Keep this handy guide with you when you read with your child. Use it to remind he /she of strategies we have learned in class. Remind them that when they come to a tricky word, they should use these strategies.
1. Readers look at pictures to figure out words that they do not know. In early readers, pictures correlate with the text.
2.Readers figure out words by getting their mouth ready to say the beginning sound of a word.
3.Readers figure out words by reading through the whole word and noticing the end of a word.
4.Readers figure out words by “tapping” each sound and blending or sweeping through the whole word. (sounding out the word)
5.Readers look for “anchor” words they know on the page because words we know give us a head start and can help us with other words on the page. Readers also notice when a book has a pattern and use that pattern to help them figure out a word that may come next.
6.Readers check for what they already know. This may be a glued sound, a digraph, or a word “chunk”.
7.Readers always think about what makes sense. (This is an important strategy. After trying any strategy, readers need to ask themselves if that word makes sense.)
8.Readers notice when a word does not sound right and they go back to try to fix it by rereading the word. When they have figured it out, they go back and reread the whole sentence. (Children may know how to do this unprompted or you may have to prompt them by saying, “Hmmm...does that sound like a word you know? Does that make sense? Why don’t you go back and try to fix it.”)