When it comes to early childhood education, few skills are more important than reading. Literacy is the cornerstone of a good education, and children who lack comprehensive reading skills often have a very difficult time in school. As such, it’s imperative for educators who teach young children to make reading a priority. Failure to acquire good reading skills early in life can lead to a plethora of problems throughout one’s education and affect people well into adulthood. Educators looking to promote literacy and enhance students’ reading comprehension would be wise to heed the following tips.
Review Regularly
When teaching children how to read, daily reviewing is an absolute must. In addition to helping your students become familiar with new words, pronunciations and syntaxes, daily reviews will keep you abreast of each child’s individual progress. Since some children are slower to grasp reading and writing than others, these reviews will also help you determine which students require individual attention.
With regard to reviewing, there are a number of steps you’ll need to take. For starters, each school day should begin with the students reading a series of sentences off the board. The exact sentences vary from class to class, but they typically incorporate the date, day of the week and any class activities that are on tap. Next, go over drills in your class’s reading workbook, and make sure that every student is given a chance to read aloud. Teachers who want to help students break down stories and constructively interpret reading material are urged to check out Learning A-Z’s close reading resources.
Read Books as a Class
Most children are read to a consistent basis – both at home and at school. However, by inviting children to become active participants in story time, you can increase their enthusiasm for reading and help them become more confident in their ability to read in front of others. This can be accomplished through reading books as a class – i.e., having each student read a predetermined portion of a book before passing it on to the child next to them. As an added bonus, group reading will provide you with an opportunity to identify and explain unfamiliar words and phrases in real time.
Consistently Introduce New Vocabulary
Helping children grow their vocabularies is an essential part of fostering literacy. The more words they learn, the less likely they are to be confused by new reading material. Furthermore, a robust vocabulary is highly conducive to good communication skills. With this in mind, introduce at least one or two new words to your students each day, and provide visual aids to ensure that they have solid frames of reference for these new terms.
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of good reading skills. If the foundation for literacy isn’t laid in early childhood, the resulting consequences can affect a person for the rest of their life. Fortunately, fostering reading comprehension in young children is within the abilities of any serious educator – provided, of course, they have the right tips at their disposal.
