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Tips for Parents

Homework Tips on Reading: What Parents Can Do

~US Dep't of Education

• Have your child read aloud to you every night.
• Choose a quiet place, free from distractions, for your child to do his nightly reading assignments.
• As your child reads, point out spelling and sound patterns such as cat, pat, hat.
• When your child reads aloud to you and makes a mistake, point out words she has missed and help her to read the word correctly.
• After your child has stopped to correct a word he has read, have him go back and reread the entire sentence from the beginning to make sure he understands what the sentence is saying.
• Ask your child to tell you in her own words what happened in a story.
• To check your child's understanding of what he is reading, occasionally pause and ask your child questions about the characters and events in the story.
• Ask your child why she thinks a character acted in a certain way and ask your child to support her answer with information from the story.
• Before getting to the end of a story, ask your child what he thinks will happen next and why.
  
  Reading Strategies for Children
  
  
  Early Readers
• Take a picture walk and make a prediction what you think the book is about.
• Use the pictures to help figure out the words.
• Point to each word as you read.
• Remember where a word is and point to it.
• Use the first letter to help read and find words.
• Use other words in the sentence to help figure out the words.
• Retell the story

       Developing Readers

• Sound out the words.
• Break the word up into parts.
• Use picture clues.
• Connect to a word you know.
• "Blank" the word and read on for clues.
• Reread the sentence and ask if it makes sense.
• Self correct during reading.
  
  
  
  Essential Elements of Reading
  
  The Five Essential Components of Reading Instruction
          ~NCREL - North Regional Education Laboratory

What are the five essential components, and where do they come from?
Scientifically based reading research has identified five essential components of effective reading instruction. To ensure that children learn to read well, explicit and systematic instruction must be provided in these five areas:

Phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds—or phonemes—in spoken words.

Phonics—the relationship between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language.

Fluency—the capacity to read text accurately and quickly, including oral reading skills.

Vocabulary—the words students must know to communicate effectively.

Comprehension—the ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read.

Recommended Reading K-3

Recommended for K-3, either for reading by children or for reading to them. From the Summertime Favorites from the National Endowment for the Humanities http://www.neh.gov/projects/summertime-kto3.html

Aardema, Verna. Who's in Rabbit's House?.

Aesop. Fables.

Atwater, Richard and Florence. Mr. Popper's Penguins.

Bemelmans, Ludwig. Madeline.

Benchley, Nathaniel. Sam the Minuteman.

Blume, Judy. Freckle Juice.

Brown, Marcia. Stone Soup.

Brown, Margaret Wise. Goodnight Moon.

Brunhoff, Jean de. The Story of Babar.

Burton, Virginia Lee. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.

Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Cleary, Beverly. The Mouse and the Motorcycle.

Collodi, Carlo. Adventures of Pinocchio.

Crews, Donald. Freight Train.

Daugherty, James. Andy and the Lion.

dePaola, Tomie. Strega Nona.

Flack, Marjorie. The Angus series.

Freeman, Don. Corduroy.

Fritz, Jean. The Cabin Faced West.

Gag, Wanda. Millions of Cats.

Galdone, Paul. The Three Little Pigs.

Goble, Paul. The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses.

Grahame, Kenneth. The Reluctant Dragon.

Gramatky, Hardie. Little Toot.

Hoban, Russell. Bedtime for Frances.

Johnson, Crockett. Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Keats, Ezra Jack. The Snowy Day.

Kraus, Robert. Leo the Late Bloomer.

Krauss, Ruth. The Carrot Seed.

Leaf, Munro. The Story of Ferdinand.

Lear, Edward. A Book of Nonsense.

Levinson, Riki. Watch the Stars Come Out.

Lionni, Leo. Frederick.

Lobel, Arnold. Frog and Toad Are Friends.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Paul Revere's Ride.

Lopshire, Robert. Put Me in the Zoo.

Marshall, James. George and Martha.

McCloskey, Robert. Make Way for Ducklings.

McDermott, Gerald. Anansi the Spider.

Milne, A.A. Winnie-the-Pooh.

Parish, Peggy. Amelia Bedelia.

Piper, Watty. The Little Engine That Could.

Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Rey, H.A. Curious George.

Selden, George. The Cricket in Times Square.

Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are.

Seuss, Dr. The Cat in the Hat.

Slobodkina, Esphyr. Caps for Sale.

Steig, William. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. A Child's Garden of Verses.

Taylor, Sydney. All-of-a-Kind Family.

Thurber, James. Many Moons.

Udry, Janice May. A Tree is Nice.

Van Allsburg, Chris. The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.

Viorst, Judith. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Ward, Lynd. The Biggest Bear.

White, E.B. Charlotte's Web.

Yashima, Taro. Crow Boy.

Zion, Gene. Harry the Dirty Dog.

Zolotow, Charlotte. William's Doll.