The following reading strategies are the basis of Guided Reading, the reading instruction used by your child's classroom teacher. Parents may utilize them as well. If your child comes to a word he doesn’t know:
1. Tell the child to look at the picture. You may tell the child the word is something that can be seen in the picture, if that is the case.
2. Tell the child to look for chunks (or parts he knows) in the word, such as “it” in sit, “at” in mat, or “and” and “ing” in standing.
3. Ask the child to re-read and get his/her mouth ready to say the word by shaping the mouth for the beginning letter. Many times it just pops out because it make sense.
4. Ask the child to go on and read to the end of the sentence. Often by reading the other words in context, the child can figure out the unknown word.
5. If the child says the wrong word while reading, ask questions like:
Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?
These are additional prompts (a more extensive list) which I use to help your child.
Prompts to Support the Use of Reading Strategies
To support the control of early reading behaviors:
Read it with your finger
Did you have enough (or too many words)?
Did it match?
Were there enough words?
Did you run out of words?
Try _____ . Would that make sense?
Try _____ . Would that sound right?
Do you think it looks like _______ ?
Can you find ________ ? (a known or new word)
Read that again and start the word.
To support the reader’s use of self-monitoring or checking behavior:
Were you right?
Where’s the tricky word? (after an error)
What did you notice? (after hesitation or stop)
What’s wrong?
Why did you stop?
What letter would you expect to see at the beginning? At the end?
Would __________ fit there?
Would __________ make sense?
Do you think it looks like _____________ ?
Could it be _________ ?
It could be _________, but look at ____________ .
Check it. Does it look right and sound right to you?
You almost got that. See if you can find what is wrong.
Try that again.
To support the reader’s use of all sources of information:
Check the picture.
Does that make sense?
Does that look right?
Does that sound right?
You said (…). Can we say it that way?
You said (…). Does that make sense?
What’s wrong with this? (repeat what child said)
Try that again and think what would make sense.
Try that again and think what would sound right.
Do you know a word like that?
Do you know a word that starts with those letters?
What could you try?
Do you know a word that ends with those letters?
What do you know that might help?
What can you do to help yourself?
To support the reader’s self-correction behavior:
Something wasn’t quite right.
Try that again.
I liked the way you worked that out.
You made a mistake. Can you find it?
You’re nearly right. Try that again.
To support phased, fluent reading:
Can you read this quickly?
Put your words together so it sounds like talking.
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