Reading well significantly improves our lives. Our children’s future success may rise and fall on their reading and comprehension skills. Learning to read can be a delightful experience. Conversely, it can also be an absolute nightmarish struggle! Every battle needs a strategy, and teaching reading is no different. There’s no “one size fits all” approach to reading, but the 4 basic tools below will help to build a strong framework for reading mastery.
Tool#1 for Reading Success
Use Visuals
Seeing pictures while reading words or sounding out letters helps students associate words with images. These visuals can also serve as memory triggers, making it easier for students to recall information. This is also very helpful for any type of memorization including Bible verses and spelling words. When introducing new vocabulary, use pictures or real-life objects to help students understand the meaning of the words. This not only makes the lesson more engaging, but it also helps students make meaningful connections between the words and their meanings.
Tool #2 for Reading Success
Say the sounds and pictures
For example: “A says aaa as in apple. A says aaa, aaa, aaa.” while looking at the picture of an apple. Students should say the sounds and pictures out loud as well. For variety, they can whisper the sounds, talk like giants, squeak the sounds like mice, etc. This multisensory approach helps students to not only remember the letters and their sounds but also understand how to blend them together to form words.
Tool #3 for Reading Success
Incorporate movement
Children weren’t really meant to sit still for long periods of time. They can do movement activities while practicing the letters and sounds. They can write the letters in the air, pass an object to their friends, spin in a circle, skip around the room, etc, while practicing.
I really enjoyed this article by Kids Freeze Dance about the benefits of movement on reading fluency. It’s a very cool website!
Tool #4 for Reading Success
Just do it!
Practice practice practice!
Reading the same type of text repeatedly gets boring for everyone. To keep students engaged, use a variety of texts such as storybooks, poems, non-fiction books, and even online articles. This exposes students to different writing styles, vocabulary, and topics, making reading more interesting and challenging. It also helps students to develop a wider range of reading and comprehension skills which.
You may want to check out this fun, silly writing prompt as an example of adding variety to reading material. It’s a short little story about a leprechaun on Mt. Rushmore with some discussion questions and ideas.
In conclusion, teaching reading requires a combination of different strategies to make it effective and enjoyable for students. Incorporating pictures, sound, movement, and variety are tools that will help students sharpen their reading strategies. Have fun with it! I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below, and check out my TpT store 4loveoflearning for some great free and low cost reading games, short stories, and activities.