You were your child’s first teacher. You taught them many important skills, including how to speak. And as they have grown older, they have had the additional benefit of learning from other teachers. Nonetheless, at Accrington Academy, we recognise that your child will experience the most success when school and home are working together.
Why is reading at home important?
More than any other academic area of school, the importance of the home-school partnership applies to the master skill of their school years. The one skill that provides the key to unlocking all other skills; your child’s ability to read. Often, that ability is determined by one word: routine.
That is why the Academy requires all KS3 students to read a book of their choice for half an hour at home, as part of their daily homework routine.
The Benefits of Daily Reading
A daily reading routine at home has many benefits.
1. People who read often and widely get better at it.
2. Reading exercises our brain and improves our concentration
3. Reading improves our mental health
4. Reading teaches people about the world around them.
5. Reading improves vocabulary, talking and writing skills.
6. Reading develops our imagination.
7. Reading helps young people to develop empathy.
8. Reading is fun!
9. Sharing reading and talking about what you read is a great way to spend time together.
10. Students who read daily achieve better in school.
How can I encourage reading at home?
Here are 5 key strategies that you can use to encourage and develop your child’s reading ability:
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Help to choose
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Read to/with your child
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Predict it!
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Remember it!
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Question it!
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Help to Choose
It’s important that we all help to inspire children to feel confident and comfortable reading. One simple way to do this is being as involved as possible when they are choosing their book.
Please feel free to make use of the academy readings lists, published on this website. Alternatively, you can find advice on what books children of different ages might enjoy reading on the LoveReading4Kids website: www.lovereading4kids.co.uk .
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Read to/ with your child
Parents or carers modelling reading is essential for them to understand the importance of reading to you as a family. So, it’s never too late to read to your child. If you think that your child is perhaps a little too old, just reading different books with each other is a great way to strengthen the family bond.
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Predict it!
Before starting a new book or article, look at the title and any available pictures and discuss what you both think it may be about.
This will help:
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Remember it!
If your child is in the middle of a book, before each daily read, persuade your child to tell you what’s happened so far.
This will help:
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Question it! (What, Why, How, What)
Asking your child questions about what they read is very important. Ask them:
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What is happening?
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Why is it happening?
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How do you know?
- What do you think will happen next?
If you are reading to your child, you can do this by stopping at intervals to ask them the questions.
If your child is reading independently, you can do this after each daily read or during a family meal.
This will help:
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deepen their comprehension of what they have read
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improve their speaking skills by using new words they have come across
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develop inference skills by asking them to predict future events
What’s important in this entire process is raising your children with a love of books so they are interested and keen to read.
My child struggles to read. Is there anything else I can do?
Decoding
Decoding is the foundation of reading. It’s the ability to see letters and convert them into sounds. In time, this skill allows children to figure out words they've heard but have never seen in print, as well as sound out words they're not familiar with.
How can you help?
Stretch it Out!
Help your child to stretch out unfamiliar words and chunk sounds together. See if he/she can make sense of it. Be careful of words with incompatible spelling and sounds.
Reading Fluency
Reading fluency is the ability to read accurately, smoothly and with expression. Fluent readers recognize words automatically, without struggling over decoding issues. Fluency is important because it bridges the gap between word recognition and comprehension.
How can you help?
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Repeat Read – Stage 1
Depending on your child’s ability, choose a sentence or a paragraph to focus on.
Then:
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Model how the sentence or paragraph should be read by reading it to your child
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Now get your child to repeat the sentence or paragraph by reading it back to you
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If your child makes a mistake with a word or hesitates for 3 seconds, ask them to:
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look at your mouth as you pronounce the word
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repeat your pronunciation correctly
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repeat the sentence again with the word pronounced correctly
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Repeat Read - Stage 2
Model the same sentence or paragraph again.
Before you start, give your child a different focus. Ask them to focus on ONE of the following:
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use of punctuation to pause in the right places to help your read smoothly
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expression of narrative – highs and lows, emphasis on certain words
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expression of dialogue – how natural and talk like does it sound?
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volume – grabbing the attention of the listener by projecting your voice
Then ask them to read, getting them to mirror what you did with the same focus.
If it isn’t quite right, don’t be afraid to calmly pause them, give them feedback and ask them to repeat the sentence again.
You should have a different focus for each reading session.
New Words
Whenever a child reads, they may struggle with new words.
How can you help?
Context clues:
As J.R Firth once said, “You shall know a word by the company that it keeps”.
So, encourage your child to guess what he/she thinks the word might mean, based on the surrounding text and what has happened previously in the story.
Enquiries for further literacy support
If you have any further concerns with regards to your child’s reading and think that they may require additional in school support, please feel free to contact the Assistant Principal for SEND and Inclusion, Sue Blades.