Step One: using positive reinforcement when you teach young children to read.

In all my years of teaching there is one common pattern to student success. The children must have the confidence to believe they can do something. It doesn’t matter what the task mind over matter is all the difference and reading is no exception. Will this work for every child when it comes to learning to read? No. Will it work for 97%? In my experience, yes! When children come to school we know they are entering our classroom with a variety of experiences and starting points. Some families give their children multiple early reading strategies and others do not for a variety of reasons. We also know there are a multitude of needs not yet identified but reading is still possible.

I have always found it to be the safest approach to assume everyone needs a basic foundation for reading. Then through my assessment, adjustments are made, based on student needs. In doing this a few things happen. I can start my September with some really good whole group teaching while I am establishing my routines. It also takes the pressure off me as an educator to get my assessments done immediately. How do I do this? Read on to find out.

Step Two, when teaching young children to read is a REALLY good Phonics program.

Now that we have established the importance of children needing confidence in themselves to thrive we can chat about the nitty gritty. I am a personal fan of U.F.L.I. Foundations, reading program. You can access the link to these really useful resources here. The manual has a cost but once purchased there are a slew of free resources that will guide you through their program and lead to your students success. I started this program in October it is now the end of January and many of my students are now independently beginning to read books, in Kindergarten! I can not say enough good things about UFLI Foundations. This is my third year implementing this program and I will never go without it.

Step Three, when teaching young children to read is to build fluency skills.

Fluency simply means the speed in which a child can read. When a child is beginning to read, their decoding skills (the ability to essentially sound out a word) is slow. Sometimes painfully slow for adults… ha! The goal is to increase speed in this skill to create a smooth flow while reading.

Some educators will argue that comprehension and fluency need to go hand in hand and in many ways they do. I however believe that if the focus of the teacher is first on the foundation of letter/sound combinations (what the letters of the alphabet are named and sound like) and how to decode them (sound out words by their letter sounds) children can then be easily taught to slow down that fluency and think about what they are actually reading. This is when full comprehension begins to happen.

I have had discussions where educators say but children need it in unison. My argument has come to be, how can they comprehend a text if they don’t have the basic phonics to understand how words form in the first place? This is true for Kindergarten up to adulthood. If someone doesn’t understand letter/alphabet combinations they will never know how to read. So let’s make that our first priority. Once your assessments tell you your students have that down. Move on, comprehension and fluency will start to become a combination within your teaching practice.

Step Four, when teaching young children to read is making it fun!

Thus begins the life long love of reading that we all wish for our students. I have found some pretty great resources for my students that are what I like to call simple, sharp and shiny. I have also created several resources that are quick, fun and engaging for my students to practice. You can check out my creations in my TPT store here. The bottom line is you don’t need to be changing up your activities daily. All this leads to is teacher burn out and endless struggles at the photocopier (insert mental images from the Office Space Movie here, ha).

The real truth is children thrive not only on the routines of their day but also the routines of their reading practice. Choosing a decoding practice that you put out every day for up to two weeks in Kindergarten (this also works in the lower grades), builds confidence, independence and student-led classrooms. You do not have to control the work bins, the books, the pencils or the outcomes. You do not need to make the chatter stop completely before sending them off to compete their work tasks. Teach the skill in a mini lesson (for no more then three minutes) on the first day, a simple reminder on the second and third days then let the children take the lead. Use gentle reminders after they are released from the carpet if needed, until you are seeing they are ready for a new skill. Then rise and repeat. Change your skills and activity.

Step Five, when teaching young children to read is to read with them.

Continue to give them the confidence to succeed by allowing the opportunity to read with you. Can you do this with every student, every day? No. How is this done successfully? Choose some small groups, no more than five kids per group. Read with one group, every day, each child individually. So if your group has four kids, you read individually with those four kids on the same day every week. These same kids might also be the group of kids you choose to sit with during their word work or writers workshop that same day or on an alternative day. You will have previously decided which days and written it down for yourself on a schedule. Repeat until the kids have all had at least one chance each week to read with you or to be read to. This doesn’t have to happen in the same block if you run out of time you can pull kids to read with you any time during the day. These small consistent habits create exponential growth over the course of their year. If you are interested in more information on how I run my writers workshop check out my blog post about it here.

So to recap, use positive reinforcement, get a really good phonics program, build fluency, practice word reading and decoding skills, independently read with and to your students. Is this the only method no. It is in my experience, the most effective, fastest way to get your students reading. Reach out with any questions. I’m happy to help and happy teaching!

With Love, C.