Do You Share? Do You Share Read?

Beginning readers should be read to often. A great way to get beginning readers interested in reading is to share read some books. Ask a beginning reader to jump in and read parts when he or she feels comfortable. Encourage a beginning reader to ask questions, talk about the story and pictures, and talk about how a book is similar to another book or something that happened in his or her life.

What is shared reading?
Shared reading will be different every time depending on your purpose. Most resources show ways to share read with a group of children. Think how powerful shared reading will be with just one child, your child.

Here's a video of my daughter and I share reading a book.

Check out these resources for more information about shared reading:

Reading to Kids: Using the "Shared Reading Format

Shared Reading: An Effective Instructional Model


Books with Rhyming and Repeated words and phrases work well for shared reading. 

Offer as much support as necessary.
Joanne Meier has written an excellent article for Reading Rockets called, How to Read with a Beginning Reader.

Do You Share? Do You Share Read?

Brand New Readers Red Set: Some of My Favorite Books for Beginner Readers

Brand New Readers are some of the best books I've found for early readers. These books also offer support for parents helping a beginner reader. The front cover has a scripted introduction for an adult to share before reading the book. This engages the reader and improves comprehension. The back cover has suggestions for adults to make first-time reading easy and fun.

An entire version of The Chase is available for free online.
Check out this free copy of The Chase

The Chase is just one of ten books included in the Brand New Reader Red Set. Did you check it out? The introduction gets a new reader ready for the story and some of the words he or she will be reading. What did you think about the Helping Your Brand-new Reader tips? These tips are for readers who cannot sound out all of the words. Early readers benefit from these types of books, but I strongly encourage some phonics teaching and sounding out training.

You can teach phonics and sounding out in these books. I suggest making words with magnetic letters, writing words and pointing to some words to help a child learn some phonics rules and letter to sound relationships. One very important tip included on the back cover of these Brand-New Reader books is: "Give your child lots of chances to read the story again and again. The more your child reads, the more confident he or she will become."



Here's a list of common two-letter phonograms you can teach in each of the ten stories from the Brand-New Readers Red Set.

The Chase - ou, ay, er
Edna's New Coat - er, ew, oa, oo
The Big Fish - ou, oo, ow
Tabby Cat at Night - ee, ay, ai, al, ng, ow
Edna Dances - ur, ng, ar, oo, ee, ea
Piggy's Bedtime - ea, oo, ow
Snow Mouse - ou, er, or, oa, ar, ow
Water Balloons - er, oo
Yucky Ball - er, ew
In and Out - er, ou, ay

Brand New Readers Red Set: Some of My Favorite Books for Beginner Readers

Ways Encourage a Child to Read This Summer

Are you having a fun filled busy summer?

Are your kids reading as much as you think they should?

This post has ways to sneak in more reading this summer.

Here are a few ways to sneak in some extra reading time.

Check out some audio books from your library. Many libraries let you do this online. My kids like to draw, ride in the car, or relax on the couch or their beds when listening to stories. We download them onto their mp3 players. Sometimes we check out the book, so they can follow along.


Watch some free online stories. Free Online Stories for Children

Does Dad read? Have your kids pick out books they think Dad would enjoy. Get your kids to approach their dad with the books to be read. My husband reads with our kids sometimes, but it usually takes a little encouragement. Maybe Dad is the primary reader of the family. Then encourage Mom, Grandma, or Grandpa to read a book or two.

Give each of your children their own gallon or two gallon ziplock bag to pack a few books they are reading or want to read. This is a safe way to transport books. Encourage your children to keep their bags of books handy. These take along books will be available to read during car trips, visits to friends and relatives, waiting rooms, and more. My kids read more when we pack books along. It might even keep your kids from doing the typical entertaining themselves by fighting and bugging each other. Kids who can't read yet can pack a bag of favorite books too. If a child has had a book read many times, the child will look at the pictures and remember the story. Pack a book for yourself too.

Ways Encourage a Child to Read This Summer

How Can a Parent Help a Child Improve Reading Comprehension?

The best thing a parent can do is read to a child starting at a young age. Many parents stop reading to their children as they get older. I'm guilty of reading less to my school aged children.

