"My Child is in early Stage I of reading development: What Do I Do?"
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Stage I of reading development (Google, Jeanne Chall) typically corresponds to the end of kindergarten through the end of first grade. This is the first major “learning to read” stage. Your child usually starts Stage I when they can do the following:
- Recognize all upper and lower case letters automatically (in isolation when randomly presented).
- Knows the appropriate sounds associated with the letters.
- Knows a handful of high frequency words (i.e., sight words)
I think of this stage as one where the child is just learning how to ride a bike. Just as in learning to ride a bike, the child will be wobbly for quite some time. She may start to fall off, but you are there for support.
To help children progress in this stage, the following tips should prove helpful:
- Practice a lot of sight words (see next handout). There are lists that help organize the high frequency words
- Expose child to words that follow consistent patterns. Initially, words that are one syllable and have a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern (e.g., set, got, fit) should be used.
- Stay away from multisyllabic words in Stage I (e.g., words like largest, porcupine, calendar would not be appropriate), unless the word is taught as a sight word.(e.g., a word like little or summer),
- Read material that controls for the type of words in the text. Lots of early Dr. Seuss, for example is very good (e.g., Cat in the Hat).
- Let your child read easy material (for her) out loud to you about 10 minutes or so per night.
- Keep it light and fun. Watch any tension leaking in to the reading aloud session. Your job is to help boost confidence at this point.
If the teacher gives out worksheets (or reading) that are above your child’s level, politely talk to the teacher and tell her that working at frustration level is not appropriate.
Comments
www.sightwordsgame.com
A great activity exposing children to sight words is playing a board game called, Er-u-di-tion.
This award winning game incorporates over 300 sight words and the letters of the alphabet and their basic phonic sounds in an enjoyable, engaging activity, providing both teachers and parents with a useful tool.
Cards are categorized so children of all reading levels can play together!
Thanks!
Denise:
Thanks for the helpful comment and suggestion....maybe I'll highlight what you said and your site in a future blog.
rs
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