Windom Area Schools

Kaleidoscope - Developing Readers

Overall Reading Development

There are 5 areas for teaching reading development.   These are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary.

1. Phonemic awareness
   1. Words are made up of sounds
   2. “Tell me all the sounds in pig.”  /p/ /i/ /g/
   3. “What’s the first sound you hear in table?” /t/
   4. “I’ll say the sounds, you blend them together.  /t/ /r/ /i/ /m/
2. Phonics
   1. Letters make sounds and sounds go together to make words
   2.  recognize letter sounds
   3. Read words in print.  Start with CVC words such as hat, big, pat, etc.
   4. Read words with blends such as clap, crab, scratch, track, etc. 
   5. Read words with silent e such as kite, made, crate, etc. 
   6. Read words with vowel teams such as street, mean, treat
   7. Read multi-syllabic words by decoding parts of the word such as positive, 
   8. Sight words are words you can’t sound out, you have to memorize them.  Ask your child which list he or she is on and click here to find the lists.
3. Fluency
   1. Move from reading word by word to reading in phrases.
   2. Practice reading like you are talking to a friend.  Use expression in your voice. 
   3. Repeated Reading is helpful when practicing fluency.
4. Comprehension
   1. Comprehension strategies are used throughout the text to help readers understand the text.  The following are good comprehension strategies to practice: 
      
      1. Asking Questions as you are reading
      2. Summarizing
      3. Predicting
      4. Making Inferences
      5. Making Connections
5. Vocabulary
   1. Exposure to stories through listening to adults read aloud
   2. Explicitly teaching vocabulary that will appear in the lesson
   3. Conversations
   4. Exposure to real-life events

What can parents or grandparents do to inspire the love of reading in their children?

• Read to them~ Let them hear you model fluent reading with expression.  This gives them a goal to read like you!  Enjoy the content!  Pause and ask questions as you are reading.  Make reading a fun experience! 
• Listen to your child read!  
• Take them to the library!  Our Windom library has a great children’s section.  Make it a fun outing to check out books!

Upcoming Events:

Kindergarten Registration - March 18 - see website to sign up for arrival times

Preschool Registration - Open now through April 1 - call the elementary office at 831-6925 to enroll.