Reading Strategies for Children
Teaching Lesson Plans: How to Sound Words Out
Teaching young children how to read can be very difficult so why not start with the basics and build from there. Learning to sound out letters is just the beginning.
Reading is one of the most fundamental skills every human being should possess or have the opportunity to learn but teaching young homeschoolers to read can be both exciting and exasperating. It is important to keep lessons simple when teaching young children how to read and to focus on perfecting one step at a time.
Tips For Parents Teaching Children To Read
When teaching a child how to read it is vital the child learn to sound out words rather than have the child memorize them. Starting with smaller words a few letters in length, allows the child to master root words recognizable later on in larger words. Focusing on word families is also a great tool to use when teaching a child to read.
Teaching Children to Sound Out Words
There are some easy to follow steps that can be used when teaching a child to read particularly at an early age however they can be applied to late readers as well.
Step One: Learn all of the letters of the alphabet and be sure the child can identify them by sight. It is important to also learn and review all letter sounds. The child must be able to connect the sound of a letter and connect them to the appearance of the letter. This can be accomplished through the use of flashcards and early learning phonics games.
Step Two: Write some simple two and three letter words on large flashcards. Do not overwhelm the child but rather begin with three to five words. Try to use high frequency words such as cat or bat. It is important the child be allowed small victories through the entire process in order to maintain his interest. There are many high frequency word lists available such as Dolch Word Lists.
Step Three: It is important when teaching a child to do so by example therefore sound out the words for your child illustrate to him the need to read the words slowly. Once the child has caught on illustrate the concept of word families to him by changing the first letter in the word to form another one for example change the c in cat to b, m or s. It is necessary to then illustrate the how the word changes.
Step Four: To help a child grasp the concept of sounding out words pretend he has a mouth full of spaghetti and is pulling a strand out of his mouth slowly with each letter he says. For example with the word cat as he says the letter c have him pull the spaghetti out of his mouth slowly. As he says the next letter in the word cat have him continue to pull the spaghetti out and as he says the last letter have him finish pulling it out. This practice will help illustrate how letters are connected by sound when they form a word.
Step Five: Use letter blocks or magnetic fridge letters to help illustrate how letter sounds blend together in order to form words. This can be used to illustrate word families and consonant blends later on as well.
Overall it is a very rewarding experience to teach a child to read and it should be fun for both parent and child. In addition to learning words it is important to encourage children to read short picture books and attempt to sound out the words on their own. For children the feeling of self-gratification can be a wonderful motivator that will keep them reading well beyond their homeschooling years.
Check out these other Suite 101 articles for more information Creative Writing For Kindergarten and Creative Book Report Formats
