READING STRATEGIES By Kristen Keller

WHY IS READING IMPORTANT?

In order for Kindergarteners to move on to first grade, they have to be able to read. A good reader knows letter sounds and recognition, blends, vowels, and how to figure out unfamiliar words by using reading strategies.

Kindergarten is probably the most important time of a child’s life. This is when they learn all of the fundamentals to become a good and fluent reader and comprehend what they have read.

DECODING

•Must be able to sound out words

•Phonics instruction

•Know letters one by one and their sound

•Phonemic awareness

•Knowledge that letter represent an individual sound

•Know CVC words

•Know sight words

CONTEXT CLUES

•Help children comprehend what is being read

•Improve vocabulary

•Teach by pausing at an “unknown word”

•Use pictures to figure words out

•Use previous knowledge to figure out words

SHARED READING

•Improves reading fluency

•Echo reading is an excellent strategy

•Improves sight word vocabulary

•Teaches concept of print

• Left-to-right progression

• Sentence structure

GUIDED READING

•Help students in small group

•One-on-one time

•Differentiate instruction

•Meet individual needs of students

•Use techniques depending on level

•Reinforce decoding

•Reinforce comprehension skills

•Use books that are leveled in complexity to the reader

FOR THE STRUGGLING READERS

•Letter naming fluency

• Letter tiles

• Magnetic letters

• Flash cards

•Identify and produce initial sounds

•Phoneme segmentation

• CVC Words

• Use different methods until student understands

•Review and focus on sight words

• Students must know these because the cannot be sounded out

• Say it, spell it, say it again

• Point to sight words while reading

STRATEGIES TO INCREASE COMPREHENSION

•Read aloud

•Predicting

•Questioning

•Retelling

FLUENCY STRATEGIES FOR PARENTS

•Model fluent reading

•Echo reading

•Recorded reading

•Vocabulary flash cards

•Rehearsed reading

BASIC LITERACY SKILLS THAT SHOULD BE MASTERED IN KINDERGARTEN

•Letter recognition

•Reading

•Writing

•Sight words

COMPREHENSION EXERCISES

•Read-alouds

•Think-alouds

•Choral Reading

•Hands-on activities

OVERALL

As you can see, we have many things that we are responsible for teaching our students before they move on to first grade. Every extra second of the day should be spent on struggling students and working to improve their knowledge.

PREREQUISITES FOR 1ST GRADE

•Phonics and phonemic awareness

• Recognize and know all letters

• Produce sounds for each letters

• Know blends

• Identify beginning, middle and end sounds

•Literacy

• Know concept of print

• Read left to right

• Understand setting, characters and plot

REFERENCES

•Personal experience

•http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/list-reading-strategies-taught-kindergarten-4951.html