Category Archives: reading readiness.

US reading scores decline. Again.

Posted on January 29, 2025 | Leave a comment

40 percent of fourth graders cannot read at a basic skills level.

One third of eighth graders cannot read at a basic skills level. For eighth graders this is the largest number of students ever to read so poorly.

These conclusions are the result of tests students took between January and March 2024. Test results show scores lower than prepandemic scores, meaning students have not made up the ground lost in 2020. In fact, the decline has continued.

These results were announced today, January 29, 2025, by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), sometimes called the Nation’s Report Card, which compiled state data and analyzed it.

These test results mean at least a third of US school children cannot routinely understand written text. They cannot explain why a character acts the way he does in a story.

The gap between higher- and lower-performing students has been a “persistent trend for about a decade,” according to the NAEP. The decline in lower-performing students’ scores accounts for most of the overall decline in scores. Higher performing students score about 100 points more than lower performing students. Until 2010 this gap was narrowing, but since then it has been widening.

Again: 40 percent of US fourth graders cannot read at a basic level. One-third of eighth graders cannot read at a basic level.

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Posted in literacy, reading comprehension, reading readiness., reading tests

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

Ten questions to gain deeper understanding of a book

Posted on August 1, 2024 | Leave a comment

I write quizzes about books to help my students understand books better. Coming up with thought-provoking questions is a struggle. Too often I want to ask for a single fact, such as “Who is Peter’s little brother.” To help me devise more meaningful questions, I keep a list of question types. Here are questions you might use with your students.

What is the best summary of the book/chapter? I provide four options, keeping in mind that some students have trouble distinguishing between main ideas and details.

What is the best paraphrasing of a sentence or paragraph? I provide options which range from mostly restating information to truly putting the information into other words.

Why does the author ____? Repeat a word? Describe the weather so much? Not talk about negative feelings? Use a simile? These kinds of questions ask the student to consider the author’s style and the choices the author makes in writing a particular way.

How is this book/chapter structured? In chronological order? From most important to least important information? Stating a cause and its effects? Stating effects leading to a cause? From scary to scarier to scariest? Stating a conversation that becomes funnier and funnier? Many students read without realizing someone wrote what they read, and that someone made choices.

Does the writer like or approve of ____? We know right from the beginning that J.K. Rowling does not approve of Malfoy in the Harry Potter series. But how do we know that? What words tell us that? What actions? What facial expressions?

In what order do actions occur? List two or three actions, and ask what the next action is. Sequencing questions might force students to reread sections or to read more carefully the first time.

What is the tone of a chapter or conversation? What is the mood? I usually define tone and mood in the question to help the student.

What might a certain action foreshadow? A child falls while jumping rope. What might that fall foreshadow? Probably another, more serious fall.

What is an important fact in a chapter? Many children cannot distinguish between trivial facts and important facts. All facts seem important. Questions like this force students to rank facts.

What can you infer from the frown on a character’s face? Or from a character’s silence? Or from a character’s cowering?

From the picture book stage to the chapter book stage, these questions can be used to help a student grasp a deeper understanding of a book and the choices its author made to create it.

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Posted in asking questions, chapter books, critical thinking, methods of teaching reading, picture books, reading comprehension, reading readiness.

How to teach G and J

Posted on June 6, 2024 | Leave a comment

A reader asks how to teach spelling with G and spelling with J.

J always sounds like J as in jam, Jen, gin, John and June. That is true if the J is at the beginning of a word or if the J is in the middle of a word. A child learning to read or to spell needs to know only a handful of words with a J in the middle of the word: ajar, banjo, and adjective. A few other words begin with either the prefix ab- or ad- followed by a J: abject, adjoin, adjust and adjacent. I suspect only the word “adjust” needs to be part of a first grader’s vocabulary and spelling.

With just three or four exceptions, J is found only as the first letter in words.

G is trickier. In most words starting with the letter G, the G sounds like a hard G as in game, go and goofy. Hundreds of words begin with a hard G.

Rules for hard G include

Use a hard G before consonants, as in “grade.”
Use a hard G before the vowels a, o, and u, as in “go.”
Use a hard G as the last letter in a word, as in “rug” and “ring.”

When G is followed by an E, an I, or a Y, usually the G sounds like a soft G (the same sound as a J) as in gem, giraffe, and gym. Many words begin this way.

Rules for soft G include

Use a soft G before the vowels E, I, and Y, as in “gem” and “gym.”
Use a G followed by an E at the end of a soft G-ending word, as in “ageing” and “binge.”

