What should a kindergartener be able to read
Kindergarten reading Reading | GreatSchools.org
If learning to read is like building a skyscraper, then kindergarten is the year to construct the most solid foundation possible. As part of that foundation, kindergartners will be working on the five pillars of kindergarten reading: understanding the relationship between sounds and words (phonetics), reading fluently, understanding what they read, expanding vocabulary, and building knowledge.
All about the alphabet
This year, your kindergartner will be expected to recognize all 26 lowercase and uppercase letters — as well as their sounds. They should be able to identify which letters are different in similar words (e.g. map, lap, tap). They should also know that spoken words represent a sequence of letters.
Left to right, up to down, front to back
Kindergartners need to learn the reading rules: that you start at the top of the page and going downwards, you read from left to right, and page by page. By the end of the year, students also need to become familiar with parts of a book, such as the front cover, the back cover, and the title page.
Related: Learn one simple way to boost your child’s reading skills.
Word sense and rhymes
Word play helps kindergartners understand how words are broken into individual syllables and how words with similar endings rhyme. The more exposure kindergartners get to how syllables and words work together, the more they’ll build their word knowledge.
All year long, kindergartners are working on what’s known as “decoding” skills — deciphering the meanings of words and phrases within the context of what they’re reading. And when your child asks you to read their favorite book over and over (and over) again? Take heart! Your clever kindergartner is practicing decoding without even knowing it!
Related: Watch our Milestone video Does your kindergartner “decode” like this?
Finally, with the help of adults, kindergartners are learning to make connections between words and their nuances, so they can sort them into categories (e.
g. shapes and colors) and figure out antonyms, a fancy way of saying opposites (e.g. open/close, hot/cold). This year, they’ll even be deciphering shades of meaning between words. Tip: Have your child act out similar words. What does it look like to march, strut, walk, and stroll? What does it look like to cry, sob, and howl?
Mastering common words
According to the Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists, about half of all reading texts are made up of the same 100 words! Here’s something even more remarkable about these wonder words: most kindergartners will know all of them by the end of the year. To that end, many kindergarten teachers will send their students home with lists of these high-frequency words (e.g. at, be, of, and to). Your child will also need to learn sight words — words that can’t be easily sounded out or illustrated with a text (e.g. good, out). When it comes to sight words, memorization is key, since using phonics or decoding skills don’t often work for these short, common, but often oddly spelled words.
(How does one sound out “the” anyway?) Tip: Word lists are perfect for the refrigerator, where you can playfully quiz your kindergartner before dinnertime.
Exploring fiction and nonfiction
While reading with your child, start asking: is this real or imaginary? The goal is for kindergartners to split their time between stories and information (think: dinosaurs, trees, and starfish) while learning the differences between the two types of text. By the end of kindergarten, your child should be able to recognize stories and poems and find the name of a book’s author and illustrator with the understanding that the author wrote the words and the illustrator drew the pictures — whether the book is a true story or a truly fantastic tale.
Related: Check out our lists of classic childhood favorites and history books for kindergartners.
Building a knowledge bank
Kindergartners need to grow their understanding of the world by integrating new information into what they already know.
Think of it as your kindergartner opening a knowledge bank account and filling it with accumulated information.
Related: Watch our Milestones video Does your kindergartner read to learn like this?
Key skills that will help your kindergartner build knowledge include being able to retell familiar stories; identify characters, setting, and major events in a story; and compare and contrast characters and events in different stories.
What does this sound like? It’s your 5-year-old explaining that Harold in Harold and the Purple Crayon had an amazing adventure because of what he imagined. It’s your T-rex lover understanding dinosaurs were real, but now don’t exist. The key is getting kindergartners understanding and thinking about the big ideas they learn when they read — and taking that information with them as they grow.
Show me the evidence!
In kindergarten, this really just means finding — and literally pointing to — answers to questions.
Your child could show evidence by flipping through the pages and finding the words — or the picture of the scene you asked about.
Related: Watch our Milestones video Does your kindergartner show understanding like this?
Your child’s teacher will emphasize evidence in different ways this year, but the main skills are:
- Asking and answering questions about details in books and showing exactly where those answers show up in the text or illustrations.
- Being able to discern a book’s main point and using the text or images to show how the author makes this point.
- Connect a book’s illustrations to the exact words they illustrate.
Your Kindergartener | Reading Rockets
Reading 101: A Guide for Parents
Discover the typical literacy milestones for your kindergartener, and how to support your child's developing skills in reading and writing.
Use the links on the left to find activities, videos, and other resources to build skills in these key areas: recognizing the sounds in speech, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing.
Get an overview of the reading and writing skills that are typical for 5-year-olds. Remember that kids develop at different rates, so don't be worried if your child isn’t doing some of these things yet. If you do have concerns, talk to your pediatrician, your child's teacher, or the reading specialist at school.
Reading
- Understands left-to-right and top-to-bottom orientation for books and print.
- Knows the parts of a book and their functions.
- Recognizes and can name all uppercase and lowercase letters.
