K-1 Reading At Home

Choose the reading activity appropriate for you child from the following list. Please save and refer to this list as you read to your child during the year.

• Read the book to your child. Let the child point to each word as you read (help point, if necessary). Have the child read (or tell) the book back to you.
• Have your child read the book to you. Encourage him or her to point to each word. Tell the child any words that he or she gets stuck on.
• Have your child read the book to you. If he or she can read it without help, pointing randomly to different words to see which words the child knows.
• If your child knows all of the words in the selection, then ask questions to make sure the child understands what he or she is reading.

Help coach the child with the following statements and questions. These reinforce the reading strategies the students are learning to use when they don't know a word:

• "Go back to the beginning of the sentence."
• "Try reading the word (or sentence) again."
• "Say the first sound."

If the child is still stuck:

• "Go back to the beginning of the sentence."
• "Try reading the word (or sentence) again."
• "What is the beginning/ending sound?"
• "Read on to the end of the sentence."

To reinforce learning, have the child read again and ask himself or herself:

• "Does it make sense?"
• "Do the beginning and end sounds fit?"
• "Does it sound right?"

© 1996 Wright Group Publishing, Inc.

"Why Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?"

Let's figure it out mathematically!

• Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week.
• Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!

Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.

• Student A reads 20 minutes x 5 times a week = 100 minutes/week
• Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes/week

Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.

• Student A reads 400 minutes a month
• Student B reads 80 minutes a month

Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year

• Student A reads 3600 minutes a school year
• Student B reads 720 minutes a school year
• Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.
• Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

By the end of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits, Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days. Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days. One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:

• Which student would you expect to read better?
• Which student would you expect to know more?
• Which student would you expect to write better?
• Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
• Which student would you expec6t to be more successful in school...and in life?

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