Technical Polygon

Techniques for Teaching Children to Read

Benefits of Reading

Reading is a necessary skill for everyday life

Highly functional - needed for understanding texts and language

Used for entertainment, following instructions, learning new information, forming opinions on certain topics, and communicating with others

Literacy is a social experience used for connecting with people and used within cultures, groups and communities

Everyday Strategies

Reading to a child for 10 minutes minimum daily

Pointing out examples of words or texts

Modeling reading yourself

Having a wide range of text types available that connect with child's interests, e.g picture books, narratives, non-fiction books, recipe books, e-books on a tablet, etc.

Specific Teaching Strategy- Phonics

Phonics outlining the relationship between written letters and spoken sounds. Blending and segmenting word games help develop phonological awareness.Example: Guess-the-Word GameWords are stretched out into their component syllables, (e.g Fll-aaaaa-ggg) using picture cards. Adult presents picture, says the word slowly and child has to guess the word.

Example of Phonics Activities

Specific Teaching Strategy - Shared Reading

Shared Reading Interactive reading where the adult models the skills of proficient readers and child(ren) follow along during the reading.

Adult demonstrates reading skills such as fluency, expression, anaylsing visual cues, prediction, and highlights significant or 'tricky' words or phrases as well as language conventions like rhyme and alliteration.

Shared Reading can build on a child's sight word knowledge, develop an understanding of text structure, and learn reading strategies for higher comprehension.

Specific Teaching Strategy- Vocabulary Word Maps

Word Map a graphic organiser used to promote vocabulary development.An enhanced knowledge of vocabulary words is important for reading comprehension.Word Maps engages children to research and think about a word in various ways. They include finding the word definition, its synonyms, antonyms, as well thinking of examples in the word and practicing sentence writing.

Example of a Word Map

Summary

Benefits of Reading Highly functional life skill used in many activities and connects people socially.

Everyday Strategies Reading aloud daily to child, highlighting examples of literacy, modeling reading yourself, access to texts.

Specific Teaching Strategies Phonics activities, Shared Reading and Vocabulary Word Maps.

References

Seely Flint, A., Kitson, L., Lowe, K., & Shaw, K. (2014). Literacy in Australia. Pedagogies for engagement. Wiley.

McDonald, L. (2013). Examining literature. In A literature companion for teachers (pp. 66-84). Newtown, NSW. : PETAA.

http://www.readingrockets.org/