Reading: Family Literacy

How to Know If Your Child's Reading Skill Is OK

 

            Today's Snack: Have some wheat crackers and cheese slices, washed down with some chocolate milk.

 

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The idea is for children to learn to read through the end of Grade 2, and from then on, to "read to learn."

 

But what if a parent suspects that his or her child isn't reading up to snuff? Are there some telltale signs of reading disability that the parent needs to bring to the teacher's attention?

 

That's actually a very common problem. You have to be your child's advocate when it comes to reading skills, because many teachers have their hands more than full with kids who aren't reading as skillfully as they should be. There are entire school districts in which a majority of the students read BELOW grade level. It gets worse and worse, the older the kids get.

 

So parents need to be vigilant. And one "milestone time" to be aware of your child's reading is probably the fourth-grade year.

 

Probably the most common reading problem is what they call "the fourth-grade slump." Students suddenly have more and more trouble with their reading because the pictures have pretty much gone away from the books, the type is smaller, the words are more difficult, the teacher has less time to help you with your reading, and expects you to read really well in order to do well at every other subject, from math to social studies.

 

So if your child's grades take a dive in fourth grade, suspect that the root cause is a reading problem.

 

How to tell if your child's reading is sub-par? The National Research Council, the National Reading Panel, and the National Institute for Literacy identified these skills as key for kids to become strong, independent readers who enjoy reading:

 

§      Fluency

§      Comprehension

§      Spelling and writing

§      Vocabulary

 

Ask your child to read aloud from a book, listen carefully, ask a few questions, and if you DON'T see a lot of these positive traits, take your concerns to the teacher and find out what you can do to turn the situation around ASAP.

 

 

Fluency:

Fluent readers can decode words automatically - very, very quickly and very, very accurately -- so they can focus their attention on making connections among the new ideas presented in the reading, and their background knowledge. Readers who have not yet developed fluency read slowly, word by word. Because they are focusing their attention on figuring out individual words, it's hard for them to grasp the overall meaning. A fluent reader will show:

 

·         Instant recognition of words

·         Reading out loud with expression

·         Reading quickly and accurately

 

 

Comprehension:

A student who understands what he or she is reading will read with a purpose — whether it's to get directions for a game, information to write a report about holidays in foreign countries, or some chuckles from a chapter book that's funny. A student with good comprehension will read actively, and will be constantly thinking and questioning. Good readers "multi-task" - they rapidly ask themselves questions while they are reading, wondering why certain characters said certain things, speculating on what is going to happen next, and so on. They aren't even aware that they are doing that. But you can tell that there's more going on inside that brain than simply decoding the words on the page. A reader with good understanding will:

 

·         Put events in sequence

·         Be able to state the main idea

·         Summarize a story orally or in writing

·         Check his or her understanding, and if in doubt, go back and re-read

·         Use and understand the table of contents, index, chapters, titles, and subtitles

·         Use and understand pictures and diagrams

·         Be able to "map" the story by showing its plot, characters, problems, different events in the story, and themes

·         Relating the reading to his or her own background experiences

·         Build and employ a growing knowledge base from lots of nonfiction reading for school

 

 

Spelling and writing:

Proper spelling in writing that has organized paragraphs and correct punctuation are all expectations of students in the upper grades of school. Poor spelling is usually linked to poor reading comprehension; a poor speller often is just guessing at what words mean. Students who don't spell well usually haven't been read to much, and aren't spending much time now reading. A good speller and writer should be using a variety of sources to get information about which to write, including books, articles, and websites. Look for a good speller and writer to:

 

·         Use a dictionary to look up words he doesn't know

·         Research and write a simple report using a variety of sources, never just copying

·         Revise compositions with help from the teacher to make them more clear and understandable

·         Check work for errors in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, and recognize how to fix them

·         Begin to understand and use figures of speech — "as cold as ice"

 

 

Vocabulary:

A child with adequate language skills won't mispronounce too many words in later grade school on up. If your child is still saying "aks" for "ask," for example, there may be a problem with reading, too. Your child should be aware of differences in speech sounds that distinguish words from one another, such as "goal" and "gold," "fresh" and "flesh." He or she also needs to learn prefixes and suffixes to master new words. For example, she learns that "un" means "not" (unbelievable) and "less" means "without" (hopeless). Signs of an acceptable vocabulary include:

 

·         Figuring out word meanings from the context

·         Using synonyms and antonyms

·         Using different parts of speech correctly, including nouns, verbs, and adjectives

·         Knowing that some words have more than one meaning