However, about a dozen words a first grader might know do not follow the soft G rules. In these words, the G is followed by an E or an I, yet the G sounds like a hard G. These words include

gear	gecko	geek
geese	get	geyser
gift	giggle	gilded
gills	ginkgo	girdle
girl	give

I would teach these words as exceptions to the rule of soft G. Limit the number of exceptions to a handful at first–maybe “get,” “gift,” “girl,” and “give”–so as not to overwhelm the student. Practice them often to reinforce their spelling. With time, they will become sight words, as almost all learned words do.

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Posted in hard G, J, reading readiness.

Don’t stint on advanced reading skills

Posted on March 7, 2024 | 1 comment

One of my students is a high schooler still learning English as her second language. She has learned so much in the few years she has lived in the US, but she struggles with reading.

She has pretty much mastered how to read one-syllable and two-syllable words which follow the rules. But three-syllable words confound her. Instead of stopping to figure out big words, she slurs over them and keeps reading almost as if they aren’t there.

That works when the reading level is at the second or third grade level because not many three- or four-syllable words are in books meant for that reading level. But my student is in high school. She is confronted with long words in almost every sentence she reads in text books. Like many older students I have taught, she thinks she can get by skipping over words. Now that she is preparing for the SAT, she realizes she can’t.

In late elementary grades students learn about root words, prefixes and suffixes. Knowing words can be dissected leads good readers to break apart words rather than skipping over them. My student thinks this is too time-consuming, so she is reluctant to do this on her own.

She is a wiz with computers and can look up the meaning of a word faster than I can. But sometimes the synonyms are long words too. Or sometimes one synonym works in one context, but not in another context. Or sometimes, most times, she doesn’t bother.

What’s my point? Reading instruction can’t stop after a student learns basic phonics rules. This is especially true for impatient students who would rather finish quickly than finish well. The tedious work of learning how to break words into syllables can’t be skipped. Nor can understanding the meanings of prefixes, suffixes and roots.

Reading is probably the most important skill we learn in school. Don’t stint on it.

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Posted in phonics, reading readiness., reading strategies, reading tips

Learning to read is not a race

Posted on November 15, 2023 | Leave a comment

This fall I am teaching two kindergarteners to read via Zoom. I am making progress with both students, but it is an uneven progress typical of young children.

One student—I will call her Jane—is lighthearted and imaginative. For Halloween, she came to class wearing a wolf’s face. Jane is social, engaging me in conversation as easily as she talks to her sibling. She can identify almost all letters and letter sounds. When I show her an alphabet letter, she will say, “Maybe B, for banana and ball.”

Jane is working on reading two-letter “A” words like “at” and “ax.” Three-letter words are a bit advanced except for a few she has memorized. Her mother tells me that outside class she loves to mix up letters and to make silly sounds.

John is serious and reserved with me. He does not engage in chit-chat during our lesson. Two months ago, he could identify fewer letters and their sounds than Jane could, but now he has mastered them all. He pronounced two-letter “A” words with such consistency that we have moved on to three-letter “A” words. At our lesson this week John read several phrases and a few sentences containing short “A” words (A fat cat sat. A man ran in a can.). I was thrilled. He smiled and said nothing. At our next lesson we will begin to work on short “O” words.

Mrs. K is a writing, reading and grammar tutor.

Both Jane and John are normal kindergarteners, displaying behaviors typical of children learning to read. One is not better. One is not worse. They are each moving along at their own pace.

Learning to read is not like learning algebra. With algebra, every student starts at the same place on page one of the text and is expected to keep up with the pace the teacher sets for covering the curriculum within a school year.

With reading, students start at different places depending on personality, preschool or parental exposure to letters and sounds, hearing and vision acuity, being read to, and speaking English as a native language or as a second language. Age of the student is another factor.

By the end of kindergarten, both John and Jane should have a solid foundation in phonics. They will continue instruction in how to read in first and second grades. At that point their reading skills will probably not be any more identical than they are now. But they will read sufficiently well to use their reading skills to learn more. That’s why we learn to read, after all—so we can keep learning.

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Posted in ABC's, beginning readers, learning, letter sounds, phonics, reading in kindergarten, reading readiness., short vowels

14 disconnects between letter names and letter sounds

Posted on October 22, 2023 | Leave a comment

Two kindergarteners I am teaching this fall are having the same problem when trying to figure out the sound a letter is associated with. They are listening to the beginning sound of the letter name, and they are assuming that must be the sound linked to the letter.

In some cases they are right. The name of the letter B begins with a “b” sound, just like the sound B stands for. The name of the letter K begins with a “k” sound, just like the sound K stands for.

But for many letters, this correlation does not hold true. The name of the letter C, for example, begins with an S sound. The name of the letter F begins with an E sound. The name of the letter G begins with a J sound. The name of the letter W begins with a D sound.

