A child is ready to read when she has mastered the majority of the alphabet and can match the target sound to most letters. For every child, this time of readiness varies. Some children come into Kindergarten ready, others reach this point by February, and still others may not reach this point until the end of the year or the beginning of first grade.

The path to learning to read is pretty clear cut. First, a teacher must utilize a "leveled library". In this collection, books are arranged by difficulty based on word choice, repetitive text, and several other factors. One such system was designed by Reading Recovery. Children first need to master "one-to-one matching". This means that the reader understands that reading is matching what he says to what is actually written on the page (and not inventing his own text). The student works on one-to-one matching by reading predictable text and pointing at each word as he reads. If she runs out of words to point at and is still talking then there is a problem! While learning one-to-one matching, the child also learns that text is read left to right, top to bottom, and that it is the words we read and not the pictures!

To help children "match one-to-one", books need to have words that the child can actually read in it. The student's own name, the word "a", and known family names (mom, dad, and siblings' names) are the best words to anchor. This helps the child to "monitor with known words". If the child points at his own name and says something different then the teacher can prompt him with "Does that match?" The child can look again at the word, realize it is his name and correct himself. Over time, a child will be able to monitor for herself whether she has read the correct words and self-correct without a teacher's prompt. Books for working on this skill will change key words and not use a predictable pattern on every page. For example, one of the books for this skill is called "Come On." The child's name moves around on various pages. One page may say "Come on, John." But the next page says "John, come on." The next page says, "John, John come on."

In order for children to monitor with known words, they need to increase the amount of words they know. The children will need to learn a sight word vocabulary. This can be taught within the context of shared reading, independent reading, shared writing, independent writing, interactive writing, and in isolation.

The next steps to becoming a reader involve the child taking on the following strategies; using the first part of a word to help predict what would make sense, rereading for meaning, self-correcting when it doesn't match or make sense, reading through a word (stretching), and finding known parts within an unknown word.

Finding parts within an unknown word is called "chunking". Good readers chunk on the run. The child must memorize the most commonly used chunks and be able to apply these when reading. The short vowel chunks include -at, -an,-and, -ap, -ack, -all, -am, ip, -in, -ill, -ick, -ot, -og, -op, -on, -ock, -up, -ut, -uck, -en, -et. Therefore if the child is reading the word "candle" his eyes could immediately find the biggest known chunk either -an or -can, and quickly work out the last part by reading "through" the word or from the context of the story.

A child is a reader when he can successfully unlock new words quickly without losing fluency. This comes from understanding the premise of the story, predicting what will happen next, recognizing words or word parts quickly, and rereading and correcting when it doesn't make sense.

Alphabet Chart

The most important step for preparing to read is knowing most of the letter names and their corresponding sounds. Here is a copy of our Alphabet Linking Chart for you to print out at home. Also you can click here on ABC Song to hear the song and see the motions that go along with our chart. We practice these motions and sing the song every morning. Practicing at home will help your child memorize it and learn even faster. Plus it's fun to do together!

Nursery Rhymes

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