10 Ways to Help Readers Grow this Summer

I’m very excited to be participating in a blog hop called School’s Out!  The goal of this blog hop is to share our Top 10 learning activities and tips that will encourage and inspire you to continue learning with your child throughout the summer months while school is out.

We all know that summer is a fun time to unwind and take it easy. Ahhh… But taking a total break from learning, especially reading, can cause kids to lose many of the valuable things they have been taught throughout the past school year. Today, I’d like to share 10 ways to help readers grow this summer. These are mainly tips for parents, but embedded within the tips are links to activities and printables that can help you do each. Ready? Here we go!

 

1. Help your child find “just right” books to read.

Finding “just right” books for your child isn’t always as easy as it sounds, especially if you have a struggling reader. After all, I did write an entire book about it! You need to take into consideration your child’s ability to read the words, comprehend the text, and the child’s interests.

I like to teach kids how to find their own “just right” books. I created a simple graphic organizer (seen above) to help them do just that. Kids in the elementary age range can be trained to do this by following the simple pointers for each kind of level.

 

What can you do with “just right” books when you’re finished reading them together? Re-read them! They extremely beneficial for building fluency, both fluency in word recognition as well as fluency in comprehension. I encourage my son to re-read his books and even have a book bin to store the texts he’s read.

 

2. Help your child figure out unknown words.

Even with “just right” books, kids are going to come to unknown words. Instead of the “just sound it out” method most of us use, there are other reading strategies you can encourage your child to use.

For a list of these (and free print out of them) click here or on the image above.

 

3. Know what to do when a child misreads a word.

When kids misread words, it’s important to take this question into consideration: Did the mistake make sense? Many times when the mistake made total sense, I don’t stop the flow of comprehension to make the child go back and correct the mistake. After all, in many cases, mistakes make sense because the child is comprehending! If the mistake really bothers me, I jot down the misreading and revisit it after we’ve read.

You can find more tips like this in my post, plus a free printable chart for recording mistakes in my article,  What to do When a Child Misreads a Word.

 

4. Know the Literacy Terms.

If your child attends school, his teacher may have given you some ideas for the summer such as, “He needs to work on her ability to segment phonemes.” What exactly does that mean? Even if you homeschool, your reading curriculum may throw a term or two at you that you’re just not too sure of. That’s why I wrote a post called Literacy Terms Defined for Parents. In this article, I have included MANY literacy terms (for both reading and writing) and parent-friendly definitions with examples!

 

5. Focus on the Interests of Your Child.

What does your child naturally gravitate towards? What kinds of hobbies does she have? Find texts at the library that your child can relate to and read them together. You might be surprised how this can turn a reluctant reader into an eager one!

My oldest son (going into 3rd grade) loves to read silly poetry. And there’s SO much I can do with poetry in terms of teaching him to become a better reader.

 

6. Build up your child’s vocabulary.

Vocabulary is HIGHLY related to reading comprehension! The more words your child knows and understands how to use, the more words he will understand as he reads. Knowing vocabulary also helps him to read words that are beyond his abilities, like I share about in my post on prior knowledge and vocabulary. Sometimes kids come across new vocabulary words while reading. Many times authors build in clues to that word’s meaning. We need to help our kids see how to use those clues to help them understand. One of my most favorite ideas for learning vocabulary is What Do We Do All Day’s Summer Word Jar.

 

7. Play hands-on spelling games.

What does spelling have to do with reading? Everything! When we teach spelling in a hands-on way, we encourage readers to stop and really look at words. What parts do they know? What letter combinations make what sounds? How can this particular spelling pattern help them read or spell other words with that same spelling pattern? But hands-on is key, with hands-on spelling tools. We want our kids to interact with the letters in the words to build a stronger connection. A good mix of sight words a phonics-based words is also important!

In my ebook, Teaching Kids to Spell, I offer tons of hands-on spelling ideas as well as a closer look into why kids misspell words and the spelling strategies we can teach them. I have also done some homework and found 50 hands-on spelling activities around the internet just for you!

 

8. Read TO your child (read alouds).

It is key ask your child to read, but just as key is to read aloud to your child. We have a 15-20 time slot carved out each morning after breakfast when I read aloud. I do it early in the day to ensure that it fits into our schedule. Right now, we’re currently reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. Are my younger ones listening, too? Absolutely. I have quiet time activities I rotate through for read aloud time that keeps them quiet and busy (for the most part).

 

9. Model and work on comprehension.

The purpose of reading isn’t to read every word correctly. It’s to comprehend it! Even if you argue that it’s for enjoyment, I’d say that it’s hard to enjoy something you don’t comprehend. Simply put, reading equals thinking!

While you’re reading aloud, model comprehension. Stop at prominent places and ask, “I wonder what’s going to happen next?” or “If you were that character, what would you do?” You may even ask your child to draw on paper what the character looks like in her head.

 

10. Write, write, write.

And what does writing have to do with reading? Once again, I’d say just about everything! First, kids who are allowed to creatively write from a young age often write before they can even read the first book. Writing books and stories together make wonderful texts the child can then turn around and read! Talk about motivation to read! If you have a young child (preschool/Kindergarten), you can find ideas for teaching them to write here. And if you have older writers (Primary grades), visit our Simple Writing Lesson Series, where we show you how to teach writing as a craft. Do you have a child who enjoys writing prompts, feel free to download my writing prompts bundle pack!

 

 

Be sure to hop on over to see all the other bloggers participating in our School’s Out! Top 10 Blog Hop! Click here or on the image below.

 

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~Becky