Articles
Oct 26, 2012
How to Get Children Reading
Children most often begin reading around five or six years of age. While it may appear that for some children reading is something they just ‘pick up’, this is rarely the case. In order to achieve reading fluency, children must first develop a number of literacy skills that enable them to both decode texts and understand what they are reading. Fluent reading is not simply the ability to sound out words, but rather it is the more complex ability to move quickly through a text, simultaneously pronouncing the words correctly and understanding what they mean. There are a few things...
Oct 26, 2012
Tips to Get Children Reading
The goal of any reading program should always be to have children reading real books. Reading activities and worksheets have their place, but the goal of any good reading instruction should be getting children reading, as well as understanding and enjoying what they are reading. Reading is a complex art, one that requires a number of different skill areas, particularly: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and text comprehension. Reading instruction that incorporates all five of these key literacy areas teaches kids not only to read, but gives them the tools they need in order to derive meaning from books. In...
Oct 03, 2012
The Complexity of Reading for Children
The process of reading for children is a complex one, involving a number of reading skills that kids have to learn, develop, and use simultaneously in order to both read and improve their reading. According to Marilyn Adams, an esteemed American educator specialising in early reading development, the complexity of reading can be illustrated in comparison to driving a car – while drivers simply concentrate on the act of driving, readers have to build, maintain, and drive the car, all at the same time. * **Build** – readers have to develop systems for identifying and manipulating letters, letter-sound correspondences, words...
Oct 03, 2012
Kids Reading Games
As a means of making learning fun and motivational, kids reading games can be very effective at teaching early literacy skills, especially when they are part of a broader, systematic reading program. In order to be truly effective, a reading program will need to provide instruction in the following core areas of literacy: * **Phonemic awareness** * **Phonics** * **Fluency** * **Vocabulary** * **Text Comprehension** ## Phonemic Awareness A word is rarely just a single sound. Most words are made up of a number of smaller units of sounds, called phonemes. For instance, the simple word ‘cat’ is made up...