People often ask how to choose appropriate Sonlight Readers for young children. One way is to look over a description of the different options.
Readers K... for the student who is ready to learn the letter sounds.
Readers 1... to be used by the student who knows all the letter sounds and is ready to read 3-letter words.
Readers 2... for a child reading long vowel, 5- and 6- letter words, but needs more white space on the page, and not too much text per page.
Readers 2 Intermediate... More text per page, short chapter books, average 50-70 pages long.
Readers 2 Advanced... For students comfortable with a smaller text size, more words on a page, longer chapters. These books might average 120-150 pages.
You can use the Quick Reading Assessment on the Sonlight website, there are some notes on choosing Readers on that page as well.
What if your child seems in between these levels? I would suggest choosing the lower of the two choices. Don't worry that you are holding your child back. They will actually progress faster by reading more books at a comfortable level, rather than being constantly challenged by harder and harder books.
When your child is ready, having had the practice he needs, he will pull one off the shelf, and just start to read!
Showing posts with label Teaching Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teaching Reading. Show all posts
Friday, July 3, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Summer activities
We like to do a little school during the summer. Maybe one or two lessons of Math per week, some Science experiments, and we still read out loud.
Other summer activities for our family might include hiking, picnicking, gardening. On those hot, hot days, we like to splash in the creek across the road from our house.
Encourage your children to keep reading over the summer. Don't worry about searching out more and more challenging reading. You can find more reading material at about the same reading level by looking for more in a favorite series or more books by an author your child likes. Even though they are enjoying reading at a comfortable level, they will continue to build confidence and improve their reading skills.
You can stimulate their interest by being a role model so, pick up a book and READ!
Other summer activities for our family might include hiking, picnicking, gardening. On those hot, hot days, we like to splash in the creek across the road from our house.
Encourage your children to keep reading over the summer. Don't worry about searching out more and more challenging reading. You can find more reading material at about the same reading level by looking for more in a favorite series or more books by an author your child likes. Even though they are enjoying reading at a comfortable level, they will continue to build confidence and improve their reading skills.
You can stimulate their interest by being a role model so, pick up a book and READ!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Helping your struggling reader
When I began teaching reading for the first time, I had thought that we would introduce and practice a letter sound 20-30 times, and my budding reader would have it down. Wrong! Instead, it was more like 2 or 3 hundred times! I had no idea it would be like that.
When you are going over anything that many times, you need a little variety. We played many games and worked with those pesky letter sounds in as many ways as I could think of. Remember at this point, you don't care if the student knows the letter names, you are after the child knowing letter sounds. Here are a few games you can try:
Make a list of letters, only say, 6-8. A mix of letters the child knows well with only a few that are newer to him. Using that list, dictate those sounds and have the child write them down. Let him compare your list to his, "reading" the sounds to you. Then the real fun, let him take your list and dictate those sounds to you. Again, let him compare your original list to your dictated copy. My kids loved the whole idea of "testing" me to see if I knew my letter sounds.
With this and other games, the best strategy is using a few at a time and a mix of known and new letters.
We wrote letters on index cards and used those to spell short words and practice reading them, cat, hat, pen, can, etc. (You could use Scrabble tiles to do this too.)
You can use those same cards to play a concentration game. You'll need 2 cards of each letter. Mix them up, lay them face down and let the child work on finding the matches. When he has matched all of them (remember, only 6-8 at a time, not all 26 letters!), let him read the sounds of all the pairs to you.
We enjoyed the Sonlight Language Arts games, Go A to Z and Alphabet Sounds Bingo.
A favorite game is a wonderful whole body reinforcement of letter sounds, but it does get wild and silly. I wrote a single letter on each piece of paper. Lay out 9-12 papers with different letters on the floor. Call out a letter sound and let the child jump onto the page with that letter. This is great for kinesthetic learners especially, but all of my children enjoyed it. Those papers will slide on the floor and between jumping, falling, and giggling, it does get pretty loud!
Encourage even older struggling readers to play these games. An older student can play them with a younger student as your "teacher's aide". It's learning for the younger child and review for the older one.
It takes a lot of work to become fluent with reading. Variety will help relieve the monotony of practicing the same thing over and over.
Now, go play a game!
When you are going over anything that many times, you need a little variety. We played many games and worked with those pesky letter sounds in as many ways as I could think of. Remember at this point, you don't care if the student knows the letter names, you are after the child knowing letter sounds. Here are a few games you can try:
Make a list of letters, only say, 6-8. A mix of letters the child knows well with only a few that are newer to him. Using that list, dictate those sounds and have the child write them down. Let him compare your list to his, "reading" the sounds to you. Then the real fun, let him take your list and dictate those sounds to you. Again, let him compare your original list to your dictated copy. My kids loved the whole idea of "testing" me to see if I knew my letter sounds.
