Teach How to Read for First Grade

If you lot're wondering how to teach reading, you lot're in the right spot! This footstep-past-step guide covers everything from pre-reading skills to phonics, sight words and reading comprehension so that you tin can take kids from NON-readers to Strong readers.

Cheque out the step-by-step beneath and and so request an invite to my 4 week course, The Reading Roadmap, so you can get my ready-to-deploy arrangement for building rock solid readers.

How to Teach Reading

When I moved from teaching second grade to kindergarten 14 years ago, the thing I was most nervous about was teaching kids to read.

What should I teach first?

How would I help my struggling readers?

Would every child leave my form set up to hit the footing running in first grade?

I was overwhelmed.

But with a lot of research, plenty of trial and error and tons of practice, I chop-chop settled into my groove.

I even became a reading tutor for struggling readers! How is that for a turn around?!

Instruction kids to read became the FAVORITE role of my task and I loved making the procedure fun for kids.

Whether y'all need a large motion picture overview of how to teach reading or yous're curious about little details similar whether you should teach sight words or phonics first, I've got you covered.

This ultimate guide will prove you how to teach reading from start to finish.

four Things to Teach Before Reading

Similar many things in life, it tin can be hard to predict when a child's brain will exist set up to make the millions of connections required to really read a word on her ain.

It'due south similar to what happens when babies learn to walk – they pull themselves up to a standing position for months, hold your easily as they practise taking shaky steps forward and and so one 24-hour interval, peradventure unexpectedly, have their get-go steps on their own.

Just like kids show signs that they're nigh fix to start walking, they also give clues that they are ready to brainstorm reading. They are chosen "pre-reading skills" and they include iv parts: motivation, print awareness, letter recognition and phonological awareness.

If kids are picking up books on their own, are recognizing the kickoff letter of their proper name or have started recognizing rhyming words, they are probable ready to start learning how to read.

You can learn more nigh what each pre-reading skill looks like and easy means to teach it hither.

Phonics vs. Whole Linguistic communication

Earlier nosotros jump in and start talking nigh the start word to teach kids, let's break for a moment and so we can have a thirty,000 view of what'due south coming…

Once kids larn those 4 critical pre-reading skills, the lessons and activities that follow tend to fall into two large categories: phonics and whole language.

When they're boiled down to their most basic explanations, phonics ways sounding out words letter-by-letter ("/c/ /a/ /t/ cat").

And whole language means teaching kids to recognize and read a whole word at one time ("true cat"). Teachers besides phone call this approach "sight words", "popcorn words", "Dolch words", "Fry words", etc.

Although there are pros and cons to each strategy, I similar to provide children a good dose of both.

Why? There volition be endless times when kids will come beyond an unfamiliar discussion and need to know how to audio it out phonetically.

And, at the aforementioned time, they will relieve oodles of fourth dimension reading if they immediately recognize the virtually common words they'll run across instead of needing to sound them out over and over again.

So long story short, phonics and whole language are equally of import and I'k going to testify you how to teach both.

The Beginning Give-and-take to Teach

When I'm didactics kids how to read, the word I always teach get-go is the one they love most in this globe: their name!

I start by making up giddy jingles sung to the melody of popular songs.

"Bingo" is a dandy one for 5 letter names and the "Twenty-four hours-O" Assistant Boat song is perfect for six alphabetic character names.

I share my favorite tunes for names within my 4 week instructor training, The Reading Roadmap, then brand certain to join the waitlist if you're interested in learning more.

Each day, we focus on one or two names.

The class sings a proper noun song and counts the letters.

Then I remind them that letters brand individual sounds and clumps of letters make words just like individual puzzle pieces tin can stick together to make a puzzle.

Agreement the human relationship between letters and words from the beginning makes the next steps (learning letter sounds and somewhen combining those sounds to make words) more meaningful.

With the catchy jingle still stuck in their head, I have kids play a fun proper noun game to reinforce their learning.

How to Teach Letters

In one case kids learn how to spell their name, they are set to tackle alphabetic character names and sounds!

Since children learn best when they tin can first play and explore, I love giving students a few magnetic or wooden letters at a time and letting them make observations about them.

Are the letters curvy or straight?

What letters are tall?

Do the shapes remind you lot of animals?

The questions are really endless.

And so they are prepare to start memorizing letter names. There are dozens of alphabet games that brand learning them fun for kids!

Side by side, kids are ready for the actually fun stuff: matching messages with their sounds.

Hands down, the fastest way I've found to teach kids' alphabetic character sounds is using a combination of body motion, visual cues and spoken words.  It activates all kinds of connections in the brain.

Accomplishing this trifecta is actually easier than it may seem. I have a brain charging alphabet chant that I teach kids. (It'due south one of the didactics tools you get within The Reading Roadmap.)

Every day nosotros learn 4 new alphabetic character names and sounds. Starting with A and moving along in ABC guild, I teach my form the proper noun of the alphabetic character, the sound it makes and a word that start with that sound.

