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How parents can support reading from home
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How parents can support reading from home
Sound Waves Literacy 23/5/23
While combining various instructional approaches is ideal for reading success, home reading is an excellent way to support and reinforce reading comprehension. After all, the goal is to provide students with as many opportunities as possible to practise their reading skills.
When using Decodable Readers for home reading, you may either choose to send home the physical books that make up your class sets or have students access the eReader Library. Either way, for home reading we recommend students read Decodable Readers that feature already taught phoneme–grapheme relationships (i.e. from units covered in previous weeks, not the current week of work). This helps the focus of home reading to be on fluency where students can read the books accurately without prompting.
If you’re sending home the physical books, be sure to supply each student with an appropriate Decodable Reader matched to their ability level (Support, Core or Extended). If you use the eReaders for home reading, be sure to unlock the relevant unit/s for your whole class to access. You will also need to communicate with parents which level (Support, Core or Extended) you’d recommend their child reads. Remember, there is no harm in your more confident students who typically read the Extended books to also read the Support and Core books – after all, it’s simply more and more practice!
Our tips for supporting reading from home
Encourage Sounding Out
If a student is stuck on a word, prompt them to say the sound for each grapheme and blend the sounds together. Avoid asking the student to guess the word based on the first letter or pictures.
Explain Special Words
Special Words are harder to sound out. If a student is stuck on a Special Word, explain how to read the word and model it for them. For example, for the word said, you could say: ‘This word is tricky because the ai shows /e/. Watch me read it: /s/, /e/, /d/, said.’
Correct Errors
If a student makes an error, stop and correct. For example, if a student reads pet as pat, you could:
- Repeat the error back to the student: ‘Pat? Is this word pat?’
- Point to the part of the word they read incorrectly: ‘This e shows /e/. Read the word again.’
Discuss Word Meanings
Pause to discuss the meaning of unfamiliar words and words with multiple meanings. This will help to build their vocabulary and comprehension.
Note:
You’ll also find these tips at the back of each Sound Waves Decodable Reader, underneath the Book Chat section.
