What are best practices in teaching reading?

For anyone that is teaching or has had to teach a child how to read, you likely have asked this question. As an adult, reading comes so naturally…so how do you actually teach someone how to read? Here are some important facts from the science of reading – the research that studies how children best learn to read.

• Reading is complex. The National Reading Panel, a panel of researchers who evaluated existing reading research, identified 5 key components of reading instruction: phonics (the connections between letters and sounds), phonemic awareness (hearing, identifying, and manipulating sounds in words), fluency (reading accurately and with expression at an appropriate speed), vocabulary (understanding, defining, and using new words), and comprehension (understanding and analyzing what you read). One is not able to read with phonics instructions alone; rather, all of these skills must be practiced to develop into a strong reader.
  • This is not an exhaustive list of everything that impacts reading, either! Things like background knowledge, processing speed, motivation, and attitudes toward reading also influence the development of reading skills. There is a LOT that goes in to making a good reader!
• All students benefit from explicit instruction, especially for foundational reading skills. While we naturally pick up language and learn to speak without explicit instruction, this is not the case for reading. Research has shown that students learn best when they are taught to read in an explicit, systematic way with clear explanations, examples, and guided practice. This is especially true for learning phonics, but explicit instruction is also helpful for other facets of reading instruction (i.e. explicitly teaching your child comprehension strategies like inferencing and predicting)!
• It is not enough to know the sounds of words. You need to be able to think about and work with them. Of course, children need to know their letter names and shapes, but they also need to be taught to be aware of how these sounds interact in the context of a word.
  • In fact, research has shown that children with dyslexia have impaired phonemic and phonological awareness. However, these children often show normal categorical perception of phonemes – that is, they can identify their letters, but they struggle to manipulate their letter sounds within a word (Joanisse et al., 2000)!

 

At COSI, we are hoping to emphasize this final point. We have developed some games to help practice phonological awareness with your child based on their reading ability!

For a child that is just learning to read and largely practicing phonics…

Play our game Scatter Words!

Click here for materials.

How to play:

Step 1: Lay the card that has ag in front of the child.

Step 2: Lay out the different options from that card in front of the child (b, w, t, n, s, br, fl, sw, sn, r).

Step 3: Ask the child to make as many words as they can with ag.

Step 4: Have a conversation about what is happening. What sound remains the same in different words? How does substituting a sound change the meaning of the word? Can you make a sentence with multiple of the words? Can you notice the rhyme?

Step 5: Repeat this process for -ail and -im. The -ail card can be paired with b, w, t, n, s, fl, m, p, f, sn, tr, qu, h, r, and gr. -im can be paired with t, br, sw, tr, d, h, r, gr, and sl.

To encourage further awareness of the sounds, acknowledge and have a conversation about the beginning sounds that overlap with -ag, -ail, and -im. Which sounds can be used across all three endings? Which can’t?

As an optional extra step to make the game harder, incorporate the “e” card. Compare sl/im to sl/im/e. How does the e change the sound of the vowel? This can also be done with tim/time, rag/rage, dim/dim, rim/rime.

This game can be played with even more sounds! Some other word endings are -at, -in, -ot, -it, -ap, -ock, and -ug. Use a white board or piece of paper to write out as many different words as you can using these word endings.

For more tips on how to incorporate phonological awareness practice into your reading at home, download this bookmark: Beginning Reader Bookmark. Print it off and keep it with you while reading with your child as a reminder!

 

For a child that is reading short books (think Arthur, Amelia Bedelia, or Frog and Toad)…

Play our game Odd One Out!

Click here for materials.

How to play:

In the materials you will find word triplets in each column – they have the same ending letters. Lay out one triplet and have your child read the words out loud. Which word does not belong? In the have/gave/save triplet, have does not belong because it has a different vowel sound. Whichever word doesn’t belong, throw it out!

For some of the triplets, there are multiple answers based on how the word is read. For example, live can be pronounced two different ways (“You live a long life” versus “The TV show is live“). Be sure to discuss these different options.

See if you can come up with any other words that follow this pattern! Another way to expand this game is by creating silly rhyming sentences with the words that do match. Are there any other words that rhyme with the words on the cards?

You can also come up with a new rule for the “odd one out.” Have your child brainstorm different ways that words can relate! Maybe you can create a triplet with words that have/don’t have the same first sound (bug, buck, log) or that have/don’t have the same ending sound (dog, fog, rig). Can words be organized by their meaning? Their vowel sounds? Get creative with it!

For more tips on how to incorporate phonological awareness practice into your reading at home, download this bookmark: Emerging Reader Bookmark. Print it off and keep it with you while reading with your child as a reminder!

 

For a child that is reading chapter books…

Play our game Missing Link!

Click here for materials.

How to play:

The goal of this game is to figure out which word completes the matrix. Across the row, the two words start with the same sound. In each column, the words are from the same category. To complete the matrix, then, the word has to start with the same sound as the first word in the bottom row but come from the same category as the second word in the first row. In the first example, brownies and boat start with the same sound. Brownies and pie are in the same category. Our missing word has to start with the same sound as pie, but it has to fit into the same category as boat: plane is our answer!

You can make up your own! This game is the trickiest of the three; we have to switch between paying attention to the meaning of words and paying attention to the sounds of words. You can also change the rules to complete the matrix. Maybe the word has to start with the same sound as the word in the row but rhyme with the word in the column! Maybe the word has to follow the same first sound as the row but mean the opposite of the word in the column. There are endless sets to make!

For more tips on how to incorporate phonological awareness practice into your reading at home, download this bookmark: Developing Reader Bookmark. Print it off and keep it with you while reading with your child as a reminder!

 

Citations:

Joanisse, M. F., Manis, F. R., Keating, P., & Seidenberg, M. S. (2000). Language deficits in dyslexic children: speech perception, phonology, and morphology. Journal of experimental child psychology, 77(1), 30–60. https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1999.2553

National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction: Reports of the Subgroups. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health.