Parents are a child's first teacher. That's why it is important for parents to take steps that will encourage their child's reading abilities. This website is designed to provide ideas to parents on how to help improve their child's comprehension and decoding skills.
No matter what your own reading skills are, you can help your child learn to become a better reader.

Here are some easy ways parents can help their children learn how to read:
~Read aloud to your child.
~Have your child read to you.
~Visit your local library.
~Sing songs and play word games.
~Talk together.

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Comprehension is the ability to understand what is read. Here are some strategies to use to help improve your child's comprehension:
~Skim or preview the text to to see what it is about. Then have your child make a prediction based on the information.
~ Have your child visualize(create mental images) while they are reading.
~ Children should make connections about what they know to what they are reading.
~Ask your child questions about what they are reading while they are reading to help monitor understanding.
~Determine the most importnat events or information from the story.
~Synthesize ideas by bringing ideas together or creating a new one.
~Make inferences by having your child use their own ideas to help understand what was read.

Children who have to spend a lot of time figuring out words often lose the meaning of what they are trying to read. Fluency is the ability to read a text quickly and correctly, and is directly related to the abiltiy to recognize words. Children who are able to read fluently are better able to understand what they have read. Here are ways to help your child's fluency:
~Model fluency by reading aloud to your child.
~Have your child reread a story aloud multiple times.
~Have your child practice reading stories that are on their independent reading level, or are easy for them to read.
~Get an audiotape or CD of one of your child's favorite books.
~Make a list of common words, and post it where your child will see it.
~Help your child with words he or she misreads.

Vocabulary is knowing what words mean and how to use them. Knowing the meaning of words is key to understanding what is read. Learning new vocabulary happens in a number of different ways. It may involve: using context clues, creating a mental image, thinking about the different parts of the word, connecting a new word to words that a child already knows, and using a new word in writing or speech.
Here are some ways parents can help improve their child's vocabulary:
~Teach your child one new word every day.
~Talk together.
~Teach your child how to use the dictionary.
~Break up new words together.
~Encourage your child to use new words often when speaking or writing.
~Have your child explore new subjects and interests that will expose him/her to new ideas and words.

Learning to read is a process. As children grow they must develop skills to learn how sounds, letters, and words work together. Here are some strategies you can use to help your child practice their decoding skills.
~Encourage your child to reread a sentence when a word they read does not make sense.
~Help your child to use spelling patterns and word parts to help figure out long words.
~Have your child monitor their reading by pointing to the words as they read.
~Encourage your child to self-correct their errors by changing the way they read something so that it makes sense.
~When your child comes to a difficult word,have him/her focus on the words around it. These context clues will help your child to understand the new word.
~Have your child chunk unknown words by looking for parts of the word that they already know.
~Encourage your child to look at pictures clues in the illustrations to help them decipher unknown words.

Jefferson Elementary School
Christina Green