K-2 Reading Strategies & Tips
What's on this page?
- Reading with your Child - A video showing what to do (and what not to do) when reading with your child.
- The Five Finger Rule - How to select "good fit" books
- Reading to Support Comprehension - Questions to ask your child as they read.
- Reading Tips for Emerging Readers - 16 Ways to Get your Child to Read
- Practicing Fluency & Expression
- Decoding Help
- Reading to your child
1. Reading with Your Child
2. The Five Finger Rule - How to select "good fit" books?
Use this guide to find "right fit" books that are neither too easy nor too hard.
3. Reading to Support Comprehension
As students read (or you read to them), you can engage students in deeper thinking by prompting them throughout. Click the link to download lists of comprehension questions for both fiction and non-fiction books.
Examples:
What is the story problem? How do you think it will be solved?
Is the setting important to the story? Why?
What is the author's message?
Download Complete List of Comprehension Questions
Examples:
What is the story problem? How do you think it will be solved?
Is the setting important to the story? Why?
What is the author's message?
Download Complete List of Comprehension Questions
4. Reading Tips for Emerging Readers
16 Ways to Get Your Child to Read or Acquire Pre-Reading Skills
1. Read to your child every day because children not only learn new words, they also learn about new and interesting places and things.
2. Take trips to the local library or bookstore. Take time out to browse through a store or library and allow children to pick out their favorite books. Point out books that might be interesting to them.
3. To help with learning the alphabet, call out a letter and have your child lie on the floor in the position of the letter’s shape.
4. Give your child a set of plastic alphabet letters to play a guessing game where you close your eyes and identify the letters by shape.
5. When reading, turn the pages slowly and ask your child to tell about the pictures in the story.
6. Label furniture and other household items to help children learn to recognize new words.
7. Play “I Spy”and ask your child to point to letters when you are driving, walking, shopping or reading.
8. Take your child to story time at the local library. This will help your child to see that reading is fun.
9. Read a book over and over again. Children love repetition and learn from it
10. Encourage your child to make their own books as gifts. They can write and draw a story on pieces of paper and staple together.
11. Keep books in the car or tucked into backpacks. Children can read while traveling.
12. Encourage the reading of a series. When children fall in love with a series the next book is easy to find. By the time they are through with a series, they are reading better and have begun to form a lifelong habit.
13. Connect reading with favorite activities. Find books that match your child’s interests -- riding bikes, skateboarding, etc. He or she will connect reading to these favorite activities.
14. Location, location, location. Encourage children to read where they are comfortable. A good book knows no bounds, whether it’s on the porch, up in a treehouse or under the bed. Think about making a “reading corner” in your house, complete with beanbag chair, book shelves and reading light.
15. Relax a little. Try not to over-commit your child to too many activities. Let them know that lying on the bed reading is not a waste of time.
16. Let your child see you reading. Parents should spend time reading each day. Take out the newspaper, a book or a magazine when your child is present. It’s important to be a good role model!
1. Read to your child every day because children not only learn new words, they also learn about new and interesting places and things.
2. Take trips to the local library or bookstore. Take time out to browse through a store or library and allow children to pick out their favorite books. Point out books that might be interesting to them.
3. To help with learning the alphabet, call out a letter and have your child lie on the floor in the position of the letter’s shape.
4. Give your child a set of plastic alphabet letters to play a guessing game where you close your eyes and identify the letters by shape.
5. When reading, turn the pages slowly and ask your child to tell about the pictures in the story.
6. Label furniture and other household items to help children learn to recognize new words.
7. Play “I Spy”and ask your child to point to letters when you are driving, walking, shopping or reading.
8. Take your child to story time at the local library. This will help your child to see that reading is fun.
9. Read a book over and over again. Children love repetition and learn from it
10. Encourage your child to make their own books as gifts. They can write and draw a story on pieces of paper and staple together.
11. Keep books in the car or tucked into backpacks. Children can read while traveling.
12. Encourage the reading of a series. When children fall in love with a series the next book is easy to find. By the time they are through with a series, they are reading better and have begun to form a lifelong habit.
