Best methods to teach reading

Teaching Reading: Strategies & Methods

Various studies show that promoting reading can have a major impact on children and their future. In this article, we’ll look at strategies and methods to support the teaching of reading and comprehension in early elementary school and beyond.

There’s more than one way to teach children to read. So, it’s important to have a range of different strategies and methods to encourage learning in different students.

Teaching reading: strategies & methods

1. Read aloud to students
2. Provide opportunities for students to read, write and talk about texts
3. Read texts repeatedly to support fluency
4. Teach children the tools to figure out words they don’t know
5. Provide time for studying spoken language, including vocabulary and spelling
6. Use prior knowledge to make connections
7. Predict
8. Visualize
9. Summarize
10. Teach critical thinking skills

The early years: strategies for teaching reading

Literacy teaching and learning are core responsibilities of teachers and schools. Yet teaching reading and writing is a complex and highly skilled professional activity. Many young learners start school with little knowledge about how to read and write. Teachers are tasked with helping children to bridge the significant gap between linking their written and spoken language. Learning to read is critical, with research showing that reading for pleasure can:

• Promote improved health and wellbeing
• Help build social connections and relationships
• Increase the chances of social mobility.

Literacy development is an evolving and non-linear process that encompasses foundational skills (phonemic awareness), word recognition, reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension (Simms & Marzano, 2018).

For a student’s ultimate success, teachers must:

• Understand how students learn these skills, and
• Implement best practices when teaching these skills.

Learning to read should include exposure to a wide variety of exciting books from different genres. Students should also experience reading through different mediums, such as interactive apps and web content.

Here are 10 strategies you can use to support your students in developing their reading skills and boosting comprehension.

1. Read aloud to students

Read-aloud regularly in the classroom and encourage parents to do the same at home. Reading aloud has many benefits for students, including improving comprehension, building listening skills, and broadening their vocabulary development.

2. Provide opportunities for students to read, write, and talk about texts

Regularly giving students time to read, write, and talk about texts can enhance their skill development across multiple areas. For instance, reading more helps you become a better writer. By talking about texts and hearing the perspectives of classmates, young children also have the opportunity to deepen their comprehension. Encourage parents to further engage young readers by asking them to help their child attack difficult words and ask questions about the text that will promote discussions.

3. Read texts repeatedly to support fluency

Allow students to read the same texts multiple times. By doing this, they not only build fluency but also build confidence. The more confident they become in their reading skills, the more likely they will enjoy reading.

4. Teach children the tools to figure out words they don’t know

Teaching students to read for the ultimate goal of producing independent readers begins by explicitly teaching the code we use to decode words. That starts with teaching phonemic awareness.

Here are some other strategies that support phonics instruction:

• For beginning readers, target words that are decodable. These are regular spellings with regular sounds. (Ex. such – /s/ /u/ /ch/ not gone)
• Sound out each phoneme and blend as you go by going back to the first sound everytime a sound is added. Hold the sound (sing) then add the next sound. Ex. /g/, /r/, gr—, /ow/, grow.

Note: Students may want to look at pictures for context, but this does not help them decode words. As we encourage students to read more difficult texts, they won’t have pictures to rely on, so encourage them not to use the pictures to decode difficult words.

This might involve combining strategies, such as:

• Sounding out a word using phonics knowledge
• Looking at the pictures
• Skipping the word and coming back to it after reading the rest of the sentence
• Thinking about what would make sense.

As an elementary teacher, you can support the families of your young students by sharing phonics resources. By providing parents with practical resources, you are setting them up for a productive and positive reading experience with their child.

5. Provide time for studying spoken language, including vocabulary and spelling

A comprehensive approach to teaching reading also includes providing time to develop complementary skills, such as:

• Spoken language, including through conversation or oral presentations
• Vocabulary, such as building class lists while reading texts
• Spelling
• Grammar, such as through bite-sized video content like the Grammar Miniclips series.

6. Use prior knowledge to make connections

Each student brings unique prior knowledge to their reading education. This knowledge is the sum of all experiences they bring to the reading or viewing of a text. This could include personal experiences, cultural or religious experiences and concept knowledge. Prior knowledge helps young readers infer meaning from text, a skill recognized as a predictor of reading comprehension at various developmental stages and one of the drivers of sophisticated reading ability. An early reader can activate prior knowledge and make connections at each stage.

• Before reading, they could ask ‘What do I already know about this topic?’
• During reading, they could reflect ‘This part of the text is just like…’
• After reading, they could offer ‘I know more about this topic now.’

7. Predict

Prediction is about anticipation and working out the actions and ideas coming next. An early reader can use prediction at each stage of reading.

• Before reading, they could suggest ‘From the cover, I think this book will be about…’
• During reading, they could predict which word comes next in a sentence.
• After reading, they could comment on whether their predictions were correct.

