Teaching Reading Philosophy

 The Learn to Read course is designed for young children.  Very young children love to be read to, and they love to read. 

I have done a fair amount of research to decide how I wanted to teach my children to read.  My method of teaching children how to read is varied.  I believe strongly in teaching children how to read as soon as they express interest in it.  A child does not have a high level of patience.  Teaching the child how to read one or two words at a time will satisfy the child's desire without overwhelming their ability.  

Reading at this age involves a lot of repetition.  When teaching colors, parents quiz on the color many times.  Eventually, the child knows the name of the color on sight.  This is the idea behind teaching sight words.  Knowing sight words isn't enough.  

Phonics generally includes: 

Ear training

Tongue training

Eye training

Word building

Spelling

Children need to learn phonics, preferably early in their education, for them to be successful readers. Once phonics is mastered, children can read pretty much anything. 

Some educators advocate teaching phonemes and letter sounds without true familiarity with the alphabet.  The use of sounds are introduced by use (such as mmmmmm first).  Many parents sabotage this method by teaching their children the ABCs.  Some educators prefer teaching children whole words, such as sight words. 

I see value to all of these, so I prefer a mixed method.  Children are taught words, phonics, and alphabet in bit size lessons to build mastery and satisfy the child's desire to learn. 

Phonics Action Word Game

 In week 1 of my new learn to read lessons, I have a phonics game.  

The instructions state: 

Teacher introduces a game where teacher pronounces action words by letter sound (ex: s-i-t), student does the action.

The purpose of this game is to get the students to hear the different parts of the word and identify them as words.  It is important that action words are used when the game is first introduced, so children can associate the sounds of the letters with the words, and the words with the actions.  Building this phonetic foundation will be helpful later.  

Be sure to pronounce each letter properly so the word can be understood. 

Here are some more examples of action words

 s-i-t  ->  the student sits

r-u-n  ->  the student runs in place

w-a-l-k  ->  the student walks in place

c-l-a-p  ->  the student claps

s-l-ee-p  ->  the student pretends to sleep

w-a-k-e  ->  the student pretends to wake

d-r-i-nk -> the student pretends to drink

f-l-y -> the student pretends to fly

 b-ow -> the student bows

m-a-r-ch -> the student marches in place

Only start with a few words like this at first.  As the student gets used to the game, add more words.  Eventually, you can have the student pick a word.  

What if my child doesn't get it? No problem! 

First, keep trying.  You only need to do a few words at a time.  You are building skills. 

Second, try modeling.  Whenever a child doesn't understand the instructions, model.  In fact, it is better to model while giving instructions!

Third, try using a book.  I love using From Head to Toe by Eric Carle as a visual for this game.  I will pronounce the action word (ex: bend) or the body part (neck) and model.  Then when I ask, can you do it? (as the book states) and my kids do the action.  

Eventually, this game will become a dictation game.  Any word can be used later.  For now, though, keep it simple.