Reading train - Improve your reading skills

Tips to improve 1st grade reading skills?

I'm tutoring a first grader in reading, any tips?

Public Comments

1. have them read a little get into the books, let the child pick the books that way it is interesting to them
2. I don't know if you are a teacher or not... but if not... here are some things you can do... 1) Find out what reading level your student is on and start there, perhaps a level above for a challenge. 2) When you are reading with him/her and they run into a word that they don't know, make sure you don't tell them the word. Teach/review strategies for figuring out words, such as does it make sense in the sentence, does that word match the beginning and ending letters of the word, etc. 3) Prompt them to look for words within word... for ex. if the word was "cart" prompt them to find the "Car" and then add the "t" to the end. 4) Word patterns... if they don't know the word "rat" remind them they they do know the wrod "cat"... point out the similarity. 4) Remind him/her to look all the way through the word to notice the endings... (s), (ed), (ing), etc. 5) Discuss each book with questions to make sure that they are understanding the text.
3. 1.Compile a list of sight words. Put the words on post it notes. Place the words on the ceiling, floor, walls, anywhere. Play a word hunt where you search the room for a particular word. 2.BOB books rock!!! 3.Go back to basics. Go through the letters of the alphabet and the sound each letter makes.
4. make emotions while you read and they don't like long boring books they get tired and bored!
5. http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org/ http://www.readingrockets.org/ (This was developed from the National Reading Panel study.)
6. I teach first grade so I can tell you what I do. First, I find out what the student knows. You can do this by giving them a reading test. Ask them to spell words from each category: short a (cat), short e (pet), short i (pig), short o (dog), short u (run). Analyze the data. If the student can't spell pig for example, see if s/he can spell other short i words like big or wig. If /he can't, you will need to teach him or her to blend words with that sound/spelling pattern. Brainstorm all the short i words, for example and break each word into its sounds. For example, "what sound does p make? p, p, p; what sound does i make? i i i; what sound does g make? g g g. Put them all together and you get ppppp---iiiiii----gggg===pig! Try it with big, wig, hig, lig, dig, etc. until the student learns to recognize the patterns. If you can, obtain books that give a lot of repetitive practice with the sound/spelling combinations you are focusing on. For example, after studying short i (pig, big), read a book called "A Wig for Pig." Read it together and then have him/her read the words s/he knows by him or herself. If you don't have any books with these words, you can just write sentences for the student to read: "I see a big wig. I dig for a big wig. The big wig can do a jig." etc. Let the student be exposed to the words over and over. As the student gets used to the short i words, you can introduce short o (or whatever), then combine the types of words s/he reads: "The big pig got a dog." Also make sure you introduce sight words like "a, the, do, on," etc. Have the student practice reading these same words everyday in his or her sentences. Also, make sure the student writes them, as there is s trong connection between reading and spelling/writing. The child will be forced to sound out words as s/he writes/spells them.