8. Visualize

Visualizing combines using your senses and activating prior knowledge to create a mental picture. Ask students to create a “mind movie.” Young readers, especially with a teacher or parent prompting, can draw on their senses to imagine smells, sounds, tastes, and images that go with the story they are reading – like a show or movie in their mind.

9. Summarize

Teaching students to recall the main points or ideas of a story is not easy. First, they need to be able to put the story in order, then put it in their own words before they can articulate a ‘summing up’ of the author’s main ideas. To start to learn to summarize, young students can practice:

• Selecting the key words from a paragraph
• Locating the topic sentence (often found at the start or end of a paragraph)
• Responding to general questions about a story
• Talking through the story in their own words

10.

Critical thinking gets readers to think about why an author creates a text in a particular way (author’s purpose). You can encourage young readers to ask some of the following questions to get them thinking critically about what they are reading:

• Why did the author write this story?
• What did the author leave out of the story?
• How do I feel about this story?

Reading comprehension strategies

Opportunities for teaching reading comprehension occur at all levels throughout the curriculum. Good comprehension draws from both linguistic knowledge and knowledge of the world we live in. Students develop skills in comprehension though high-quality discussion with teachers, and from regularly reading and discussing a range of texts across genres. Therefore, the reading strategies discussed earlier in the article should be practiced, consolidated and expanded on as a student progresses through school.

Growing readers must learn to read on the lines, between the lines, and beyond the lines. Reading will involve literal, interpretive, and inferential comprehension as it deepens in complexity. As students get more advanced, they’ll learn concepts such as transferring knowledge to new contexts and understanding an author’s viewpoint, purpose, and intended audience. And when they acquire those skills, they’ll be able to critically analyze messages and information in a range of literacy modes for various purposes.

Recommendations for teachers to support the progression of reading comprehension:

• Make sure your students spend significant amounts of time reading engaging texts.
• Select texts for students which support authentic learning. These could include topic-based or interest-based texts.
• Give students access to a range of texts in various genres (multimodal, print-based, images, animations, graphic representations, video, audio, diagrams/charts, newspapers/magazines, fiction, non-fiction).
• Identify and discuss vocabulary from rich texts with your students.
• Give your students time to talk to each other about the texts they have read and listened to.
• Give students time to write and reflect on their reading.

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11 Methods for Teaching Reading That Help Struggling Readers

There are many teaching methods that can help struggling readers. The best ones for kids with dyslexia use an Orton–Gillingham approach. But teachers and specialists may use other methods to supplement their main instruction. Learn about these commonly used programs.

Orton–Gillingham

The Orton-Gillingham approach is the “gold standard” for teaching reading to kids with dyslexia. It focuses at the word level by teaching the connections between letters and sounds. Orton–Gillingham also uses what’s called a multisensory approach. It taps into sight, sound, movement and touch to help kids link language to words. Students learn the rules and patterns behind why and how letters make the sounds they do. Orton–Gillingham is the basis for a number of other reading programs. These programs are mostly used by special education teachers.

Reading Mastery

Reading Mastery is very systematic. It starts by teaching word sounds and what the corresponding letters and words look like. Next, kids learn to read passages. Then they build vocabulary while increasing their understanding of what they read. Students are grouped by reading level. Reading Mastery is often used by general and special education teachers as a complement to other programs. It may also be used on its own. Teachers tend to use one of two versions. Reading Mastery Classic is for grades K–3 and Reading Mastery Plus is taught in grades K–6.

Read Naturally

Read Naturally aims to improve reading fluency and understanding in kids and adults. It uses texts, audio CDs and computer software. Usually students listen to a story and then read the same text aloud. The program tracks progress carefully. Students work at their own level and move through the program at their own rate. Usually they work independently. Read Naturally is most often used as an add-on to the main program being used in the general education classroom.

READ 180

READ 180 is for struggling readers in grades 3–12. It involves teacher instruction, working on a computer and reading alone. Kids also listen to someone read aloud and then read the same text. The program includes workbooks, books for reading alone, audiobooks and software that tracks student progress. It’s most often used by reading specialists to give extra support.

Project Read

Project Read is used in a classroom or group. The program emphasizes instruction by the teacher. Lessons move from letter-sounds to words, sentences and stories. Project Read has three strands: listening, understanding and writing. All three strands are taught at all grade levels, though the emphasis differs by grade. The program is sometimes used in general education classrooms where many students are struggling. In schools where most kids are on track, the program is often used by special education teachers or reading specialists to give extra support.

Voyager Passport

The Voyager programs are most often used by reading specialists in addition to the general education reading program. Voyager Passport is a small-group program for grades K–5. It includes letter-sound understanding, sight words and vocabulary. Voyager Passport Reading Journeys is for teens who struggle with reading. The program is taught in a group using science and social studies topics. There is also a Voyager Universal Literacy System. This is a K–3 curriculum that includes a program for struggling readers.

