Reading strategies

Reading Strategies

We have been learning different reading strategies over the past few weeks.  The children use these strategies when trying to read an unknown word.  Sometimes the children will try a one strategy and it will work straight away. At other times they might need to try a few strategies together to work out the unknown word.  For example, sometimes sounding out the word (Stretchy Snake) does not work. So they might need to chunk the word as well (Chunky Monkey) or skip the word (Skippy Frog) and return to it at the end of the sentence to see if they can find a word that makes sense.

It is tricky when your child is learning to read.  So when they come to an unknown word we can use the PAUSE, PROMPT, PRAISE routine.

Firstly, PAUSE for a full 5 seconds before saying anything.  They will often figure it out on their own.  They might be looking at you to see if you will give them the word, however resist this at first. 

If they don't decode the word give them a hint or a PROMPT.  You can use the list of strategies below and ask them what strategy or strategies they have tried or are trying.  Perhaps prompt for them to use another strategy.  If they do not decipher the word, you can tell them the word. 

Following this PRAISE them for using the reading strategies and having a go, this does not matter if they figured the word out or not.  It was great to try the strategies.