Do you depend on your school to teach your child how to read?

[zumbamama]

uhh my keyboard is messed up..


meant to say they each have their strengths.

[zumbamama]

I depend on the school now todevelop their reading skills, but they also depend on me to have them practice at home. I think ithere is responsiblity on both the parents and school.

uhh my keyboard is messing up all the letters!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does early reading at say, 2 or 3, really mean the kid will be accelerated for the rest of his or her academic life? Or do some of these kids level off? Anyone know about this?

And what, exactly, does early reading mean? What does a 2 or 3 year old understand or get out of reading a book himself? What is the advantage to the child vs having someone read him the book? What is he missing by spending his time learning to read?

At that stage, kids may be able to read 3-letter words but their overall comprehension level (as in the big picture) has not developed yet. What's best for young kids is teaching them how to interpret the pictures, too, which is visual literacy. That way, they can move from picture to picture to help them make sense of the storyline.

Keep in mind that sight words are also important, as the English language has more exceptions to rules than rules! So being able to recognize "the," for example, is good b/c attempting to sound it out makes no sense.

In terms of leveling out, most, I think, reach the same level by early elementary. So even if a child has attended preschool and has a very basic knowledge of reading, the child who hasn't been in a structured school environment will catch up - barring all negative obstacles like an unstable home life which could interfere with attendance, for example.

[Anonymous]

I thought that experts are no longer advocating sight reading at all. Some say that even words like "the" and "is" should be learned phonetically, then tweaked to the normal pronunciations.

[Anonymous]

I thought that experts are no longer advocating sight reading at all. Some say that even words like "the" and "is" should be learned phonetically, then tweaked to the normal pronunciations.

Well, experts may say that, but how on earth do you stop a kid from sight reading?

I thought most schools now teach a combination of sight reading and phonics. My DD7 is in FCPS and they use a combination with pretty heavy phonics instruction provided to kids who are below grade level or struggling with fluency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought that experts are no longer advocating sight reading at all. Some say that even words like "the" and "is" should be learned phonetically, then tweaked to the normal pronunciations.

I haven't heard anything along these lines. In fact, many of the elementary schools (in Mo Co) are still using word walls with sight words on them. "The" and "is," for example, don't follow the general rules. So there's no sense in trying to work around the rules in order to get children to attempt to sound them out. It's easier to have them recognize the words visually.

It's really a marriage of phonetics and sight words. That's the most successful method.

[Anonymous]

Sight words are frequently used words and most of them cannot be sounded out phonetically. Trying sounding out the word "the." Children need to learn phonics but they also have to memorize sight words in order to learn to read.