Read, Write and Type!

Read, Write and Type! Learning System is a software program to teach beginning reading skills, emphasizing writing. The program was developed for 6- to 9-year-olds who are beginning to read, and for struggling students. The main goal is to help students become aware of the 40 English phonemes, or word sounds, and to associate each with a finger stroke on the keyboard. Read, Write and Type! is often used as a supplement to other reading programs.

LANGUAGE!

LANGUAGE! is for struggling learners in grades 3–12 who score below the 40th percentile on standardized tests. It is most often used by special education teachers. The curriculum uses a six-step format for each lesson. The first step is word-sound awareness. The second step is word recognition and spelling. Then comes vocabulary and then grammar. Listening and reading comprehension come next. Writing is the last step. There is also a version of this program that is specifically designed for English language learners.

Reading Recovery

Reading Recovery is a short-term tutoring program for struggling first graders. It aims to develop reading and writing by tailoring lessons to each student. Tutors are trained in the program. They teach students in daily pullout sessions over 12–20 weeks. Reading Recovery is designed for short-term use. It’s an add-on to whatever program is being used in the general classroom. Kids with dyslexia are often included in the program at first. But research has questioned how effective it is for these students.

Read Well

Read Well is for K–3 students. The program teaches word-sound awareness. It also works on vocabulary and comprehension. Teachers begin by modeling what to do. They then gradually decrease their support until eventually students are asked to do the reading task by themselves. The program includes activities for the whole class as well as small-group lessons. Read Well is often used in the general education classroom.

Fast ForWord

Fast ForWord is a computer-based program that focuses on the link between spoken language and written words. The software aims to help kids master reading by improving things like memory, processing speed and attention. But the impact the program reports to have on these skills isn’t widely accepted. Nor is its impact on improving reading. Fast ForWord is used by clinicians and specialists.

This article originally appeared on Understood.org, a free online resource for parents of children with learning and attention issues. Reprinted courtesy of Understood.org © 2018 Understood, LLC. All rights reserved.

The most popular methods of teaching reading

Word for word

« Many teachers note that a modern child needs reading skills from the very first days at school. To complete assignments in other subjects, for example. Otherwise, you will have to help a lot. In any case, it takes different time for all children to master the alphabet, and the teacher cannot wait. In addition, if a child learns to read at school, it will be an additional burden for him. It will be more difficult for him to acquire knowledge in other subjects, because more energy and concentration will be required from him. It will hardly add self-confidence and motivation to study.

The ability to read will also be needed to prepare mini-presentations and oral presentations, which are now being asked to be done in the first grade. A child who reads will find information quickly, and will only pique his interest. This is an important plus. But the skill must be practiced really well. After the first successes are made, it takes time to learn to understand the meaning of what is read. It is easiest to achieve this effect in a calm home environment.

When to teach a child to read, the mother decides for herself. If you don’t want to wait until school, you have to decide on the methodology. And now there are many of them and each has both advantages and disadvantages.

Cards

The most popular visual method is Doman cards. At first glance, this seems to be the easiest way. From about 4-6 months, the mother begins to show the baby cards for a few seconds. The words are written in block letters on them, which she says them aloud. The child's visual memory is well developed, so he quickly grasps the connection between what he hears and what he sees. And at some point, he begins to understand what is written on the cards.

With age, the number of words and letters in words increases. For a child, this is not a problem, but a mother can break down. You have to prepare not just a lot of cards, but insanely many. But the main disadvantage is different: with this approach, the child memorizes words mechanically, like a robot. There is no interactivity involved. The game component is missing. And then, the baby gets used to the initial forms: to the nominative case, to infinitives. When he encounters real texts, he either does not recognize familiar words at all, or reads them with an error, because the endings are different.

Sounds

Sound-letter techniques are classics of the genre. According to them, kids are now taught to read in most public kindergartens and schools. Usually it all starts with Zhukova's primer. First of all, children are introduced to the graphic image of letters. Then they explain what they are called (“be”, “sha”, “ef”) and what sounds they can represent. It is not uncommon for the process to slow down at this stage because confusion occurs. Understanding that the letter "er" actually reads like "r" also takes time.

Further sounds are taught to merge together. This is “a”, this is “m”, together “a-m”, and if vice versa, it will turn out “m-a”. The child reads the letters, looking at the blackboard or in the primer. Many times she trains to pronounce different combinations of sounds, including abstract ones that do not exist in Russian. Then, from the letters, the baby learns to make syllables, then words, and smoothly proceeds to reading phrases, short sentences and texts.

