Helping Your Child Solve Unknown Words
What's that word? What does that say?
Adults often ask children to "sound out" unknown words, and with prompting children are often successful. But when this strategy does not work and a child(or adult) becomes impatient, parents often tell the word to their child. But, if we want our students to become independent readers it is very important that students develop a repertoire of word solving strategies. Here is a list of suggestions that you can use at home to help your child develop strong word solving strategies.
- Wait at least 10 seconds to see what attempts are made. Ask: What makes sense?
- Skip the word and read on to the end of the sentence. Go back and reread to see what makes sense.
- Look carefully at the word. Put your finger on the word. Ask: What letters does it start with? What letters does it end with?
- Look for smaller words inside a bigger one.
- Cover the word endings (-ed, -ing, etc.) with your finger and try the word.
- Help with blending (sounding out) the word.
- If the word was on a previous page, go back and locate it.
- Use word chunks or word families (-ike, -ight, etc.)
- Reread parts or passages to increase understanding, especially after solving unknown words.
- Use pictures on the page to help figure out the word.
When your child figures out a word, ask, "Wow, how did you do that?" Telling about their reading helps them reinforce their learning.
Good readers have many strategies for figuring out unknown words (we call them tricky words in class), and often use more than one at the same time. It's important that the focus stay on understanding what we read and thinking about what makes sense.
As with any new skill, the more they practice it the better they will get!
The Importance of Reading Nightly
(source unknown)
Did you know one of the most prominent indicators of a successful reader is the
amount of time spent actually reading? Let's figure it out -- mathematically!
amount of time spent actually reading? Let's figure it out -- mathematically!
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!
Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.
Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 mins./week
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes
Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.
Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year
Student A reads 3600 min. in a school year.
Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.
Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.
By the end of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits,
Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days.
Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days.
One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so,
undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself
as a student?
Some questions to ponder:
- Which student would you expect to read better?
- Which student would you expect to know more?
- Which student would you expect to write better?
- Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
- Which student would you expect to be more successful in school....and in life?
