Category Archives: prereading skills

New kindergarteners, new readers

Posted on August 29, 2024 | Leave a comment

It’s September, which means a new school year, which means a new set of kindergarteners learning to read.

Where to start? I have hundreds of blogs on this website showing how to teach reading. But in general,

Start with prereading skills. These include knowing how to hold a book, which cover is the front, reading from left to right and from up to down, and knowing that text means words.

Teach that letters are symbols of sounds, with each letter representing a different sound. Of course, some letters represent more than one sound, and some letter pairs represent a single sound, but that news can wait.

Help the child memorize several consonant/sound pairings and one vowel/sound pairing (usually the letter A). The child does not need to know every letter sound to start reading. Learn a few, and while you make words, learn a few more. And knowing ABC order is not important at all at this point.

Make sure the child realizes that joining letters together forms words. Create two- and three-letter words with the letters the child knows. I recommend using letter tiles, saying aloud the letter sounds and moving them closer together until they create words.

Help the child learn one-syllable, short-vowel words which follow the rules. “Golf,” yes. “Half,” no.

Help the child learn often used “sight” words necessary to form sentences. Lists are online.

Cover adding S for the plural; double F, L, S, and Z to make a single sound at the end of some words; CK to make the sound K; blends at the beginning of words; and blends at the ends of words. By now it’s winter break or maybe spring break depending on how often your child works on reading and how ready your child is.

Supplement what your child is learning with small early-reading booklets. You will find many publishers.

Review what the child has learned at each lesson. One way is to buy reading workbooks. The quality varies greatly. I recommend Explode the Code because it follows the pattern I have outlined above and because children like the silly drawings. (I have no connection to the publisher of that series.)

Keep reading to your child to instill a strong interest in reading.

Teach long-vowel, single-syllable words containing silent E and double vowels. Expect backsliding here from many children.

By now your child is more than ready for first grade. Check with your state education department’s standards for kindergarten to be sure you have covered everything. If you haven’t, or even if you have, keep at it over school breaks, including summer break.

And check back issues of my blog. If I haven’t covered a topic you are looking for, let me know and I will.

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Posted in ABC's, beginning readers, Explode the Code, letter sounds, letter tiles, methods of teaching reading, phonics, practice reading skills, prereading skills, reading in kindergarten, reading readiness., short vowels, silent "e" words

How to build narration skills in pre-readers

Posted on June 19, 2023 | Leave a comment

Before children can read words, they absorb pre-reading skills from the times they are read to. One of those pre-reading skills is narration—the ability to tell a story with a beginning, middle and end.

You can encourage narration by showing your child “beginning,” “middle” and “ending” pictures available in flash cards. You shuffle the three or four theme-connected cards which tell a simple story. Then you ask the child to arrange the cards in order and to tell you the story the cards depict.

Another more advanced way to encourage this skill is to ask the child to draw pictures of a “beginning,” “middle” and “ending” situation such as going to school, building a tower with blocks or any familiar activity. This is a more advanced skill because it requires higher level thinking skills to imagine a scenario, sequence events and then draw the events.

Here is an example of original narration by a six-year-old rising first grader as he described his story to me.

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Posted in prereading skills, reading readiness.

Children learn sounds from big to small

Posted on January 19, 2022 | Leave a comment

children pronouncing elephant Little children who are learning about sounds in words move from larger units of sound—phrases and words—to smaller units of sound—sounds within words and syllables. Adults hear “On your mark, get set, go,” but a two-year-old hears “Onyourmark, getset, go.” Children need to hear distinct sounds within words and to reproduce those sounds properly before they start pairing sounds with letters.

For this reason, most two-year-olds are too young to learn to read. Even some five-year-olds might not be able to distinguish sounds within words. In some countries, children don’t learn to read until they are seven.

A good example of this is when children learn the ABC song. Most three-year-olds can start the song with A-B-C-D. . .E-F-G-. . .H-I-J-K . But when they get to L-M-N-O-P they sing L-um-men-oh-P or M-uh-let-O-P. They don’t hear L-M-N-O as distinct sounds.

I still remember the day when I was in first grade when my teacher taught my class the words of and the. I thought, wow, those are two different words. I didn’t know that. I thought ofthe was a single sound.

Most two-year-olds are too young to learn to read. Even some five-year-olds might not be able to distinguish sounds within words. For this reason, in some countries, children don’t learn to read until they are seven.

What can you do to help your child hear sounds more clearly? Speak distinctly. Slow down. Face your child and let her watch your mouth when you talk. When you hear her slurring sounds together which should be pronounced separately, don’t correct her but instead repeat the sounds properly.

While we’re on the subject of hearing words correctly, children will subconsciously learn the rules of grammar without instruction. A four-year-old might say, “Mommy goed to the store,” properly making the verb past tense by adding the d sound to the end of the word without realizing go does not follow the rules. Or he might say, “I amn’t done yet.” He is learning contractions, not realizing that am can’t be contracted in the negative form. Or a child might say, “Her said so.” Objective pronouns are learned before subject pronouns.

To correct these mistakes, repeat what the child says correctly without comment on the error. When the child hears words said properly enough times, he or she will say words that way too.

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Posted in ABC's, early childhood education, English grammar, learning, letter sounds, prereading skills, pronunciation of words, reading readiness., sounds of English, teaching tips

Check your child’s prereading skills before teaching her to read

Posted on October 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

The place to start teaching reading is by assessing her prereading skills. This is easy. Hand your child a picture book upside down with the back cover facing up. Watch what happens.

Does the child turn the book over so the cover is right side up?

Does the child open the book with the bulk of the pages near her right hand?

When the child turns the pages, does she turn them from front to back?

Ask the child to point which way the words are read. Does she point top to bottom? Left to right?

Ask the child where the cover and back page are. Where is the title?

If your child can answer these questions correctly, she knows basic pre-reading skills for the English language. If she cannot answer these questions correctly, teach her.

How? Read often to your child and point out these basics. You could also play games by holding the book upside down, or by beginning to read from the last page, or by looking at the back cover and saying, “Is this where we begin?” If your child corrects you, she has absorbed these pre-reading skills.

If you read to your child in two languages such as Chinese and English, or Arabic and English, make sure your child understands these skills as they apply to English. Some languages do not follow the English language pattern. You might want to stop lessons in the other language for a few months until the English pattern is established.