silent sounds and, at this stage, your child is not expected to know them.)
• When you are writing interactively, you do not usually offer an explanation as to why you are writing the inconsistent or silent letters. This takes too long and offers information that, at this level, your child is not really interested in yet. As your child knows most or all of the letter/sound connections, you may occasionally offer an explanation as to why you are writing a letter. This will introduce some rules and some sight word spellings. http://www.davenport.k12.ia.us/walcott/directory/Lifeskills.htm