Choosing Books With Your Child

Choose books to enjoy together as read alouds. Choose books that are age appropriate, engaging, rich in vocabulary and reflect your child's interests. Picture books that range in genre (fiction, nonfiction, poetry are highly recommended as read alouds.

Choose books for independent reading. Encourage your child to choose just right texts and books that are “easy reads." Reading just right texts help readers build fluency, deepen their comprehension, and develop a love of reading. One strategy young readers use to determine if a text is "just right" is to the first few pages of the selected text. Each time the reader encounters an unknown word, he/she raises one finger. If all five fingers are raised by the time the readers finishes the first two pages then the book is probably not a "just right" read and therefore not a recommended text for independent reading but perhaps could be shared as a read aloud. For children reading longer chapter books, they can apply the same "five finger strategy" across a single page of text to determine if a text is "just right."

Talking About Books With Your Child

Reading with your child is a great time to model the types of thinking you, as a proficient reader, do. Take time to engage your child in authentic discussions around texts read together. Consider the following prompts as a way to deepen the book talk:

• I’m thinking…
• I noticed…
• I wonder…
• I was surprised…
• It was funny/scary/interesting when…
• This reminds me of…
• I was confused when…
• I don't understand…
• I didn’t know…
• I learned…

Helping Your Child When He/She Encounters an Unfamiliar Word

Although it’s tempting, telling is not always helpful. The more we supply the unknown word, the more dependent readers become. Since English is a complicated language and many words are not decobable (i.e., cannot be "sounded out") it's important to prompt readers to use other strategies to figure out unknown words. If your child gets stuck when you’re reading together, wait a moment to allow your child some think-time. Jumping in too fast decreases independence as a reader. If it is clear your child needs support suggest one or more prompts such as the following:

• Did that make sense? (Always send the message that reading is making meaning.)
• Check the picture (when available) and think about what would make sense.
• Look for a familiar chunk (vowel pattern, prefix, suffix, etc.) and use it to help figure out the word.
• Go back and reread the sentence, paragraph, or page and think about what would make sense.
• Skip the tricky word, read on until the end of the sentence, think about what would make sense, then go back and try it out.

If he/she is still unable to figure it out, provide the word so she doesn’t become too frustrated.