Parents?
Does your child avoid reading? Does your child say he/she can't find a good book to read? Your child might be struggling with reading comprehension. You can help.

7 Keys to Comprehension has been my go to resource for ideas to help my youngest son with reading comprehension. I use ideas from this book for all three of my children. I'm able to purposely share my thinking, ask questions, and have interactions during reading a book to help my children use the 7 keys to improve reading comprehension.

I suggest finding good books to read out loud to your child and teach your child to use the 7 keys:

1. Create mental images.
2. Use background knowledge.
3. Ask questions.
4. Make Inferences.
5. Determine the most important ideas or themes.
6. Synthesize information.
7. Use "fix-up" strategies.

You can teach a child to use these 7 Keys while reading to your child, while listening to your child read, or while sharing the reading of a book. It's never too late to start. Buy the book. Start with one section at a time. I saw huge improvements in my youngest son's desire to read chapter books after I taught him to create mental images.

This book is written in a parent friendly format and is also useful for teachers. There are recommended books, descriptions of the keys, ideas to teach keys separated by age groups, classroom connections, and more.

Socks by Beverly Cleary, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume are three classic stories that will hold the attention of most children. You'll love the rich language, humor, and interesting plots. These books have all the elements needed to teach a child the 7 keys.

How Can a Parent Help a Child Improve Reading Comprehension?

Teach a Child to Read the Words NO and GO

Previously I posted high frequency word flashcards to print and cut. NO and GO are good words to start teaching. Make each letter sound. Then blend the sounds together. The n sound in no can be stretched. Make the n sound together until a child is ready to make the o sound. (nnnnnn-ooo) The g sound in go is a quick stop sound. You'll have to make the o sound quickly to make it sound like a word. You may want to use magnetic letters, show the flash cards, or write the words. Talk about how each word ends in the same sound. Explain that words with a vowel at the end usually make a long vowel sound. If you are using magnetic letters, mix up the four letters and see if your child can put the words back together.

Now that your child is familiar with the words NO and GO you can share read some books and let your child read these words.

Where's Spot is a fun lift the flaps book. An adult can point under the words in the story and read but stop and let the child read the when the word NO is pointed under.

Go, Dog, Go! is a book children want to read again and again. It was a favorite in my house. An adult can share read this book, pause at the word GO, and let the child know to read the word GO when it is pointed under.

Showing a child to point under words when reading is something that can be done while reading books with simple text to a child. I don't think pointing should be done every time but modeling it every now and then may be helpful. Beginning readers are encouraged to point under words while reading.

Teach a Child to Read the Words NO and GO

Is It Possible to Organize Your Children's Books?

Yes, you can get organized.

If books are being read, you'll have to be flexible about your organization system. The picture you see above is a day of returning books to the basement. I'm organized but not too organized. Take what you can from how I try to stay organized. Everyone has to come up with a system that works for their own family.

There is a table in our livingroom for school library books and books I'm reading to my kids. When my children were younger I read three books a night, one for each child. We had a tub with books that were the right length for bedtime stories. The books in the tub were a combination of books I chose and books my children chose.

We keep a tub for public library books on the bottom shelf of a bookcase in our livingroom.







My children have a box of books next to their beds. We just went through the boxes a few days ago. They searched our collection of books in the basement and went through some books I purchased at a used book store to add new ones to their boxes. They kept some of their favorites for rereading. When they were younger most of the books were ones we read together once, and they reread for practice. They all seem to like reading new books now. Rereading books helped my children become fluent readers and improve decoding skills.

These are the books my children chose for their boxes recently.

It helps to have quick access to books a child has chosen and will enjoy reading. I make sure the books are at or below my children's reading level.


 

I organize some books in magazine boxes. I either write on the box or use a name tag for a label. The labels I have in use now are Eric Carle, Mercer Mayer, Berenstain Bears, Magic School Bus, Franklin, Clifford, Super Heros, Space, Sports, Halloween, Christmas, Snow, Colors, ABC's, Numbers, Animals Primary, Animals Intermediate, Bedtime Stories and Rhyming Books, USA Books, Jokes, Zoo Books, Fairy Tales and Folk Stories, Girl Books, Holidays and Songs, Maps and Travel, Poetry Books, Sea Creatures, Kid Magazines, Searching Books, Science, and Dinosaurs 

Here's the cupboard I keep the magazine boxes.

