How to help your child with reading...

*Encourage reading at home for at least 20 minutes each day.

*Ask your child what he or she is reading about and offer to read with or to your child. 

*Celebrate your child’s success with reading.

*Provide your child with a variety of reading materials (newspapers, magazines, books, letters, etc.)

*Help your child find a cozy spot to read.

*Read stories aloud to expose your child to good writers and writing. This will benefit your child as a reader and a writer.

*Encourage your child to use these "Good Reader" Strategies when reading...

• predict--guess ahead before they read and while they are reading

• infer-read between the lines and use clues fro the text to make their own decisions

• make connections--think of things they know about or have experienced to make text to self, text to text, or text to world connections when reading
  

• question--ask questions about information they don't understand or wonder about

• visualize-- create pictures in their minds of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch

• determine important information--choose what should be remembered

• summarize and synthesize--say what they have read in their own words

• monitor and repair understanding--stop when confused and use strategies to help make sense of the reading
  

*Visit the International Reading Association website (http://www.reading.org) for more reading resources for students from preschool to teenage years.