With this and other games, the best strategy is using a few at a time and a mix of known and new letters.
We wrote letters on index cards and used those to spell short words and practice reading them, cat, hat, pen, can, etc. (You could use Scrabble tiles to do this too.)
You can use those same cards to play a concentration game. You'll need 2 cards of each letter. Mix them up, lay them face down and let the child work on finding the matches. When he has matched all of them (remember, only 6-8 at a time, not all 26 letters!), let him read the sounds of all the pairs to you.
We enjoyed the Sonlight Language Arts games, Go A to Z and Alphabet Sounds Bingo.
A favorite game is a wonderful whole body reinforcement of letter sounds, but it does get wild and silly. I wrote a single letter on each piece of paper. Lay out 9-12 papers with different letters on the floor. Call out a letter sound and let the child jump onto the page with that letter. This is great for kinesthetic learners especially, but all of my children enjoyed it. Those papers will slide on the floor and between jumping, falling, and giggling, it does get pretty loud!
Encourage even older struggling readers to play these games. An older student can play them with a younger student as your "teacher's aide". It's learning for the younger child and review for the older one.
It takes a lot of work to become fluent with reading. Variety will help relieve the monotony of practicing the same thing over and over.
Now, go play a game!
Monday, May 4, 2009
"I can't read!"
Has your child said that? Mine did. I winced painfully as she said this point blank to a lady, in of all places, a bookstore.
Especially if you are a parent who loves to read, it can be mystifying and frustrating if your child struggles or doesn't enjoy reading. There is hope!
Encourage any effort your child does make, pay attention when the child reads to you, talk about the story, tell your child your favorite part and ask what his was.
We kept a book list on the refrigerator for each young learner. I let my children list each title as they finished the book or story, and I let them list it for each time they read it. If they read the same story 4 times, they could list the title 4 times.
Every 10 titles, we would do some small special thing. A small, one-scoop ice cream cone after lunch, the child gets to pick what is for dinner from 2 or 3 options, we go for a walk and picnic, there are lots of possibilities!
One of my children liked to list not only title and author, but also number of pages in the book. At the bottom of each page she would total the number of pages she'd read.
Your children will get farther, faster with their reading skill by reading more books at a level that is relatively easy for them, rather than dialing up the challenge each time they complete a story. I know this seems counterproductive, and it's agonizing when your older learner is still reading at a level below their age-mates.
While there are times, of course, that issues such as learning disabilities, vision, etc. affect learning to read, keep in mind that each child is unique. Each will need "X" amount of practice before gaining fluency, and we really don't know how much "X" is for each particular child.
Know that others have trod this road as well, and it is a difficult one! The pressure from friends and family can make you feel you have failed your child. Don't go there. Explore creative ways to help your child practice letter sounds and reading, and be patient! The day will come when your child surprises you by pulling a book of the shelf (voluntarily!) and says, "Mom, I'm going to read this." And he does.
(More on Language Arts games and creative ways to practice in the next post!)
Especially if you are a parent who loves to read, it can be mystifying and frustrating if your child struggles or doesn't enjoy reading. There is hope!
Encourage any effort your child does make, pay attention when the child reads to you, talk about the story, tell your child your favorite part and ask what his was.
We kept a book list on the refrigerator for each young learner. I let my children list each title as they finished the book or story, and I let them list it for each time they read it. If they read the same story 4 times, they could list the title 4 times.
Every 10 titles, we would do some small special thing. A small, one-scoop ice cream cone after lunch, the child gets to pick what is for dinner from 2 or 3 options, we go for a walk and picnic, there are lots of possibilities!
One of my children liked to list not only title and author, but also number of pages in the book. At the bottom of each page she would total the number of pages she'd read.
Your children will get farther, faster with their reading skill by reading more books at a level that is relatively easy for them, rather than dialing up the challenge each time they complete a story. I know this seems counterproductive, and it's agonizing when your older learner is still reading at a level below their age-mates.
While there are times, of course, that issues such as learning disabilities, vision, etc. affect learning to read, keep in mind that each child is unique. Each will need "X" amount of practice before gaining fluency, and we really don't know how much "X" is for each particular child.
Know that others have trod this road as well, and it is a difficult one! The pressure from friends and family can make you feel you have failed your child. Don't go there. Explore creative ways to help your child practice letter sounds and reading, and be patient! The day will come when your child surprises you by pulling a book of the shelf (voluntarily!) and says, "Mom, I'm going to read this." And he does.
(More on Language Arts games and creative ways to practice in the next post!)
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