Please help a rising 2nd grader struggling to read!
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Anonymous
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DD struggles with the "I Can Read" Level 2 books: the ones with a few lines of very simple text with a few long words and large pictures. She reads all monosyllabic words well and quickly but apparently cannot tackle multi-syllabic words by herself. The problem may be that she reads too fast and does not take the time to pause at the long words to study each sound/syllable. She recognizes (or not) the first syllable and then "invents" or mumbles the rest and rushes on to the end of the sentence. For example, today she read "important" in lieu of "empty", which totally changed the meaning of the sentence. She does this for practically every long word! When I ask what she understood in that particular sentence - no answer. I make her go back and pronounce each sound in the long word, and try to make her appreciate how much better it is to actually have a sentence that makes sense, but she really does not seem to care.
She is starting to include some expression in her reading, when reading dialogue for instance, but I feel that this also is an issue. Most of the time, for example, she does not fully lower her voice and mark the period at the end of her sentences. First of all, is this level of reading within the range of normal at her age? What would you do? Clearly she does not like to read, and sometimes our daily reading practice feels like such a chore... Thank you for all of your suggestions! |
Anonymous
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make sure you are reading to her as much as she is reading to you. try to break up bigger words to show her pieces by covering up the rest of the word with your finger.
for example, the word attention. it has the word tent in it. she should pick out the pieces of the words she knows. just keep practicing. it can be really tiring as a kid to read books when they are struggling. Read more and more to her with you mostly reading longer chapter type books or curious George etc, but pick out words here and there for her to read. pick smaller easy words to build her confidence and then give her a harder word to challenge. take her to the book store and let her pick out some books. Let her pick whatever she wants. make sure reading is fun. it is a good time to bond. reading isn't a race, but just keep her progressing. |
Anonymous
| don't make her feel pressure if she messes up or doesn't know, it may be why she blurts out random words. she doesn't know or is afraid to say it wrong and it feels bad to be wrong or not know. My 5 year old does that. |
Anonymous
| One technique they used in my middle kid's kindergarten class to teach reading was to have the child run her finger along under each word as she read. This really, really helped my struggling reader, especially with longer words and sentences. He seemed to get lost on the page when faced with a longer or multi-syllable word, and having the finger right there helped. |
Anonymous
OP here. Exactly! She is surely feeling like this, even though I do my best to encourage her and not be critical. She's 7.5, though, and probably felt left out in her 1st grade classroom, and probably also feels the disappointment I am trying to hide. Thank you for the advice, everyone. |
Anonymous
| Teacher here. First, you need to keep reading to her to model correct intonation, etc. Run your finger under what you are reading as you read it. You can write words in isolation on a whiteboard that she has trouble with and show her how to break it apart. Teach her to break words apart into syllables so a word like "contact" would be broken apart into "con" and "tact." |
Anonymous
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Get her tested - she might be dyslexic.
Most kids are diagnosed in 3rd grade, be glad if you catch this early. Call ASDEC.ORG and get advice on how to proceed. you might think how the heck can you get important out of empty. They both have MPT what she sees is not what you see. iMPorTant eMPTy Some dyslexic have brains that don't track from left to right so EMP-TY so easy right but what she sees is... MPT with an e and y (e MPT y) and thinks wow I saw that before MPT with a iorant. (i MP ortan T) Some kids see t, p, l, f, b, d, h easier because they pop out from the other letters that are "lower" like a, c, e. |
Anonymous
+1 I would also suggest getting audio books out from the library and have her listen to books that are on her cognitive level- so that she can be exposed to the more advanced vocabulary, increased character development and more complex plot structures. Still read to her, have her use her finger to guide as your read, but there is only so much time in a day and audio books saved me from going hoarse. You can also download free audio books from booksshouldbefree.com Depending on how far apart her cognitive and reading levels are, you can alsog et the book out the of the library and have her "read along" with the audio (if they are relatively close). |
Anonymous
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A key point is that she needs to start 2nd grade reading on a 2nd grade level. Much more of the work is done independently - and it is so hard to catch up.
What did the teacher say at the parent teacher conference at the end of the school year? |
Anonymous
OP here. That's just it, I'm not sure what the average second grader's reading level is! I do worry she is behind, although her first grade teacher just said we should keep reading together, and did not raise any alarm bells otherwise. Thank you, PPs, I had not thought she could be dyslexic at all - I'll look at that website. |
Anonymous
| Reading Specialist/owner of tutoring business from Fairfax County here- A child entering second grade should be reading a DRA 16 or a "J." This is the benchmark for the end of first. If your school is a public school, ask if they do LLI (leveled literacy intervention). I have seen this program increase a child's reading level by a year within a 6 month time frame. What county are you in? Have you thought about a tutor? Or if you are in public, requesting your child goes up for local screening? There are many different programs out there available, administered by a trained professional, that work wonders. |
Anonymous
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I second the audio book suggestion.
When my son was in 2nd grade I thought it was like cheating or how would he learn to read if he never reads. Audio books have saved our lives. He is dyslexic and he is able to "read" the level of book that is of interest to him. Please learn from my mistakes and don't view the audiobooks as "cheating" think of it as glasses. You would not deny your child glasses if he/she needed them. If you read the wrong word (important instead of empty) how the heck do you know what is going on, you don't. We use LearningAlly but I think Kindle can read books to you (but I think the voice is a computer). |
Anonymous
Original Kindle will read the words froma tgext, but Kindle Fire will not. For some reason they took it out of the more recent Kindles. |
Anonymous
She is on the older side to be a rising second grader. Does she have any other learning or developmental issues that caused you hold her back, or is she just a kid with a birthday early in the school year? Her report card should have indicated both her reading level and the benchmark reading level for the end of first grade. |
Anonymous
| 7.5 is not older for a rising 2nd grader. If anything it is right in the pack (and in my district young). MY DC was a March baby and he was in the youghest 25% of his grade in ES. He was 7.5 as a rising 2nd grader. |