Beginning readers are sometimes reluctant to attempt to read new words. Often a child will stop and look up at an adult hoping to be "feed" a word before making an attempt to read it. Here are some ideas to try with your child to encourage him/her to use his/her new skills.
Look:
Look at the first letter. Do you know what sound it makes?
Look at the last letter. Do you know what sound it makes?
Look at the vowel(s). Do you know how to blend this word together?
Look for suffixes. They can be so easy to read!
Look for blends. Are you bumping the sounds into each other?
Look for digraphs. These two letters make only one sound!
Try:
Try to get your mouth ready to say the first sound in the word.
Try to read all the other words in the sentence and to think of a word that begins with the same letter as your word and would make sense in the sentence..
Try looking at the picture for clues to what your word might be.
Try to think of words you know that start the same way as your word.
Try to think of words you know that end the same way as your word.
Try to chop your word into syllables.
Try to use the phonics rules you know to help you read this word.
Think:
Think about what this story is telling you. If the story is about dogs and you meet a new word that starts with p, would puppy or pudding make more sense?
Think back. Have you seen this word in the story before?
Think about the way people talk to you. Would your mother say "Black hit not thing?" If you think what you read does not sound right, or if you think it does not make sense, YOU ARE RIGHT! Something has gone wrong and it is time to look at that part of the story again.
Think about how smart you are and how much you are learning. That word is not smarter or better than you! It's only ink and paper. If you believe you can win and read that silly old word, you will read it. It is ok to have to take your time and try your hardest.
Think about the people you feel safest reading to. Read this hard part to them and ask for help.
