1. Reading Resources Tara Oaks Elementary Collierville Schools
Mrs. Christy Marcrum
Resource Teacher
Tara Oaks Elementary
Collierville Schools

2. Beginning Readers
It is important that children have phonemic awareness at the early stages of reading.
Phonemic awareness is the understanding that letters represent individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken language.
Phonemic awareness is critical to success in the early stages of reading.

3. What can I do to help Build Phonemic Awareness with my child?
From an early age, begin to recite poems and rhymes, drawing attention to individual words and sounds.
Sing lots of songs, tracking and pointing to individual words and letters.
Listen and identify the sounds that come at the beginning, middle, and the ends of words.

4. Continue Phonemic Awareness:
Write down the letters that you hear in words spoken orally.
Blend sounds together to make words and segments in words.
Clap the number of syllables in a word.

5. Working with Phonemes
Children need to have an understanding that words are composed of letters and these letters make individual sounds (phonemes).
Begin at a very early age with reviewing upper and lower case letters of the alphabet and the sound each letter makes in isolation.

6. Continue working with phonemes:
A fun activity that involves working with phonemes is to have your child play a listening game. The goal is to change a word by taking out or adding different phonemes to parts of the word.
Cut out a Word. For example, dog.
Ask your child to remove one letter (the letter d) and replace it with another (the letter l).
Say the new word log together.
Continue playing, replacing new letters at the beginning of the word.

7. Continue Working with Phonemes:
This activity allows children to hear it for themselves and recognize that changing letters in the word not only creates a brand new word but creates a brand new meaning as well.
This activity can help children to understand that letters have sounds, that sounds make words, and that words make meaning.

8. Building Sight Vocabulary
Sight Words are words frequently found in English text.
Sight Words are often irregular in spelling and should be instantly recognized at the earliest possible time.
Sight Words should be introduced then reviewed often.

9. Continue: Building Sight Vocabulary:
Sight Vocabulary Word Lists include:
Dolce Word List
Fry Word List
**It is important to have your child Practice Reading
Sight Words often.

10. Read to Your Child!!!
Reading aloud to your child is one of the most important things you can do as a parent to help your child develop a Love for Reading.
Books, when chosen carefully, provide the vocabulary and background knowledge that become so critical to comprehension.
Try to Never Skip Read-Aloud-Time.

11. Shared Reading
Shared Reading Books are simply books that are read together (parent and child).
They can be big books, poems or songs, that are read chorally or little books that can be easily memorized by your child.
Shared Reading allows children to practice readiness skills including: -reading left to right, -tracking words, -discussing the story, …

12. How do I help my child become a Fluent Reader?
Practice Sight Words Often!
-Write Sight Words on index cards and take them
with you to practice on the go.
Read to your Child as much as possible and Encourage your child to Read-Aloud often!!
-Read labels at the grocery store or have your
child read the labels to you.
-Let your child help you with a recipe at home by
reading the ingredients and directions aloud.
Practice Shared Reading Activities with your child.

13. Get books that will interest or motivate your child to read.
Create a Poetry Notebook with your child.
-Children enjoy reading poems over and
over again. It can help give them the experience of
Fluent Reading.
When singing familiar songs with your child, try and get a copy of the song lyrics and have them ‘look’ at the words as they sing.

14. The Reading Fluency Checklist should include:
Make a Reading Fluency Checklist to help your child monitor his or her reading or that of others.
The Reading Fluency Checklist should include:
__ACCURACY: I can read words correctly.
__RATE: I can read not too fast and not too slow.
__EXPRESSION: I can read with feeling, and not sound like a robot.
__PUNCTUATION: I follow most or all of the punctuation marks as I read the text or passage.

15. Model Good Reading Fluency and Not So Good Reading Fluency with your child.
Read a short story or passage to your child, allowing him or her to monitor your reading, using the Reading Fluency Checklist. Model Good and Not So Good Reading Fluency during this activity.
If possible, record or video your child reading. Playback the recording or video, allowing your child to monitor his or her reading, using the Reading Fluency Checklist.

16. Helpful Reading Websites
ReadWords.org
ReadWriteThink.org
PBSParents.org
StoryIt.com
Starfall.com
PBSKids.org
Brainbridgeclass.com
Fun4thebrain.com

17. Encouraging Your Child to be a Good Reader
Engage your Child’s Imagination through Reading.
Read Books yourself and let your child see that you Love to Read.
Visit the Library Often!
Choose Books on your Child’s Reading Level that you think will Interest him or her.
Limit Television and Video Games.