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New Year 2008
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Carol Hartery's Tools
Top Ten Things to Do to Teach
Children to Read
From
Reading Games
by Jackie Silberg - from Gryphon House
2.
Teach children that words are
made up of speech sounds called phonemes--Draw three boxes,
horizontally, on a sheet of paper. Explain
that you are going to say a list of words. They will all have the same
sound or phoneme (in this case the sound /s/) in the word. Sometimes the
sound will be at the beginning, sometimes in the middle, and sometimes
at the end. Give the children bottle caps or checkers to use as markers.
Tell the children to put a marker where they hear the sound. If the
sound comes at the beginning, the marker goes in the first box on the
drawing. If the sound of /s/ is in the middle, the marker goes in the
middle box, and the last box is for words that have an /s/ at the end of
the word. For example, say the following words: silly, happiness,
missing, mister, sad, bus.
3.
Teach children about the sounds
of language--Help children hear differences between what they
expect to hear and what they actually hear. Invite children to sit down
and close their eyes so that they can concentrate on what they will
hear. Recite or read aloud a familiar story, nursery rhyme, or poem that
you have changed. Their challenge is to detect the changes. Reverse
words, such as “Dumpty Humpty sat on the wall” or “Jill and Jack went up
the hill”; substitute words, such as “Little Boy Purple, come blow your
horn”; or switch the order of events--for example, tell the story of
Little Red Riding Hood and have her go to Grandma’s house before she
goes through the woods. At first, make the changes obvious.
4.
Teach children about written
and spoken words, what they mean, and how they are used--Pick
a word (in this case, the word “cat”) that the children have learned and
say the following.
What Can
I Do With__________? by Jackie Silberg
What can I
do with cat?
I can say
it. (say cat)
I can spell
it. (spell the word)
I can act
it. (pretend to be a cat)
And I can
YELL it. (yell the word)
That’s what
I’ll do with “cat.”
5. Teach children about
alliteration--Alliteration is the repetition of words starting with
the same consonant or sound, and is a good starting point to phonemic
awareness. Pretend to have a store
that only sells things that begin with a certain sound. Once you have
selected the sound, draw pictures of all of the words that you can think
of that start with that sound. For example, create a store where
everything starts with the /l/ sound, such as lilies, lights, lemons,
lipstick, and ladders. Talk with the children about all the
possibilities.
6.
Create reading rituals,
including a regular reading time every day--Reading
books to children encourages their desire to read books by themselves.
Show the children that the words you are
reading are written on the page. This seems obvious, but children often
think you are making up the words. Let children know the importance of
the text. Pointing to the words with your finger as you read is very
helpful in developing this concept.
7.
Read to children with
expression--
Emphasize rhythm and rhymes, and use different voices for characters.
Try some of the following books:
Alligators All Around: An
Alphabet by Maurice Sendak,
Frogs in Clogs by
Sheila White Samton,
Green Eggs and Ham
by Dr. Seuss,
Hush, Little Baby
by Margot Zemach,
Is Your Mama a Llama?
by Deborah Guarino and Steven Kellogg,
Jelly Belly: Original Nursery
Rhymes by Dennis Lee,
Moose on the Loose
by Carol Partridge Ochs,
Mrs. Wishy Washy by
Joy Cowley,
My Parents Think I’m Sleeping
by Jack Prelutsky,
When We Were Very Young
by A.A. Milne,
Where the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein, and
Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin
by Lloyd Moss.
8. Play games that
require following directions, listening, or solving problems--Write
five different letters on a piece of paper. Make the letters large, with
room between each letter. Say one of the letters and ask a child to make
a circle around that letter. After you have finished with the first five
letters, write five more letters on the paper. Reverse the
procedure--ask the child to write and say the letters, and you make the
circles.
9.
Increase children’s comprehension by telling stories about real and
imaginary events--Retell a familiar story but include some of your
own changes. For example, instead of
Goldilocks and the Three Bears,
call the story Goldilocks and
the Three Billy Goats Gruff. Tell the story, but change the dialogue
to sound like the billy goats. For example, “Who’s been sleeping in my
bed, trip trap, trip trap?” Improvise, using familiar stories.
10.
Keep a box of writing supplies
available to children--Provide an assortment of the following
materials so children can practice writing, forming, and decorating
their names:
-
pencils, crayons, and markers
and a variety of papers
-
finger paints and paper
-
chalk, chalkboards, and sidewalk
chalk
-
paintbrush and water for writing
on the sidewalk
-
white glue on black paper, with
or without glitter
-
playdough or clay and a cutting board
- pipe
cleaners/chenille craft stems
-
Wikki sticks and paper