- Enjoys being read to and can retell simple stories or what they learned in informational texts.
- Uses descriptive language to explain and explore.
- Recognizes letters and letter sounds.
- Begins to match spoken words with written ones.
- Identifies and uses rhyming words.
- Can recognize beginning sounds and sometimes middle and end sounds in simple words.
- Recognizes and uses “word families” (words that share certain letters and may also rhyme, for example: bat, hat, rat, sat).
- Identifies the sounds of each letter in simple, one-syllable words.
- Recognizes some "sight words," common words kids have to recognize instantly without sounding them out. A few examples are a, the, I, my, you, is, are.
- Sound like they are reading when pretending to read (or reading a familiar book they've memorized).
- Uses new vocabulary and grammar in own speech.
- Connects information and events in texts to life and life to text experiences.
- Likes to dramatize stories or parts of stories.
- Can name some book titles and authors.
- Correctly answers questions about stories read aloud.
- Makes predictions based on illustrations or portions of stories.
Writing
- Independently writes many uppercase and lowercase letters (although they may not be clearly written).
- Writes own name (first and last) and the first names of some friends or classmates.
- Begins to write some words they use and hear often.
- Uses invented spelling — children at this age are translating the sounds of spoken words into writing.
- Begins to build a bank of correctly spelled words.
- Draws a picture that tells a story and adds labels to the picture.
- Writes (unconventionally) to express own meaning.
- Begins to write stories with some readable parts.
Looking at Writing
See examples of real writing from kindergarteners in our interactive resource, Looking at Writing.
More resources
At what age should a child be able to read
04/01/2021
The ability to read is one of the basic social skills of a person. Without it, it is impossible to receive and transmit information, therefore this skill should be developed in every person. Modern parents strive to teach their child to read as early as possible, so that by the time they start learning, they already have some knowledge base. So when should a child start doing this?
Contents:
- When we start
- Learning Too Early - Why It's Harmful
- What the experts say
- Is it possible to instill a love of reading
- Choosing a teaching method
- Are there any downsides to learning to read at home
- Some important details
When we start
Experts don't have a common opinion about teaching children to read early, and neither do parents.
Someone thinks that a child should get basic reading skills even before entering school: this will make it easier to adapt to the educational process. Others are sure that a teacher in the 1st grade should teach a child to read, since an unnecessarily early start to school is harmful for children: let them enjoy their childhood for now. nine0003
Too early learning - why it is harmful
The development of a child's cognitive abilities follows certain patterns, certain stages, it is undesirable to change or accelerate it, and often it is completely impossible. Until the age of five, children think figuratively - in pictures, and it is difficult for them to perceive information in the form of letters, numbers or other signs. And even having understood the general principle of reading, little students read, but they cannot understand the essence of what is written.
Learning to read early can lead to health problems:
- excessive brain tension;
- unusual blood flow to the cerebral hemispheres;
- visual strain.
Intensive classes can unbalance the development of different types of thinking in a child: the emphasis will be placed on the logical, and the figurative will be “abandoned”. Yes, the child will become better at remembering, speaking, analyzing, thinking logically, but the development of the right hemisphere will be slowed down, and it is responsible for no less important dreams, emotions, understanding of music and color. The emotional development of the baby will be somewhat retarded, and at an older age this may respond with serious problems in the form of:
- lack of ability to empathize with others;
- difficulties with the correct understanding of their emotions;
- inability to identify one's strengths and weaknesses;
- difficulties with understanding one's own and social values;
- isolation and uncertainty.
It is known that many geeks are developed from early childhood, but most often, growing up, they do not have happiness and are poorly adapted to the realities of the world around them.
Therefore, it is more important to raise a socially adapted person from a child than to teach him to read too early. nine0003
What the experts say
Psychologists, psychophysiologists and other experts recommend starting to teach a preschooler to read not earlier than he is 5 years old, but at the same time he must be ready to learn. They say about it:
A healthy five-year-old child usually has all of these skills. And at this age it is time to get acquainted with letters and sounds, then by the time of admission to grade 1, the child will master reading at a sufficient level.
Is it possible to instill a love for reading
It is not enough to teach a child to read - he still needs to instill a love for this occupation. View your favorite books and read them, study the illustrations, get acquainted with the adventures of the characters. It is important that older family members show the child that reading is an amazing learning opportunity, and not a hateful duty. It will be useful if the child saw people with books in his close circle, then, imitating them, he himself will want to plunge into the world of literature. nine0003
The first reading lessons should be conducted in the format of a game: in this way the material will be absorbed by the child easier and better, the child will not have time to lose concentration during the lesson, and avoid stressful experiences.
Choosing a teaching method
Today there are many methods to teach a child to read, it is important to choose the one that suits your child.
Perhaps the most popular method is classes in the classical alphabet (the alphabet itself can be developed by any author).
