Tools for Good Reading

Learning to read text is a critical component in the first grade classroom. Students will read a variety of books (fiction and non-fiction) on their instructional level. Students will use several “tools” to help them read the text. Below you will find the terminology that I use in the classroom during reading instruction. Please refer to these “tools” when your child is reading to you at home.

·        Do the sounds you are saying match the print?

·        Sound out the word.

·        Chunk the word out. (Look for pieces or chunks of a word that make a particular sound. Ex: “ing,” “at, consonant blends, such as bl, st, ch, th, etc.)

·        Does the sentence make sense? (Rereading a sentence to check that it makes sense.)

·        Get your mouth ready and take a running start (Looking at the word and stating its first sound(s). Looking across the word for all of the sounds you know.)

·        Skip the word and read on – Come back to it.

·        Make a good substitution for names – I tell students to just say the first letter of a name if they are not sure what the name is. Some names are very difficult to pronounce or may have more than one pronunciation.

·        Does the word sound right?

·        Ask for help – This is the last tool students should use in their toolbox.

I hope you find these “tools” helpful.

Happy Reading!

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." — Dr. Seuss

Miss Baltz's First Grade Classroom

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." — Dr. Seuss

Tools for Reading