Each shelf fits two rows of boxes. If there are only four boxes in the front row, it's easy to slide the boxes around to see the labels of the boxes in the back.

Basement Book Shelves:

The top shelf has chapter books. The next shelf has a mix of informational books and biographies. The bottom middle two shelves have some of our favorite books, books that don't fit with a label, and some books that escaped their labeled box. (No problem. Maybe we'll return it to it's box someday.) The bottom shelf has two tubs with board books that can be pulled out for younger visitors. 

The shorter book shelf has two plastic boxes just the right size for chapter books at my children's reading levels grouped by author and a clear plastic tub with books for beginning readers. The bottom two shelves have three tubs for the students I tutor with reading and a tub for books my children have made themselves. (They've just started showing an interest in making their own books. I hope the box keeps them motivated.)

These next three pictures are the tubs of books I use for tutoring. I've given each book a colored circle, so it can be returned to the right box if my children want to read one of these books.

DRA levels 2 - 10 

Green Circle

DRA Levels 12 -20

Yellow Circle

DRA Levels 22 - 30

Red Circle

Is It Possible to Organize Your Children's Books?

Children Love Books Even More When They Know the Author

Check out these next two links:

You'll find over 100 video interviews with children's book authors here. Find an interesting author and check out a number of books from your library by that author. 

My family's local library has children's books organized by the author's last name. Sometimes my children and I chose one or two authors and checked out as many books as we could find from the authors. We kept the books for a month and read our favorites many times.

I'm excited to see an interview with Judy Blume. My eight year old son loved her book, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

If you like to get to know authors, you should follow the blog Happy Birthday Author. This blog celebrates different children's book authors on their birthdays. You'll find a ton of information, videos, books and links to resources about and by the celebrated author.

Have fun getting to know an author and enjoying reading with your children!

Children Love Books Even More When They Know the Author

Children's Books for Beginning Readers

Carefully selected books for beginning readers can increase confidence and produce success. 

Are Phonics Books or Authentic Text Books Better For Beginning Readers?

Answer: Both

Phonics Books Can Be Good and Not Good for Beginner Readers 
Good: Reading phonics books gives a child practice paying attention to letter to sound relationships. The repeated phonics rules and patterns in phonics books give a child practice sounding out words. A child learns to pay attention to letter to sound relationships.
Not Good: However, if phonics books are the only books a child is given to read, there is a danger of a child becoming a word caller. Word callers are so interested in sounding out a word that they forget to think about the story. Some phonics books use unusual words or sentence structure to include similar sounds or phonics rules in one short story. When stories don't sound like how a person talks, many children aren't able to understand and enjoy the story. They become word callers, not readers.

Authentic Text Early Reader Books Can Be Good and Not Good For Beginner Readers
Good: Authentic Text or whole language books are stories written without attention to repeated phonics rules and patterns. Whole language books for early readers have simple language and are easy enough for a child to read most words. Many children learn a few sight words and can use sight word knowledge to help read these stories. There are strong picture clues and a flow of language that helps a child figure out difficult words. Many times a child is able to guess at a word. Children who read these stories are exposed to more words and real language.
Not Good: The problem with too many whole language books is that some children begin to rely on guessing at words, knowing words by sight, and ignoring letters instead of sounding out words. As a child gets older, books stop having as many picture clues. Books at higher levels have more and more words. Children can only memorize so many words before they need to start reading. Remembering a memorized word and reading a word using letter sounds requires a different part of the brain. Children are not able to pay attention to the story and keep switching back and forth. Some children figure out phonics and sounding out words without specific teaching or phonics books, but others don't. If you know a child who is guessing more than reading, please check out this page.

My favorite phonics based books are in a series written by Nora Gaydos called Now I'm Reading! Here's a video of my daughter reading a book from Now I'm Reading! On the Go Level 3 Each set has 10 books that stay neatly organized in the plastic sleeves of a hardcover case with a magnetic closure. Books can be removed and replaced easily. 

