ELA: Reading Strategies


I have provided  a link and some tips and strategies that may be used at home when supporting your child in their reading efforts.


Elkonin Boxes

Elkonin boxes build phonological awareness skills by segmenting words into individual sounds, or phonemes. To use Elkonin boxes, a child listens to a word and moves a token into a box for each sound or phoneme

How to use Elkonin Boxes

  1. Pronounce a target word slowly, stretching it out by sound.
  2. Ask the child to repeat the word.
  3. Draw "boxes" or squares on a piece of paper, chalkboard, or dry erase board with one box for each syllable or phoneme.
  4. Have the child count the number of phonemes in the word, not necessarily the number of letters. For example, wish has three phonemes and will use three boxes. /w/, /i/, /sh/
  5. Direct the child to slide one colored circle, unifix cube, or corresponding letter in each cell of the Elkonin box drawing as he/she repeats the word.

The example below shows an Elkonin Box for the word "sheep," which consists of three phonemes (sounds): /sh/ /ee/ /p/

Oral Language

Young children learn how to talk as they are immersed in language. They hear family members and friends use the sounds, meanings, and rhythms of the language they

are learning. The importance of language development cannot be overstated. Oral language is the basis for all communication, both spoken and written. Parents can provide many opportunities to help their children expand their use of language. Language is learned as children interact with one another and with adults. They express themselves and their feelings, find out about things of interest, and request and give information.

Oral Language Activities

With your child:

• Have frequent conversations to foster oral language development.

• Discuss words that your child may not understand.

• Share favorite songs, such as “Twinkle, Twinkle,

Little Star” and “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.”

• Recite nursery rhymes and do finger plays that focus on rhyme.

• Play games that involve following directions (“Simon Says”).

ORAL LANGUAGE

Parent Strategies

Young children need to be exposed to books, reading, and storytelling at a very young age. Seeing family members reading books, magazines, newspapers, letters, shopping

lists, and cards to one another shows that reading has a purpose. An interest in learning to read occurs naturally when children see family members reading. Children do not wait until they enter school to start learning to read. They encounter print very early in life. There are many opportunities for young children to interact with print in their en-vironment and home routines. They often will learn to read familiar logos, such as McDonald’s, Walmart, and Safeway. Drawing attention to shopping lists, cereal boxes, food labels, birthday cards, phone messages, and storybooks are some of the ways that

young children can see that print has meaning.

• Identify favorite story characters and discuss things that happened in favorite stories.

• Use questions that ask who, what, where, why, and when.

• Retell or act out familiar stories, such as “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”

• Visit stores, parks, the library, or a zoo. Talk about all that was seen.

• Play games to help your child be aware of similar sounds in words. (“Mohammad. Your name has the same beginning sound as mommy.” “Pamela and popcorn start with

the same sound.”

READING

Parents and family members can share pleasurable reading experiences as stories are read to their children each day. After listening to stories, encourage your child to talk about what was read. Visits to the library offer rich opportunities for children to explore a variety of books, make book selections, and respond to stories heard.

Reading Activities

With your child:

• Read a variety of favorite stories every day.

• Make frequent trips to the library for story listening opportunities and checking out books.

• Explore language and build vocabulary. Provide wordless picture books to encourage your child to use picture clues to make up his or her own stories.

• Encourage finding his or her name among other family names.

• Find food items in the grocery store by matching pictures from advertisements, labels, or coupons with actual products. (Take along a cereal box label for your child to match with the product.)

• Be aware of symbols and print in the environment, such as a STOP sign, street signs,

and store symbols.

• Use magnetic letters to spell familiar names and words.

Parent Strategies

When reading with your child:

• Let your child make his or her own book selections.

• Pick a quiet time and a comfortable place to read.

• Refer to your child as a “reader.”

• Praise your child for any attempts to participate.

• Sit close and let your child see the pictures and print.

• Point to the words as you read them to show that print has meaning.

• Discuss words that your child may not understand.

• Talk about the story and story characters. Compare the story with similar stories.

Early attempts at writing, from birth to age three, actually begin when young children explore writing by making marks on paper with whatever writing tool they can hold in their hands. Children seem to know what writing is “for” before they know how to write in correct forms.They gradually develop the understanding that oral language can be communicated through print. Young children will begin to write by making approximations on paper in the same way they make approximations in speech when they first learn to talk. Children begin to explore writing by drawing pictures, making scribbles on paper, learning to write the letters in their name, using print-like marks with their drawings, writing strings of letters, writing words found in the environment, and

writing letters that have a relationship to the sounds they represent. When asked, they attach meaning to their print by “reading” their own messages. Over time, the scribbles

will become letters that have a relationship to the sounds they represent. Children will gradually move from first “attempts” at spelling words to spelling words correctly. Children will progress through these different writing stages when they are provided with many opportunities to draw and write. Allowing these first attempts at writing will help them become aware that written language makes sense, has meaning, and has a purpose.

Writing Activities

With your child:

• Make tactile alphabet letters out of sand paper, felt, or beans.

• Explore magnetic letters to spell familiar names and words (cat, mom).

• Provide play dough, pipe cleaners, shaving cream, or salt trays for your child to make/write the letters in his or her name.

• Encourage the use of a variety of writing tools and art materials for creating, drawing, and writing.

• Make shopping lists. Your child may write words for the list by using scribbles, print-like marks, strings of letters, or letters that have a relationship to the sounds they re-present. Ask your child to “read” his or her shopping list.

• Encourage drawing and writing messages to family members or friends.

• Draw and write a favorite part of a story.

• Make a book out of plain white paper for writing

No comments:

Post a Comment