Tips
Reading – Quick Notes and Tips.
Reading development, the early years
1.- Pre-reading stage
- Encourage reading interest with enjoyable experiences, with emphasis on oral expression. This way, you will ensure ss are socially, mentally, emotionally and physically ready to learn to read.
- Oral expression is the focus of instruction, and its development comes out of it.
- Tell short stories to catch ss’ attention and collect phrases and vocabulary.
- Draw pictures or look at photographs to analyse the images.
- Use songs to arrive to a certain grammar, vocabulary or sound point.
2.-Beginning reading
- Make sure ss recognize image and meaning, then go over units and meaning, after that you can go over connecting words and the meaning they take when so.
- Remember to keep instruction and fun balanced.
- Provide ss with lots of modeling.
- Remember that ss feel good about themselves when they can share something they have just learned.
- Mastering the alphabet is crucial, then the more words they can learn the better.
3.- Developing fluency
- Identify and work on words ss can pronounce well.
- Teach ss to identify and understand meaning by considering clues from context.
- Try to match the contents of the lesson to ss real life; it’s for instilling pride of who they are.
4.- Increase reading ability and interest
- Make connections of familiar words with unfamiliar ones.
- Set up a routine to foster reading habits.
- Have in handy plenty of reading options, so that ss can hunt for the ones which look appealing to them.
5.- Enhancing and refining reading skills
- Start to get ss working out main ideas.
- Put the ideas into different scenarios, so ss can develop arguments and support those based on the information in the texts they read – make sure those scenarios can be explored by using previous knowledge.
- Try to get ss using knowledge from reading experience to add to their self-expression.
N’Namdi, K. (2005). Guide to Teaching Reading at the Primary School Level. France: UNESCO.