Children will love to practice their phonics knowledge, learn new sight words and use picture clues in these fun books with repeated language.
Brand New Readers Blue Set
Brand New Readers Purple Set
Brand New Readers Red Set

Starfall has free phonics books online with animations if you click on some of the pictures.

You might like I See Sam books.

Go to your local library and ask a librarian for help choosing books.

  

Children's Books for Beginning Readers

Increase Fluency by Rereading Favorite Books

Rereading books helps children become fluent readers and recall words quickly without needing to spend time sounding out each word. More brain power can be used for understanding reading and reading with expression when books are read multiple times. The trick is to find those great books children want to read more than once.

 Children should have a number of books they can read by themselves they find interesting enough to read again and again. My own children each have a cardboard magazine box filled with books they can and like to read. Usually I listen to my child read the book aloud at least once before we put it in the box. Make the book fun. Enjoy the story, laugh, look at the pictures, connect the story to an event or other book you've read, make guesses about what might happen next, talk about something new you learned if it's a non-fiction book ... etc. Support your child's reading when necessary.

If a book has more than one in ten difficult words, read the book to the child. After the child has listened to the book a few times, it might become a book to read independently. Most reading experts agree: no more than 1 in 20 difficult words is Independent, no more than 1 in 10 difficult words is Instructional, and more than 1 in 10 difficult words is Frustration. A child may miss two or three words together, don't panic. You want to avoid too many starts and stops that break up the flow of reading. When there is a lot of stopping in a sentence, a reader can reread a sentence to get back into the flow.
Choose books your child likes. Continue adding books to the Collection of Books for Rereading. Ask your child to decide which books to take out when it starts getting full. Keep a book in the box as long as a child wants it, even if it seems too easy.

Set aside at least 20 minutes a day for reading. If you have more than one child, use the time your children are rereading from their collections to listen to one child read a new interesting book.

Books can be read aloud or silently. Encourage your child to read to brother, sister, another parent, a grandparent, a friend, a relative or even a pet. Children love to share their favorite books.

Our family uses cardboard boxes and labels them with each child's name. That way favorite books can be taken to any comfortable reading place in the house, in the car, or to Grandma's house.

Increase Fluency by Rereading Favorite Books

Online Stories for Children

Here's a list of stories your child can listen to online when you're too busy to read a story yourself.



Choose a story read by an actor from The Screen Actor's Guild Foundation at Storyline Online.
http://www.storylineonline.net/

Find sixteen stories for listening or reading by turning the audio on or off.
http://www.ziggityzoom.com/stories.php

Follow along with eight stories as words are highlighted when read.
http://www.kizclub.com/reading3.htm

Check out Lil' Fingers Storybooks.
http://www.lil-fingers.com/storybooks/index.html

Read Clifford's Interactive Story Books.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/

Find stories, games and learning videos from Starfall.
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/play.htm?f

Choose from six categories of books to read online from Starfall.
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-c/index/load.htm?f?f

Mighty Books has a number of stories. Use the right column to choose your books.
http://www.mightybook.com/story_books.html

Children's Storybooks Online
http://www.magickeys.com/books/

Stories, poems, and novels with text and audio.
http://www.loudlit.org/

Stories Collected by Kindersite
http://www.kindersite.org/Directory/Stories.htm

Online Stories for Children

Find Book Levels

I have a couple great resources to find the reading level of a book by grade level, by Lexile number, by DRA level and by guided reading level. These are the four ways most children's reading levels are measured.

Use these resources to level the books you own.

Find a Book is a great resource to find books by Lexile Level and interest.

At Scholastic Book Wizard you can search for a particular title or search according to reading level. There are buttons to specify a book search for grade level, Lexile, DRA or guided reading.

Find Book Levels

Inexpensive Leveled Books

Keep Books from Ohio State University are great leveled books you can order in sets or bulk quantities. Check them out at http://www.keepbooks.org/home-old.htm.

Inexpensive Leveled Books

Practice Phonics With Sight Words and Online Books

Teach the most common phonic rules with simple words from these Starfall books.

This practice can be started as soon as a reader knows all short and long vowel sounds.

Explain that some words won't follow the rules you are teaching, but most words will.