So, for example, we would say, "A is for apple /a/ /a/ /a/.

B is for baby /b/ /b/ /b/."

Each letter of the alphabet has a little activeness movement we do as we say the words and so the chant combines movement and sound then kids learn information technology really apace.

Kids still demand enough of practice to employ information technology in their reading but it gives them a major power launch because they're learning the upper AND lowercase version of each letter, the letter name AND the alphabetic character sound all at the same time.

How to Teach Reading Words

When kids have learned the alphabetic character sounds well (and this can take a calendar month or two of continual practice), they are ready to begin reading words.

There are primarily ii strategies for accomplishing that:

1. Sounding out private letters and blending them together to brand words (aka phonics), and

2. Memorizing common words including "the", "and", "of" and then that your child can save fourth dimension past recognizing them right away (whole linguistic communication or sight words).

I know I mentioned it before, just it's worth repeating:

Although there are pros and cons to each strategy, I strongly recommend didactics kids both.

There will exist countless times when kids will come beyond an unfamiliar give-and-take and need to know how to sound it out phonetically.

And there volition as well be plenty of moments when they could relieve reading fourth dimension by recognizing a discussion instantly instead of needing to sound it out over and over once more.

How to Teach Phonics

The best strategy for teaching phonics is to focus on specific sounds like letter sounds, digraphs or short vowel word families.

Looking at one sound at a time helps kids recognize the corresponding spelling pattern in words. For instance, if I am focusing on digraphs (two letters that make merely one audio) similar SH-, CH-, TH, I choice ane of them to work on. I talk about the phonics rule, begin lists of words that include them, and and so do, practice, practice by playing lots of digraph games.

The form and I might brainstorm SH- words like ship, she, shake, shirt. After we've made a prissy, long list, I ask what they notice about all of our words. (They have SH.) Then I ask what messages they think we'll need to use if nosotros want to write a discussion with SH in it. (SH) And we'll follow up with a fun SH- digraph center.

After children accept learned letter sounds, a full general guide for introducing phonetic rules is:

• CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words like "dog", "bat" and "kit"
• Digraphs (sh, th, ch, etc.) and blends (tr, bl, sn, etc.)
• CVCe (consonant, vowel, consonant, magic e) words like "bake" and "line"
• Long vowels made when two vowels are beside each other like the words "pair" and "tear"
• R controlled words where the R next to a vowel changes the audio information technology makes ("car" and "bird" are good examples)
• Diphthongs – pairs of vowels that make a unique audio as in the words "coin" and "house"
• Inflected endings including -ed, -es and -ies that are written at the terminate of words like "laughed" and "kisses"
• Trigraphs (igh, tch, etc.), double consonants written side past side (for instance the Ts in the word "letter"), and other less common alphabetic character combinations like squ, str, etc.

To save you time pulling together motivating activities for each of these skills, I combined all of my literacy centers (didactics every phonics skill on this listing!) into one simple download. Grab the mega bundle inside The Reading Roadmap!

How to Teach Sight Words

Memorizing sight words takes most kids A LOT of exercise, so I love to keep learning fun by playing motivating sight give-and-take games.

We play a couple rounds of Sight Word Pancakes, go on a pirate-themed sight word treasure hunt, boxing Darth Vader…. There are and then many fun means to teach kids sight words!

The biggest key to success is making the practice engaging and fun and so students are really EXCITED to practice reading and spelling them.

If yous'd like to grab all of my EDITABLE sight word games in one spot, make sure to bring together The Reading Roadmap so you get DOZENS of done-for-you lot centers in one spot!

Don't Forget to Teach Reading Comprehension!

In addition to knowing how to sound out words, good readers must besides be able to think almost what is happening in the story.  After all, there is little signal in taking the fourth dimension to read if kids can't call up anything that happened, right?!

One of the all-time means to develop reading comprehension is by request questions during and after you read together.

When I'm stumped for a chat starter, I use this list of 20 go-to questions to extend kids' thinking.

(At that place's a mega pack of reading comprehension activities inside The Reading Roadmap too!)

Get My Stride-by-Stride System

This is just the tip of the iceberg to the pedagogy training, tools and support waiting for you lot in my four week instructor grooming, The Reading Roadmap!

If you desire a pace-past-step action plan for teaching reading, be certain to join. The Reading Roadmap is the spot where I share ALL of my lessons learned.

Within the course, you'll receive my time saving reading assessments, hundreds of print-and-play and digital centers, step-by-step lesson plans and and then much more.

I'm so proud to requite you access to the easy-to-utilize arrangement that I know without a dubiety will help you become a rockstar reading instructor.

Enrollment only opens upwardly twice a year and so be sure to join the waitlist so you're the first to know when the next round kicks off!

Bring together The Reading Roadmap waitlist Correct HERE.

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