How to BEST Support Your Emergent Readers

The trend now among most reading programs is to rush your little ones into learning to decode (and being aware of print) so that they can begin to read at a young age. That has become the norm in all classrooms across the country, starting in Pre-K. But is this what we should be doing?

Instill a joy for reading, rather than focus on the foundational skills, such decoding, at an early age is important. If you build a LOVE FOR READING early on, your children will be able to do a lot of meaningful work without the need to decode. Most important, they will enjoy the act of reading!

Children read books three different ways and your focus should be to support children at each stage the best way possible while instilling a love for it:

In other words, MEET THEM WHERE THEY ARE, without rushing.

The three ways in which students read:

1. LABELING: Pointing and naming what they see in a picture.
2. STORYTELLING: Retelling the story using many of the words and phrases they have heard.
3. READING: Decoding and reading familiar words (such as sight words).

How do you begin to do this? 

Jennifer Serravallo has detailed lessons on 20 different reading strategies in her book, The Reading Strategies Book, that you can use with your kids.  So that I don't overload you, I will focus on three of Serravallo's strategies on my last bullet point on this post. 

Here a few suggestions from Sarravallo's book to help small children become the best "readers" they can be and enjoy it while doing it. 

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• Find great "LOOK" BOOKS: These are easy picture books that support emergent readers. They will be visually engaging in which the pictures mostly tell what's going on. Also, these books will have repetitive words and vivid pictures in which the pictures support the words.  A few examples include The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Caps for Sale, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, No David, and The Napping House.

• Read the same book many times: Children tend to repeat what they often hear. Reading the same book many times, on different occasions, will encourage your child to "read" the book independently. After reading the same book many times, your child will repeat words or phrases you have said, point to pictures and come up with words the characters "say," and make facial expressions, and eventually will retell the story! All this because your child has heard the story many times!

• Find a COMFY spot: Does your child like reading while sitting down? Laying down? Soft or hard chair? With bright lights? Dim lights? In a noisy or quiet area? Have them pick a spot that will work for them. Try it for a couple of days and if that doesn't work change spots.

• Three strategies to use while reading:1)Pretend you are book explorer. Keep in mind what repeats. Being mindful of repeated patterns will help your child become more fluent. 2)Point to words as you read. Let your finger pause and stay for a little while as you notice and point out details. Don't rush the finger! 3)Do what the characters do. Say what the characters say while making facial expressions. Children who are not yet readers will be able to mimic the way you read as they point to pictures. Use this reading strategy often to help your child read. We all know that monotone reading is boring!

In case you are interested, several years ago I created these easy to use reading passages for beginner readers. I have used them with my first graders and they loved them. Each passage is differentiated and tied to a phonics skill. Click on the picture to view it in my TPT store.