Three Reading Strategies for Parents

Although parents may not feel prepared or inclined to consult reading research, there are time-tested strategies to improve your child's reading success at home. You don't have to purchase a college textbook; you can use online resources from organizations like the U.S. Department of Education, the state department of education, the school district, and the International Reading Association. Reading is essential for helping children understand content in science, math, and social studies. Try these three strategies with your young reader in the early grades.

*Find the main idea. This is an age-old skill to encourage in young readers. Preschoolers who hear a story can tell you in their own words what the story is about. Help your child make sense of the main idea by helping her rephrase the main idea when she struggles to find the right words to convey meaning. Discussing the main idea encourages the reader to select ways of organizing information around a central concept.

*Create an idea web. Readers in first grade and second grade are ready to make independent connections between what they read and their writing process. Designing an idea web, or graphic organizer, helps the reader select the purpose of the reading text and the supporting details. Teachers also use the idea web to help students plan their own writing assignments. An easy way to set up the web is to draw a circle in the middle of the page. Surround the center circle with smaller circles (or other shapes). Link the center circle to the surrounding circles. These smaller circles should contain supporting details for the central theme of the reading or writing selection.

*Make predictions about the reading text. As a parent, you may not know your child will make more meaning during reading by drawing upon prior knowledge. When your child sits down to read, it is easy to use the textbook to make predictions. You can facilitate this process by talking with your child about the text. For example, predicting what a picturebook or novel is about includes investigating the jacket cover, the book description, and the illustrations. Predicting what a textbook is about begins with exploring the headings, subheadings, illustrations, and key vocabulary. When your child talks about reading, he activates what he already knows about the subject. He brings this information to reading comprehension during and after reading.

There are dozens of strategies for helping a reader to make meaning out of what she reads. Strategies are often discussed online in terms of the child's reading level or grade level. Teach your child reading strategies to improve comprehension. Reinforce these strategies through repetition. Soon your child will be able to select a reading strategy during independent reading, building on what the teacher models at school and what you have practiced at home.