The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Your Kid to Read

Let me preface this by saying that I did not teach my kids to read. I have taught hundreds of kids to read as a teacher and tutor, but I did not teach my own. And unless you are a homeschooling parent or your kid goes to lousy schools, the burden (or joy, depending on your outlook) of teaching your kid to read should not be on your shoulders.

However, I did do some things to make it easier for my kids to learn to read and to make them good readers once they got the hang of it. And I might wind up teaching Hugmonkey to read this summer, just because he is so desperate to catch up to his brother and sister. Anyway. . .

I hear a LOT of parents talk about teaching their kids to read. Especially preschool parents. While a few kids are ready to read in preschool, most are not actually reading. They are memorizing books and words, which is fine but not very effective in the long run. It doesn't matter if your kid could "read" The Cat in the Hat at 4 when she is unable to comprehend chapter books in third grade. I'm not saying (necessarily) that your kid will turn into a great reader if you follow my advice, but it will definitely help.

The Ultimate Guide

1. Read to your kid every day. Reading together and talking about books is a great predictor of future reading success. And once your kid is reading, reading together can still help with vocabulary and comprehension. 
2. Introduce the concept of the alphabet, but don't do flashcards with your 2 year old. Point out letters on signs, read alphabet books, that kind of thing. 
3. Begin teaching phonological awareness. This awareness lets kids understand and manipulate the sounds in words. If they can't do that, then "sounding out" unknown words will be next to impossible. 
4. Emphasize rhyming. The ability to recognize rhymes as a young child is a huge predictor of future reading success. I wrote all about teaching kids rhyming skills in this post. 
5. As your kid heads into kindergarten, I would introduce the concept of "sight words". These are words that you recognize on sight, without having to sound out (decode) them. Your child's name, for example, is hopefully a sight word at this point. If your child is eager to learn to read, you can try sight word flash cards in kindergarten. If your kiddo isn't motivated? Don't force it yet. Try again later in the school year.  
6. Begin teaching phonics; this links the sounds heard in words with the letters that make those sounds. It is what helps us "sound out", or decode, unknown words. 
7. So, now your kiddo is reading. . .but is s/he understanding what is read? That can be a challenge for a lot of kids, especially kids who memorized sight words and phonics rules easily. Comprehension skills are something that parents can work on at home easily. Even if you just discuss what you read together each night, you are helping your child learn to reflect on text.
8. Skip the workbooks. Please. Your kid is much better off reading Captain Underpants for the 10th time than doing mind-numbing "comprehension" worksheets. You can come by next week for worksheet alternatives. 
9. If you're look for more detailed instructions and information, please visit Reading Rockets. It's the best reading site I've found on the web. 
10. Books early readers will love:

We Are in a Book! (An Elephant and Piggie Book)
Can I Play Too? (An Elephant and Piggie Book)
Dr. Seuss's Beginner Book Collection (Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish, Green Eggs and Ham, Hop on Pop, Fox in Socks)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
10 Little Rubber Ducks
David Gets In Trouble
No, David!
Yo! Yes? (Scholastic Bookshelf)
Hi! Fly Guy
Scholastic Reader Level 2: Super Fly Guy
City Signs

Teaching Tuesday: Drive Me Crazy

"Phonics or Whole Language?" the other mom asked me abruptly. My confusion must have shown in my face; as far as I knew, we were making small talk in 2014, not attending a teaching conference in 1994. "You said you used to teach reading, so what do you believe in, phonics or Whole Language?" she seemed almost aggressive about it, like she was dying to argue with me.

Except, as far as I know, that argument was settled a long time ago.

Lovebug needed me at that point, so our conversation ended. But naturally, I couldn't just let it go. I went home and started Googling.

"Whole Language", by the way, is not the memorization of whole words at the expense of phonics - despite what some web sites and California school districts of the '90's would have you believe. But it did focus on meaning and context, instead of phonics and phonemic awareness. When I was in graduate school, the talk was all about Whole Language - the idea of teaching phonics and grammar and vocabulary in the context of real literature, with a strong focus on comprehension. And then, my first teaching job was as a long-term first grade substitute in a district that used an extremely structured, phonics-based reading curriculum called Open Court. Basically the anti-thesis of everything I had been taught in graduate school.

Both times, most of my students learned to read.

Then I moved to Kansas City, Kansas and started teaching first grade there. My first year, there was no reading curriculum. I was the only first grade teacher who had actually taught before, so I cobbled together info from the Open Court curriculum I'd subbed with (and taken a class on) with what I'd learned in grad school.

Again, most of my students learned to read. Though I did have more students who had missed out on early literacy experiences, so not as many of them reached fluent status.

The next year, KCK began using Guided Reading, also known as Balanced Literacy, as its reading curriculum. I liked how it combined my favorite things about the phonics curriculum and whole language, but I was dismayed by how many colleagues didn't know how to teach it.

To teach reading well, you have to understand phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension and vocabulary acquisition on a deep, deep level. Most teacher training programs (back then, anyway) did not foster that deep understanding.

And when I say "teach reading well", I mean teach ALL of your students to be good readers. A competent teacher doesn't need a lot of support to teach kids with typical abilities and parents who read to them every night to read. But kids who learn differently, or didn't hear stories until they went to kindergarten, need reading teachers who are better than competent.

And they also need teachers (and schools) that aren't married to one particular curricula or methodology. That was my issue with Reading Recovery, which is a one-on-one program for kids who are slightly behind the reading curve in first grade. The only difference was that it was one-on-one, otherwise it was the exact same curriculum used in the classrooms. It reminded me of  Americans speaking more loudly to people who don't understand English, instead of looking for alternative methods of communication.

We need to stop doing the same thing more loudly with kids who aren't reading on grade level; we need to try something completely different. We need to stop asking, "Phonics or Whole Language?" and start assessing (truly and deeply, not on bullshit standardized tests written by underpaid freelancers for monolithic testing companies) where each student is lacking.

It has always driven me crazy that so many districts, or other powers that be, latch on to the latest thing every few years, as if it's going to be a cure-all for whatever's causing kids to fail. Also, the belief that having standards is somehow the same as actually teaching kids to reach those standards bugs the crap out of me. As does the concept that every child can be successful being taught the exact same way, if only we test them enough, or make the teachers document enough.