As educators, we want all students to have equal access to learning. To do so, they must learn the “code” to reading words. This is especially important for those in need of more opportunities with decoding in Grades 3 and up.
Extra practice focused on needed skills doesn’t have to be mundane and is not confined to the school day. Consider sharing the below with parents and caregivers, and where possible, link to new or previous skills to support automaticity.
Reading instruction has five pillars: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Classroom activities support struggling students in need of additional practice in all these areas, in the proper foundational skills progression—from easier skills to more complex ones—and from the most common elements to the less common. To build on this critical core instruction at home, encourage families to try these activities to instill some fun into the process and help develop skills and confidence.
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness focuses on our ability to hear the individual sounds in a word and articulate them. Students must demonstrate that they can say and hear a word to read and write it.1 These add-on, fun activities can enhance in-class instruction and help children isolate specific sounds:
“I Spy”
This game is a different way for emerging readers to exercise their phonological skills and practice hearing specific sounds. An adult says, “I spy with my little eye something that begins with the sound . . .” or “I spy with my little eye (then describe the object) . . .” Or use a box of objects or pictures as well. Then, students identify, isolate, blend, or segment each sound in the word. This is a fun way to help them pinpoint specific sounds.
Spelling Bee
The spelling bee can be done the traditional way, where children spell out the given words, which allows them to identify individual letters. Or have them focus on identifying, blending, and segmenting the phonemes or sounds in the word (i.e., ship has three /sh/ /i/ /p/, but four letters). Make this as fun as you want while focusing on the sounds.
Phonics
With phonics, students build on their knowledge of sounds and connect the sounds of the written letters to the sounds of the spoken language. It’s important to help emerging readers recognize words accurately and automatically to improve reading comprehension.1 Try these activities:
Word Building
Start with a bag of tiles with different graphemes (i.e., letters or letter combinations). An adult says a word, and the child uses the tiles to spell the word as best they can. The adult corrects any spelling errors on the spot. Then, the student adds an affix to create a new word. The child might pronounce the phonemes of a word or build the word with the tiles. This can also be done with a whiteboard and dry-erase marker.
Bingo
This game allows students to focus on word families, or words with similar letter combinations or sounds, such as fight, light, and sight. The bingo card can include three- or four-word families. Students must get five words in a word family to yell, “Bingo!” They can set up the board as a traditional bingo card (with or without BINGO at the top) or with four different word families (consisting of five words) on the card. There might be a card with words that are CVC words or r-Controlled vowels. Younger students can be presented with letters to help them identify individual letter sounds.
Fluency
Reading fluency requires reading smoothly, with speed and accuracy. When students can read fluently, they can focus on understanding what they’re reading instead of sounding out the words. This means they have more brainpower to make sense of the information, which improves comprehension.2 One way reading fluency can be enhanced is by reading rhyming words and text with alliteration.3 Try these activities:
Read Alouds
These are great at any age and help engage reluctant readers. We often dismiss the importance of read alouds in the upper grades, but taking five to 10 minutes to read aloud can be fun. It’s important for students to hear how fluent readers read, especially if they are reading below grade level. They can listen or follow along with the book (whole class or small group) or turn and read to someone else.
Poems and Lyrics
Try cutting apart familiar poems, nursery rhymes, or songs, and have students put them back in order. During this process, they will read the poem, nursery rhyme, or lyrics to themselves multiple times as they reconstruct them. Next, have them read or perform them aloud with a partner or using different voices.
All children have a right to quality reading instruction that will provide the foundation for future learning. Choose texts that are relevant and interesting so learning to read is fun and engaging. These are just a few ideas to supplement your reading instruction. Have fun!
Want to hear more from Martha? Check out The Long Reach of Literacy Development blog.
1Moats, L. C. (2020). Teaching reading is rocket science: What expert teachers of reading should know and be able to do. American Educator, 44(2), 4–9.
2Hougen, M. (2014). Evidence-based reading instruction for adolescents, grades 6–12. Collaboration for Effective Educator, Development, Accountability, and Reform Center, University of Florida.
3Moats, L., & Tolman, C. (2008). The development of phonological skills.