Make sure the reader knows the difference between consonants and vowels. The C stands for consonant and the V stands for vowel.

Start with following words and rules. The reader is expected the pause at the hypen and blend sounds together without the hypen. You can copy these words, write the words with a space instead of a hypen, or use magnetic letters making a space and sliding together as needed.

CV = long vowel

ay = long a          y = long i

m – e   me     m – e     me
sh – e   she    sh – e    she

g – o     go     g – o     go

n – o     no     n – o     no

w – ay   way    w – ay    way

m – y my m – y my

CVC = short vowel

c – a – n    ca - n    can    c – an     can

r – e – d     re - d    red    r – ed     red

y – e – s     ye - s    yes    y – es    yes

b – i – g     bi - g     big     b – ig    big

th – i – s    thi - s     this     th – is    this

w – i – ll    wi - ll     will     w – ill     will

n – o – t    no - t     not      n – ot     not

b – u – t    bu - t     but      b – ut     but

f – u – n     fu - n     fun      f – un     fun

VC = short vowel

a – t    at    a – t    at

i – n    in     i – n     in

i – s    is     i – s     is

i – t     it     i – t     it

o – n    on     o – n     on

u – p     up     u – p    up

2V and SE = long vowels

Two vowels together usually make the first vowel long. An e at the end of a word will sometimes make the single vowel before it long.

s – ee     see     s – ee     see

b – l – ue    bl – ue    blue    bl – ue    blue

m – a – ke    ma - ke     make     m - ake     make

t – a – ke     ta - ke     take     t -ake     take

h – e – re     he - re     here    h - ere    here

l – i – ke     li - ke     like     l - ike     like

r – i – de     ri - de    ride     r – ide     ride

Have the beginning reader listen to each story at least once before looking at the words in the stories. The first fiction and the first nonfiction Starfall books have an ear you can click on to listen to the story read fluently. Have the reader listen to these books thinking about the story, enjoying the picture, and monitoring for comprehension. Then read the other books to the beginning reader. Have conversations about the stories. You could plan to practice five words and read one book to the learner each teaching session. The five words can and should be practiced more than once. This type of practice trains the eye and brain to read a word from beginning to end.

Make flashcards for the following words and practice. An explanation follows words with bold letters.
a                schwa sound "uh"  Good examples for placement of sound are : ( banana, come, and away) 


and

are             ar sounds like ar in car

at

away          schwa sound, ay makes long a like in day

big

blue

but

can

come          schwa sound

did

do              long u sound as in too

down         ow sound like in cow

find            ind is a pattern that makes long i like in kind, mind, grind

for             or

fun

funny         y at the end of a two syllable word sounds like long e

go

give         most English words don't end in a v, so it could be short or long i, the short sound is right

have        most Engligh words don't end in a v, so it could be short or long a, the short sound is right

here

how

house

I

in

is

it

like

little

look

make

me

my

no

not

now

oh

on

one

out

play

pretty

red

ride

run

see

she

some

so

take

the

that

this

there

thing

to

too

up

walk

want

who

what

will

with

way

work

we

yellow

yes

you

Some words will not follow phonic rules. Expect a new reader to look at the word while reading. Decoding skills break down when a reader looks away and tries to remember the shape of a whole word to read it. Some parts of the word will match a letter, group of letters, or a pattern with sounds the reader knows.

After all the books have been read once, read the stories a second time pointing under each word as you read. Ask the learner to read the same page as you pointing under the words and looking at each word while reading.

Starfall sells these books from an online store if you want your own copies. The nonfiction books have extra higher level content at the end.

Practice Phonics With Sight Words and Online Books

Cheap Children's Books

I've collected most of my children's books from local used stores. (Goodwill, St. Vincent De Paul, and Montana Rescue Mission) The prices at used stores in my area range from $0.20 to $2.99. I also look in used book stores, but prices are usually higher.

Amazon also has many used books if you are looking for a certain book but don't have the time to search through a store's pile of books.

Garage sales and church bazaars are two more places to find children's books.

Borrow books from your library.

Children love to have stories read to them again and again. Children also become fluent readers by reading books themselves again and again.

Cheap Children's Books