Renaissance Learning offers many ways to make children better readers. Here are some of their suggestions.
“Give your students more choices.” Let children choose which books to read from a huge selection, both fiction and nonfiction.
Make sure the reading level is just right.” A useful gauge is to count the number of words a student misses on a single page. If it is five or more, that book is probably too hard and will discourage children from reading.
“Devote time to reading practice.” Designate a certain time every day—before bed, before the morning school bus or during the school day—for reading. Children will look forward to this time, especially if it is part of a routine.
“Build relationships with daily check-ins.” During reading time, talk to your child. Comment on what he is reading. Let him know you care.
“Make reading practice a social experience.” Read together with a child, one page for her, one page for you. Or after you read, discuss what you and the child like and don’t like.
“Create a book-store style display.” On the bookshelf, show off books by their jackets or front covers to encourage a child to choose that book. Display books you have read so you can talk to the child about why you like the book and why he might.
“Read aloud to students of all ages.” When you read to a younger child, you expose him to books whose ideas he can grasp even though the vocabulary might be difficult for his reading level. When you read to an older child, you introduce genres which the child might not choose, and you model comprehension strategies such as predicting, asking questions and summarizing.
“Acknowledge and celebrate success.” Praise your child for his reading. Create a spot to post his reading accomplishments—names of books and articles read, or number of pages read.
For more detailed information, go to http://doc.renlearn.com/KMNet/R60386.pdf.
comicphonics for early readers 