Beginning Reading Lessons: Detailed Plans for Parents and Teachers

Teaching Beginners to Read

What to Address

First of all, your child or students will need to gain basic phonetic skills. After learning the alphabet and letter sounds, children are typically ready to begin learning simple words and word parts. The next step for beginners is to become fluent when reading texts at their level. Finally, your students or child will need to begin working on reading comprehension, which is the ability to understand and interpret what's going on in a text.

Letter and Word Sounds

Helping your students or class learn letter sounds is essential to the process of learning to read. Picture flashcards can be especially useful. For example, for the letter 'd' the flashcard might have a picture of a dog. Have your child or students say the sound for the letter 'd' aloud. Then, have them use the sound in the word 'dog'. This practice not only helps children remember a letter sound through association, but also helps them start to learn simple words.

Reading to Children

Reading to children prepares them to eventually read on their own. The act of reading to your class or child can be turned into a strategically planned lesson by dividing reading time into three distinct parts: pre-reading, reading and post-reading.

A solid pre-reading activity for beginners is a picture walk. Display the cover of the book and ask your child or students what they think about it. Before reading a single word, walk them through the book by looking at and analyzing the pictures. After this, discuss the title of the book, the subject and the author.

While reading to your students or child, stop frequently and discuss what's happening in the narrative to make sure that they comprehend the text. Elaborate on the text by asking relevant questions and providing extra information.

After the book is finished, review the events in the story. Ask your child or class for opinions about the story and characters. Ask them to provide adjectives like 'funny' or 'scary' to describe the book.