Teaching Reading Strategies

By Phil Builder

When a child is reading to you what do you do when they get stuck, mispronounce a word, or make a silly mistake?  Do you make them focus immediately on the print?  Are you the sort of parent or teacher who gives them the answers?  Or do you try to show them how to work it out for themselves?  This short article sets out all the information children need to know, and the strategies you can use to teach them to fix their own reading problems.

This list shows the information proficient readers use when they read. Don't expect your developing reader to use all of these yet, but it helps you to understand the extent of what your child will need to know in order to be an excellent reader.  Proficient readers will use:

• the title of the story
• background information known about this topic
• the pictures that accompany the text and point to the meaning
• the patterns within the story (repeating sentences, sayings, or events)
• the meaning of the story so far
• the meaning of the sentence up to this word
• the meaning of the sentence beyond this word
• the grammar of the sentence which dictates what type of word to expect (for instance, predict a noun for: He jumped off the ____.).
• The initial letters of words
• The shape of words
• The smaller words, letters and sound combinations within words
• The syllables of words

Teach the following strategies to your children:

• use the book title and pictures to help think (guess, predict) what this book might be about
• browse right through the story or book before reading it to get some more details about it, asking questions, clarifying ideas and new terminology.  This is the most important thing to do for readers of all ages and stages because it is the information already in your mind that sets in train predictions and anticipations of meaning.
• when you come across a new or difficult word read ahead to get clues to its meaning
• read past unknown words to the end of the sentence, and then go back to predict or 'guess' them by what makes sense
• for unknown words you can put a substitute word in its place, and keep right on reading
• leave words out altogether if you can't get them, and keep right on reading.  It will usually make little difference to the overall understanding of the passage.
• use the letters and any recognisable parts to help work out problem words, but do this as a last strategy rather than a first
• monitor  your reading (listen to yourself) to see that it makes sense
• correct any errors that you detect as soon as you hear them

Have some fun.  Try this activity!             
You can test all of the above out by reading the following passage to yourself.  See just how predictable unknown words are, and how you solve the problems you find here:

Worked it out?  Then Click here to confirm your answers

How did you do it?  What strategies did you use? Could you teach your child to use some of those strategies too?  Check if you used some of the strategies below:
 

Problem-solving Strategies I used   left the word out   read past the word and then went back to get it   remembered phrases or information from previous stories   guessed by the first letter of the word   guessed by the first and last letters, and middle letters of words   scanned (skimmed over) the whole passage to see what it is about, and then read it   read into the story to understand it more   guessed incorrectly at first, but then went back and corrected myself   discovered the patterns in the story   read the title, and predicted what it was about