Helping Children Develop Reading Strategies
Reading strategies help us translate the written words into sounds and connect them to meaning. We can help children develop reading strategies long before they begin learning to read, when we encourage them to:
Promoting Reading Strategies
Children build up strategies they will use in their reading and writing, while:
Reading Strategies Successful Readers Use
Comprehension
Comprehension is fundamental to the development of reading skills and therefore to the ability to obtain education. The real goal of reading is to understand what we read.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary knowledge enhances the ability to read. The larger the reader’s vocabulary, the easier it is to make sense of text.
Fluency
Fluency is one of the important factors for reading comprehension. Fluent readers are able to read aloud with speed, accuracy and proper expression.
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness provides readers with essential foundational knowledge of the alphabetic system. It begins with phonological awareness and the ability to hear and distinguish sounds in spoken words.
Phonics
Phonics instruction in primary schools is a way of teaching reading that stresses the acquisition of letter-sound correspondences and their use in reading and spelling. In other words, phonics teaching is a means to an end.
Rules of phonics are important when children are learning to read at school. They will be easier to learn when children make use of all the reading strategies and discover the magic of reading.