Take a look at the table below and notice how many letter names do not begin with the sound that the letter represents. By my count, it’s more than half.

Letter Sound the letter name begins with

a a

b b

c s

d d

e e

f e

g j

h a

i i

j j

k k

l e

m e

n e

o o

p p

q k

r ah

s e

t t

u y

v v

w d

x e

y w

z z

So, if you have a little one struggling to pair a letter name with the sound the letter stands for, relax. It’s normal. Be patient. Gently correct the mistake as many times as it takes. Your child will get it eventually. We all do.

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Posted in ABC's, letter sounds, reading readiness.

The four, no five, no eight pillars of reading

Posted on August 13, 2023 | Leave a comment

Focusing on four skills leads to good reading achievement in children, we used to think. Then came a comprehensive US government report in 2000 saying five skills are necessary. In the ensuing 23 years, researchers tell us three more skills are necessary. Let’s look at those skills, starting with a chart showing four skills, followed by information on five skills, and ending with the latest three skills.

Previously, vocabulary was considered part of the fourth component of reading. Now it is considered a separate component, as are three previously unrecognized skills: oral language, writing, and background knowledge.

Phonemic awareness, the ability to hear and identify individual sounds in words—such as the sound of “b” in “bat”—and to move sounds around to hear them in various parts of words. This skill is taught in pre-K and kindergarten to most American school children.

Phonics, the ability to match the sounds of English to letters or to letter pairs in order to form words. This skill is usually taught in kindergarten and first grade.

Vocabulary, the ability to recognize and understand three kinds of words: everyday spoken words, more complex words (SAT-like words), and domain specific words (words used in specific contexts, such as the baseball-related words of pitcher, shortstop, foul ball and bunt).

Fluency, the ability to read text accurately at conversational speed, using expression.

Comprehension, the ability to understand what is read.

The three other skills that have been identified as crucial to learning to read are

Oral language, the ability to understand spoken language and to speak it. Proficiency in oral language precedes proficiency in reading.

Writing, the ability to use written symbols to represent words and to transmit meaning

Background knowledge, the ability to store and retrieve information and apply it to new knowledge gained from reading.

No wonder reading is such a complex skill for children to master.

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Posted in academic vocabulary, background knowledge, comprehension, fluency, letter sounds, oral language, phonemes, phonics, pronunciation of words, reading comprehension, reading readiness., reading research, reading-writing connection, sounds of English, systematic phonics instruction, vocabulary

Check this list to see if your child is ready for first grade reading

Posted on August 4, 2023 | Leave a comment

As you prepare to send your recent kindergarten grad off to first grade, you might wonder, “Is he ready? Does he have the reading skills necessary to start first grade confidently?”

One way to know is to go to your state’s standards for kindergarten to check the skills your state says a kindergartener needs to know to progress to first grade. You can find these standards through your state department of education’s website.

Since most states adhere to the Common Core of Educational Standards, a simpler way is to check the following standards. Your state’s will be similar.

___Does my child hold print materials properly, knowing what is the top of a page, and knowing that pages are read from left page to right page?

___Does my child identify front and back covers and title pages?

___Does my child follow words from left to right and from top to bottom?

___Does my child pronounce syllables, words and phrases properly?

___Can my child explain whether printed materials make sense?

___Can my child read 10 high frequency words?

___Can my child read and explain his own writings and drawings?

___Can my child identify upper and lower case letters?

___Can my child match sounds to letters?

___Can my child identify consonant sounds at the beginnings of one-syllable words?

___Can my child use pictures to predict the content of picture books?

___Can my child retell stories from beginning to middle to end?

___Can my child discuss characters, setting and events in stories?

___Can my child use story language like characters and setting to discuss stories?

___Can my child identify what an author is? What an illustrator is?

___Can my child identify topics in nonfiction readings?

___Can my child print upper and lower case letters?

___Can my child print his own name?

___Can my child write phonetically to describe his own stories?

___Can my child write from left to right and from top to bottom?

___Has my child explored the use of technology for reading / writing?

If you can say yes to most of these questions, your child is probably ready to start first grade.

However, some children in his class will be performing at higher levels than these standards suggest. In well-to-do neighborhoods where parents are highly educated, these standards might be minimal ones. If you believe that is the case, work with your child to bolster his achievement. You don’t want your child to feel he is behind, or worse, that he is “dumb.” Such negative feelings can worm their way into his self-esteem even if he is on grade level.

Reading is the most fundamental skill your child will learn in school. Give him every advantage to do well from the start.

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Posted in Common Core Standards, readiness for the next grade, reading readiness.

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.