Emergent Reading: A How-To for Kinder-Parents

How to begin reading emergent level books with your child...

This week we will be working on a book that I've made.  Since each child will be making their own and taking it home, I thought now would be a great time to introduce how emergent reading skills are taught in school.  The book they will make, and take home, is called "I Am."    

The book looks like this:

 

It contains simple, repetitive sentences with accompanying pictures.  While your child can easily memorize the words of this book, it gives you a great opportunity to work with your child and practice the strategies we are working on in school.

Sight Words

We introduced the first "sight words" last week.  Sight words are words that your child must know by "sight."  We memorize sight words, because these words occur frequently in text.  Also, many sight words cannot be "sounded out," which can make them very tricky and frustrating.  Memorizing sight words will help children read more fluently.  "I," "am," and "the" are 3 sight words we have introduced in class.  These words will appear in the book they are bringing home (some will bring it home this week, and some will bring it home next week- depending on when they do that center).

When children begin reading, we have them use their "reading finger" to point at words.  Pointing at the words will help train their eyes to track the words on the page.  It also helps to demonstrate whether your child has achieved one-to-one correspondence yet (meaning they say one word for each word on the page). When your child is reading their book to you, encourage them to "use their reading finger."  

·     If you think your child has a good grasp of one-to-one correspondence, you can:

o  ask them to point to a specific word that they read,

o  ask them to count how many words are on the page,

o  ask them to point to the first or last word on the page

·     If your child is having difficulty with one-to-one correspondence, 

• encourage them to find words they know- like I or am.  Have them point to those words and make sure that they are saying the right word when they point to it.  You can also:

• have your child count the number of words they are saying, then count the number of words on the page.  If the number isn't the same, they can realize that they've made a mistake somewhere. 
•   Write the words of a sentence in the book (for example, "I am red.") on a piece of paper.  Cut those words up and have your child arrange them in the correct order, then practice reading them.

Strategies

I teach children "strategies" to help them figure out the words on a page.   The way I explain it is that strategies are like tools for your brain.  If a builder is going to build a house, he'll need tools.  If we want to read, we need "tools" for our task.

One of the first strategies I teach students is to look at the pictures.  Pictures are meant to help tell the story.  The words and pictures are meant to go together.  We can use the pictures to help figure out words on the page.  If we come to a word that we don't recognize as a sight word, we can use the picture to make a good guess.  For a cutesy cue when a child might use this strategy, we call this strategy "Eagle Eyes."

We have also been working on beginning sounds of words and associating the correct letter with each sound.  These two skills are used in the next strategy that is introduced.  We call it "Lips the Fish."  For this strategy, your child should "get their mouth ready" to say the unknown word.  This means that they should put their the finger on the unknown word, and make the beginning sound of that word. 

Once children recognize all the letters and associate sounds with each letter, we teach them to

• recognize sight words 
•  point at their words 
• use information they collect from using the pictures and beginning sounds of words. to "guess"

Later, we will learn about more advanced reading skills- like "sounding out" words and recognizing long vowels and diagraphs (like "ch" and "sh"), as well as more sophisticated reading strategies.

I hope this was informative, but not confusing!  If you are unclear about something or have questions, please ask!  I am sure other people are wondering the same thing you are :)