10 Things You Have To Know When You Teach Reading

Recommended Reading: 10 Things You Have To Know When You Teach Reading by Emily Liscom

What you may not know about me is that I have a lot of specialized training in per-literacy. I am somewhat of a bibliophile anyway (see my book blog) so it was just natural for me to take classes about teaching kids to read. What Emily says in her first point is right on, but very hard to do since so many of us were taught to sound out words this way.

Sounds do not have /-uh/ on the end of the sound.  This goes for “/b/, /c/, /d/, /f/, /g/, /h/, /j/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /q/, /r/, /s/, /t/, /v/, /w/, /y/, /z/.  This also goes for /sh/, /ch/, /th/, etc.  Also, /r/ is not /er/.  When you say /-uh/ at the end of these phonemes, the kids are going to do it.  Think about it when they are trying to sound out the word “dog.”  You don’t realize it, but it is very difficult to made a word out of /duh/ /o/ /guh/. Now try (/d/ /o/ /g/) much better right? Now, try /er/ /a/ /tuh/.  Seems like a foreign language right?  It is supposed to be /r/ /a/ /t/.  To a 5-6 year old, that would be pretty tough to figure out. Read the whole article.

At lot of her other points are very teacher-y, and might not apply to reading with your child. The most important thing for you to do is simply to read with and to your child every day. If they learn to love books they will want to learn to read them on their own.