Learning to read, Reading to

learn
 The research is clear: if children cannot read proficiently by the end of
third grade, they face daunting hurdles to success in school and
beyond. Third grade marks a pivot point in reading. In fourth grade,
students begin encountering a wider variety of texts. By then, able
readers have learned to extract and analyze new information and
expand their vocabularies by reading (OBrien, 2008).
 struggling readers rarely catch up with their peers academically and
are four times more likely to drop out of high school, lowering their
earning power as adults and possibly costing society in welfare and
other supports (Hernandez, 2011)
Reading is the Open Sesame for acquiring knowledge:
learn to read, and you can read to learn just about
anything.
Judith Carroll lists four factors in building reading
ability:
1. parents who serve as their childrens first teachers;
2. access to high-quality preschool;
3. kindergarten programs that help children catch up
if they missed out on preschool; and
4. skilled instruction in the first through third grades
 Failure to read proficiently by the end of third grade is linked to
ongoing difficulties in school and failure to graduate (Feister, 2013).
Talking and reading to children play a direct role in building their
vocabularies and strengthening their early literacy skills.
Children who attend pre-kindergarten programs do better in
kindergarten
Because reading is the gateway skill to further learning, children who
cannot read proficiently seldom catch up academically and often fail
to graduate on time from high school or drop out altogether
 research has found that asking questions, reading books together, and
discussing events can also boost a childs readiness for reading
(Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, n.d.)
What teachers know about reading instruction, how they focus their
teaching, and how much time their classes spend on reading can all
affect students reading skills. Effective practices include a focus on
phonics and integrated language arts activitiesvocabulary,
discussion and explaining what is read (Ryan, 2010).
1. Create appreciation of the written word
2. Develop awareness of printed language and the writing system
3. Teach the alphabet
4. Develop the students' phonological awareness
5. Teach the relation of sounds and letters
6. Teach children how to sound out words
7. Teach children to spell words
 Help children develop fluent, reflective reading
Help children learn to read fluently by requiring them to read new stories
and reread old stories every day.
Help children extend their experience with the words, language, and ideas
in books by interactively reading harder texts with them and to them every
day.
Relate information in books to other events of interest to children, such as
holidays, pets, siblings, and games. Engage children in discussion of the
topics.
In both stories and informational texts, encourage wondering. For example,
"I wonder what Pooh will do now?" "How do you think the father feels ?" or
"I wonder what frogs do in the winter? Do you think that's a problem?
Why?"
 Model comprehension strategies and provide students with guided
assistance.
Point out how titles and headings tell what a book is about.
Help students identify the main ideas presented in the text, as well as
the supporting detail. Graphics help to reveal main ideas, and the
relationship between text and graphics helps students understand
what they are reading.
Point out unfamiliar words and explore their meaning. Revisit these
words frequently and encourage students to use them in their own
conversations.
Show children how to analyze contextual clues to figure out the
meaning of an unfamiliar word. Research shows that most vocabulary
growth comes from learning new words in reading.
Strategies to teach comprehension
1. Monitoring comprehension
Comprehension monitoring instruction teaches students to:
-Be aware of what they do understand
-Identify what they do not understand
-Use appropriate strategies to resolve problems in comprehension
2. Metacognition
It can be defined as "thinking about thinking."
Students may use several comprehension monitoring strategies:
Identify where the difficulty occurs"I don't understand the second
paragraph on page 76."
Identify what the difficulty is"I don't get what the author means when she
says, 'Arriving in America was a milestone in my grandmother's life.'"
Restate the difficult sentence or passage in their own words"Oh, so the
author means that coming to America was a very important event in her
grandmother's life."
Look back through the text: "The author talked about Mr. McBride in
Chapter 2, but I don't remember much about him. Maybe if I reread that
chapter, I can figure out why he's acting this way now."
Look forward in the text for information that might help them to resolve
the difficulty: "The text says, 'The groundwater may form a stream or pond
or create a wetland. People can also bring groundwater to the surface.'
Hmm, I don't understand how people can do that Oh, the next section is
called 'Wells.' I'll read this section to see if it tells how they do it."
 3. Graphic and semantic organizers
Graphic organizers illustrate concepts and relationships between
concepts in a text or using diagrams. Graphic organizers are known by
different names, such as maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames,
or clusters.
Regardless of the label, graphic organizers can help readers focus on
concepts and how they are related to other concepts. Graphic
organizers help students read and understand textbooks and picture
books.
 Think Aloud

The Think Aloud strategy allows the teacher to model how a good reader
thinks about text while reading. The process is fairly simple. The teacher
reads aloud from an appropriate book, and stops periodically to make
predictions, clarify meaning, decode words, make personal connections,
question the author, and summarize what has been read. This explicit
modeling of the reading strategies will benefit all students as they strive for
deeper understanding of what they read.

Teacher read aloud

Jim Trelease, author of The Read Aloud Handbook says that reading to
older students is just as important as reading to younger ones. He
gives the example that McDonald's doesn't stop advertising because
most Americans know about its restaurants. Teacher read alouds at
all grade levels furnish students with models of fluent reading. Since
students listen at a higher level than they read, teacher read aloud
exposes them to new vocabulary and language patterns. Teacher
read alouds also help to activate students' prior knowledge.
 http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-
Menu/Policies/Learning-to-Read-Reading-to-Learn-At-a-
Glance/Learning-to-Read-Reading-to-Learn-Full-Report-PDF.pdf