There is little creativity in this process. Children often get bored in class because they only look at the letters. There is no way to play with them. In addition, such a gradual and "slow" learning takes a lot of time and energy. Although the sound-letter technique is suitable for some guys, because each child has his own.

Warehouses

In the Soviet school, we mastered reading by syllables, and today they are being replaced by warehouses. And this alternative is gaining more and more fans. A warehouse is a reading unit that consists of one letter or a combination of two letters. With this approach, the child is not asked to memorize the names of the letters. He does not need this knowledge when learning to read. They will be required later, and he will easily receive them at school. In the meantime, the kids are simply told: “Each letter has a sound. This letter has an "m" sound.

The child does not need to remember how to read two adjacent letters, because he remembers the whole warehouse as a picture. This makes learning faster.

There is another plus. To read a word, the child must first decompose it into parts purely visually. And it’s easier to break into warehouses than into syllables. For example, a child immediately sees that “ko-sh-ka” breaks up into three warehouses, because he saw them all separately on cubes. He will definitely get acquainted with syllables and transfer rules, but already at school. He does not need this information to learn to read.

The most famous warehouse methods today are Zaitsev's cubes and Chaplygin's cubes. They are different, but they have a lot in common. Zaitsev's technique is the most popular. The kit includes dice, on each side of which warehouses are written, and special tables for training, also with warehouses.

A child can start playing with such blocks at least from the age of one. They're not easy. Cubes vary in size, color and sound. Thanks to two different fillers, brown ones make dull sounds, gray ones make voiced ones (in fact, this is how the difference between voiceless and voiced consonants is illustrated). Dice can be played with: rattled or used as a building block to build anything from a tower to an ocean. This is their main advantage. The child remembers warehouses during the game: he built a train, his mother read the warehouse on each trailer, and he repeated everything after her.

But in order to start reading according to Zaitsev's method, a child must memorize a lot of syllables. Purely visually, like pictures. For example, he will need to remember separately all combinations of consonants with the letter “a” (“ba”, “va”, “ga”, and so on), then with “o” and other vowels. This is a big load on memory, therefore, if there was a break in classes, many children forget something and have to learn warehouses from cubes again.

Chaplygin's technique is arranged differently. Firstly, there are fewer cubes, each one has only one letter written on it, and they are connected to each other using magnets. Secondly, the child learns warehouses in the same way as in the Zaitsev method, but at the same time, at each lesson, he is shown that it is easy to change “ma” to “pa”, “sa”, “ha”. Moreover, the child can turn this trick with his own hands, replacing one cube with another. So he quickly catches the pattern and understands the very principle of the formation of warehouses. And he won't be able to forget him.

Time to go

When to start is a good question. The letters of a child can be taught in a year, and in order to learn how to read warehouses, it is better to wait until 3.5-4 years. Then you can already form motivation. Any skill, if it turns out to be unclaimed, is quickly forgotten. It will already be possible to interest a four-year-old. He can read signs, cartoon names, product labels to distinguish milk from kefir in the store. Then there will be interest.

Readiness to learn to read is also important. It is believed that if the baby is able to isolate the first sound in a word by ear, he has matured.

The best time to practice is from 10 am to 11 am. At this hour, our brain works most actively, therefore it is able to absorb the maximum amount of information. Classes should be regular, the ideal schedule is 3-4 times a week. Sudden bursts of interest in reading in a child or in a parent will not lead to the proper result.

Life hacks

• It is important to fix the material. If in the first lesson you get acquainted with a new letter or warehouse, then in the second lesson you play with them. The more options you offer, the better. Letters can be sculpted from dough, written out with a stick in the sand, drawn with a finger on a tray with colorful sweets, caught with a spoon from a basin of water.

• When all the letters are mastered, it is worth trying cards with individual words . Many kids love them. The font should be large, the illustration should be understandable.

• It will be good if the first book, in addition to large text, will contain repeatedly repeated pieces of text , as in the fairy tale about Kolobok. Repeatedly reading the same passage, the baby begins to recognize many words, and this makes reading very easy.

• Do not force your child to read . Let him get information in different ways. You can watch video content on the Internet, listen to audio fairy tales and sometimes read books.

• Read for yourself in full view of your baby. Not books, but magazines or articles on the Internet. The child will see that the skill of reading gives you pleasure. Between the ages of 4 and 7, children tend to copy their parents' behaviors and habits, so seize the moment. Otherwise, the baby is unlikely to become addicted to reading. It's just that this type of activity will be alien to him.

• Even when the child learns to read, do not stop reading aloud to him yourself. This tradition is very close to parents and leaves warm memories for life. As an adult, such a child is likely to resurrect the tradition in order to recreate pleasant sensations within himself.

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• At preschool age, mastering the alphabet is not perceived as learning. The child simply plays with letters, syllables or warehouses, but this way the information is absorbed more easily.