The kid quickly remembers the letter, as it will now be associated with a certain picture. Later, you can move on to another well-known book - the primer and study reading by syllables from it. nine0003
Many techniques are based on the use of cubes or tablets. They are convenient and interesting, but are often criticized by school teachers. It is believed that such training misses a very important component - basic familiarity with the alphabet.
The most famous of these techniques:
- Zaitsev's cubes - the emphasis is on making syllables from individual letters and words from syllables, understanding vowels, voiceless and voiced, hard and soft consonants. nine0013 Chaplygin cubes - learning not only allows you to compose syllables and words, but also develops fine motor skills, and this will have a beneficial effect on the overall development of the child;
- Glen Doman cards - learning is based on the use of visual memory: syllables and words are printed on cards, and the child remembers their spelling;
- "Skladushki" by Voskobovich - 21 cards with syllables, from which you can build houses with whole words.
The Montessori method is another well-known teaching option. Toddlers first master the letter, then move on to getting to know the letters, and then learn to read the syllables. nine0003
Are there any disadvantages of teaching reading at home
Lack of consistency is the main problem of independent lessons on teaching reading. In addition, at home, parents usually miss such an important part of the lesson as the sound analysis of the word, and the child may also have difficulty breaking down words into syllables. It is not easy to correct this mistake later, therefore it is better to immediately entrust a professional teacher to teach the child to read and write. It can be either a private tutor or a teacher of preparatory courses before the first grade - such classes are held today in literally every school. nine0003
A few important details
If you decide to teach your child to read at home, it is important to follow a few rules.
All studies should be built on the principle “From simple to complex”, that is, you first need to learn letters and sounds, then you can start to compose them into syllables and only then move on to whole words. Put the learned material into practice: look for familiar letters on signs while walking, write them in the sand or snow, mold them from plasticine, lay them out of beads. nine0003
For classes, you need to equip a corner with a comfortable chair and table or desk, with the right lighting. The first lessons should not last longer than 10-15 minutes; the student should not be overtired. After finishing them, you should put things in order in the workplace, put away books and study supplies.
Lessons should be regular, but it is not a good idea to have a class if the student is overweight or in a bad mood. For each educational achievement, the child must be praised. nine0003
How much a first grader should read - Kindergarten and child
The question "How much should a first grader read" torments many parents. Moreover, the question should be divided into two parts: how much a first grader reads at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year.
If we are talking about a former kindergartener who will go to school for the first time on September 1, then we will immediately make a reservation - he does not owe anything to anyone. Neither write nor know the multiplication table, much less read. This is included in the first grade school curriculum and a child who knows everything runs the risk of getting bored in the classroom. nine0003
In some of our schools, children take entrance examinations, although they are prohibited by law. Of course, a child who sees letters for the first time is unlikely to be admitted to a prestigious gymnasium. In Europe, for example, a first-grader must know the alphabet, but nothing more. We are not talking about numbers and letters. And American educators, rather, are interested in whether parents often spend time with children, visit the zoo, children's parks, whether they often laugh, and not formal questions of the speed of reading and knowledge of the world in a child. nine0003
What is asked of his Russian peer? Count from 1 to 20 and vice versa, know the name of the figures up to rhombuses and parallelograms, distinguish trees by fruits and leaves, and so on.
How much a first grader should read and how quickly at the end of the year is another story. We are talking about standards here. Moreover, the speed of reading is not prescribed in the federal state standards. Literally: “As a result of studying literary reading, the student must ... read consciously the text of a work of art “to himself” (without regard to speed).
” nine0003
However, the standards for reading technique can be found in the program according to which classes are held at school. For example, in the traditional program "School of the 21st century" it is indicated that by the end of the first grade the child should read 30 words per minute. In other programs, you can find a figure in 40 words. Not much less than we, parents, read at one time. Everyone probably remembers the hourglass and the milestone of 47 words that had to be overcome while they were walking.
It is worth considering the orientation of the class or the characteristics of the child. The requirements for a student in a correctional class are an order of magnitude lower than those for a student in a gymnasium. nine0003
What if the child reads less? Grades are not given in first grade. The teacher only makes a note: "did it - did not do it." The most important thing is that the first grader understands the text, perceives it and can retell the meaning. When determining the result, the following are taken into account:
- how the text was read: by syllables or the child could immediately reproduce the word,
- read errors,
- expressiveness,
- awareness,
- words per minute.
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The child's reading speed is constantly monitored. After each quarter, with the exception of the first, measurements are taken. For example, by the end of the first semester of the school year, a student must read at a rate of at least 20 words per minute. At the same time, the correct pronunciation of words is more important than speed. By the end of the third quarter, the speed should increase - up to thirty-five, and by the end of the first grade - up to forty words per minute, and the child should read not by letter, but by syllables, but preferably in words. nine0003
It should be noted that the texts differ in their complexity and meaning. After all, it is important not only to read, but also the ability of the child to comprehend what is read. At the beginning of training, a very simple text is given - words in sentences consist of simple syllables or syllables with the same vowels, for example, ma-ma, ka-sha, ra-ma. Gradually, the syllables become more difficult.