13. Connect reading with favorite activities. Find books that match your child’s interests -- riding bikes, skateboarding, etc. He or she will connect reading to these favorite activities.
14. Location, location, location. Encourage children to read where they are comfortable. A good book knows no bounds, whether it’s on the porch, up in a treehouse or under the bed. Think about making a “reading corner” in your house, complete with beanbag chair, book shelves and reading light.
15. Relax a little. Try not to over-commit your child to too many activities. Let them know that lying on the bed reading is not a waste of time.
16. Let your child see you reading. Parents should spend time reading each day. Take out the newspaper, a book or a magazine when your child is present. It’s important to be a good role model!
5. Practicing Fluency & Expression
Here are some tips for helping students read aloud fluently with appropriate intonation and expression:
I read, You Repeat: Read a sentence modeling good expression and have your child repeat / copy you.
Smooth It Out Finger: Encourage them to point to the words by running their finger along over or under the sentences, rather than pointing word by word. Using a blank index card about the sentences works well for this.
Reread Good Fit Books: Have your child read aloud a good fit book. Then have them practice (maybe a few pages at a time) aloud a few ties. Then have them read it to you.
Read Together: Read or reread a good fit book aloud with your child reading along with you.
Have Fun: Always have fun! Make it enjoyable. Talk about the book. Make predictions. Notice humor. Enjoy the pictures. Be positive and give lots of praise when it is deserved.
I read, You Repeat: Read a sentence modeling good expression and have your child repeat / copy you.
Smooth It Out Finger: Encourage them to point to the words by running their finger along over or under the sentences, rather than pointing word by word. Using a blank index card about the sentences works well for this.
Reread Good Fit Books: Have your child read aloud a good fit book. Then have them practice (maybe a few pages at a time) aloud a few ties. Then have them read it to you.
Read Together: Read or reread a good fit book aloud with your child reading along with you.
Have Fun: Always have fun! Make it enjoyable. Talk about the book. Make predictions. Notice humor. Enjoy the pictures. Be positive and give lots of praise when it is deserved.
6. Decoding Help
When some is reading to you and they get stuck on a word: Count to 3 silently and slowly, then ask, "Would you like more time or coaching?"
Coaching Strategies (Not to be used in any particular order)
Coaching Strategies (Not to be used in any particular order)
- What strategy have you already tried?
- Cross Check (Does it sound right? Does it look right? Does it make sense?)/Go back and reread
- Skip the word and come back.
- Break it up / chunk sounds or syllables together.
- Look at the pictures.
- Sound it out / slide along the word beginning to end (yourself or with me)
- Do you want me to tell you the word?
- Cover the middle and try the beginning and ending sounds.
- What word would fit here?
7. Reading to Your Child
The following tips are for your reference over the course of this year. All children learn to read at different times and at different speeds. These tips are intended as a resource as your child becomes an emergent reader.
Things To Do While Reading To Your Child
- You and your child can use a “magic pointing finger” or a “reading stick” to point to the words in a book. A tip of a wooden chopstick dipped in glue and glitter is a great “reading stick.” The finger or the stick will draw your child’s eyes to the print. By pointing to the print, your child will learn to match a written word with a word read aloud. This is called “one-to-one correspondence.”
- A “picture walk” is useful for emergent readers. Quickly look through the book and discuss pictures and make predictions about what is to come. This will help your child start to think about vocabulary in the book, as well as what will happen.
- To promote ownership, have your child actually hold the book and turn the pages. Do this even when you are sharing the book.
- Enjoy reading! This should be a fun time. You can share the reading (if possible) by taking turns. If your child isn’t ready, have them hold the book and turn pages. The goal is to encourage independence when possible. Can they chime in with a known word along the way? Can they look at the picture and guess which word might be on that page? All of these things are great!
- While you are reading and after you are finished, ask questions or “think out loud.” You could say, “hmmmm” at crucial parts where I would like them to really think about what is happening. Make sure your child is understanding the story. Ask them to recall details, this will help your child “connect” to the story and deepen their understanding.
- Don’t forget to encourage your child to tie in any personal experiences to the text (either before, during or after). This is another way in which children enhance their comprehension and connections to a story.