There are multiple marvellous modes of reading and heaps of purposes for reading. Once children start to see these purposes, they get a better sense of why they would want to learn how to read. They also then start reading with more purpose and engagement.
I was once delivering a workshop for a group of teachers and the assistant principal was sitting with me. We were doing an activity whereby we talked about all of the reading and writing tasks we engaged in on the day before. Instead of doing the task I had assigned (teachers are terrrrrrible at following instructions!) she was lamenting to me that her son wasn’t a real reader. He only read mechanical books for fixing cars, and textbooks about chemistry and engineering. To this day I think it’s so very sad that the son of an educator was made to feel stupid and like he didn’t belong in the “reader’s club” because he didn’t enjoy reading novels. Sometimes we attribute the least useful type of text, the novel, as the highest form of reading. Now, this is not a hierarchy! It doesn’t go grocery list, recipe, descriptive report, short story, poem, textbook then novel at the top! Reading is reading, whether we’re reading a cereal box or Dickens. That boy should have been honoured for the difficulty of the text he was reading, the functionality of the reading he was doing, and the problems he was solving by applying the learning he was taking from the reading task.
When we talk early reading there are a few categories of books, types of reading, and reading tasks. Hopefully this post will help you to understand your child’s reading tasks, how and where to find resources for them, and how to support them when reading.
Free reading, reading practice and reading instruction. These are the types of reading early readers (reading levels A-M) should do every day and these tasks require different levels of text, different levels of support, and different physical environments.
Free reading is any text, anytime, anywhere, anyhow with anywho. A child doesn’t need to be able to read the text, but it can and be a memorized book, easy book, or a book with no text at all. Sitting with a partner/sister/pet/teddy and looking at the pictures while making meaning is literary enough. This type of reading builds interest, confidence, reading routines, creativity, and even helps you learn higher-level textbook strategies, like zoom in. This includes reading together, being read to and bedtime stories.
YES, you’re going to have to read Wombat Stew at least a hundred and fifty more times before it gets old.
Reading practice is done in front of a parent/parent volunteer/older sibling/older reading buddy/grandparent… essentially an experienced reader or “expert”. This reading should be done with independent level text. NO MORE THAN 15 MINUTES PER DAY. This is supposed to be easy and require very little support (although support is there if needed). This home reading should be done in homework style at the kitchen table, but with a calm background. TV OFF. VIDEOGAMES OFF. FACEBOOK OFF. The way you respond to your child making mistakes is MOST important here… pause, allow them to read to the end of the sentence, then read it back, “You said…., were you right?” Then, “No, that didn’t make sense!”, and have a giggle, re-read and move on. Proper names and the title are just given. Picture walks are important here too. Re-reading is one of the most powerful things a child can do with these books.
**Quick tip** If your child brings home a home reading book that is too tough and they’re getting super frustrated, you have a few choices: 1. Use a different book if your child’s teacher allows it. 2. Encourage your child to just make the first sound of each word. As soon as they do that, give them the word. You may think they’re not really reading, but you’re encouraging excellent engagement in a really hard task, task initiation, and it will keep fluency going at a rate that allows comprehension. If books are too hard, it’s a hard slog and the brain can’t retain comprehension so it’s useless endeavour. 3. Read the book aloud to them first and then have them read it back to you.
I used to tell my grade ones twice for practice, once for good. They would have a book bag in their desk with one free choice book and six (or so depending on their level) books that they chose from their level (ish), half fiction, half non-fiction. They would have these same books (including books they got from me from our guided reading sessions) for at least a week. The average student would read each of these books at least 20 times, to themselves, to their partners, to parent volunteers, to their reading buddies, the school secretary, the principal… really anyone who I could get to sit still long enough to listen. Children would also read them into a “reading telephone”. This was an ingenious invention (two elbow pieces of PVC pipe) sometimes called a whisper phone (I made them with 2 45 degree sections of PVC pipe) or a toobaloo (name brand version bought at teaching stores), where the child can read (very quietly so as not to interrupt her peers and my small group reading instruction) and hear it quite clearly in her own ear. This tool is really helpful for kids who haven’t figured out how to hear their inner voice (sub-vocalization) and read out loud inside their heads.
Reading instruction is NOT usually done at home. This is where I, as a teacher, will choose a book that is in the child’s zone of proximal development… just outside what they can do independently… a few levels above what their independent reading level… their instructional level. I choose this level because I WANT them to make mistakes, but not too many. It’s a delicate balance and one that I take great care in when choosing books for my reading groups. Not only do I group the children carefully, but I pay close attention to text difficulty, topic, type, genre, connection to curriculum, etc. This type of reading is best left to the experts, is highly scaffolded, connected to classroom instruction and heavily focused upon strategy instruction and implementation.
The zone of proximal development is what a child can do with proper scaffolds and support. In terms of books, it is the instructional level.
Independent, instructional and hard level books
Independent level books are those that, EITHER the child can read independently, or is familiar enough that they can read it independently. When I say read it independently, I mean with 98%-100% accuracy. These are the books in the book box that my students have chosen from their level and the home reading they choose to take home and read to you. I consider the books they’ve read in guided reading with me to be independent ONLY after we’ve done sufficient instruction (or else they won’t go into the book box for independent reading time) so that they can read them at an independent level.
Books at home like “The Cat in the Hat” that your child has memorized from repeated readings are also considered independent level reading books.
Instructional level books will usually only be used at school during a guided reading lesson with your child’s teacher or a literacy support teacher. These are anywhere between 90%-98% accurate to provide “teachable moments” whereby the teacher can use children’s authentic mistakes to teach and reinforce decoding strategies and self-monitoring behaviours. This is also a great place to focus on comprehension strategy instruction as there are often multiple readings.
Hard level books are books that your child reads with an accuracy rate of less than 90%. Basically, most of the books in the world. Unfortunately, MOST of the trade books that are out there (those in libraries and bookstores) are written above a beginning grade three level for fiction and grade 5 for non-fiction. “WHAT???” you ask, “What about my level E (mid-grade one) reader that’s just learning???” Keep reading for resources to find early reading levelled texts for your child. Luckily, hard books have a number of amazing and important purposes in your child’s early reading life!
Read alouds are the most popular (and important) way to use books that are too hard for your child. Please don’t leave out non-fiction in this! It’s ok to read to your child about real stuff. This is why:
- Cognitive challenge: For the time your child is learning to read, their reading comprehension is going to be much, much lower than their oral comprehension. A beginning grade one reader comprehends orally up to a grade 3 or 4-ish reading level, depending on vocabulary, background knowledge and overall IQ. Their reading will not catch up to their oral comprehension and vocabulary until about grade 5 reading level. This means that they get LESS cognitive extension if they’re only reading independent level books AND if they’re reading below grade level when they get to that age. As teachers and parents, we HAVE to read to them daily so that they get the intelligence and vocabulary boosting effects of hearing, discussing and interacting with higher level language, concepts and vocabulary If you look at the text from the original Shrek book, we don’t hear words like slogging, fumes and delighted, never mind rhythm and rhyme in everyday speech. Being read to is like steroids for the brain (but not so rage inducing and damaging)
- Seeing themselves as readers: Why do kids play dress up? Play house? Try cutting their own hair? Put on mommy’s makeup? They’re practicing what it’s going to be like to be grown-ups. “Reading” hard level books, no matter what that looks like, allows children to emulate what they want to be… you! See this type of reading as the important developmental step it is and encourage the hell out of it! The sooner children see themselves as members of the “reading club” the better!
- Enjoyment. I’m sorry, but level A books are vapid, stupid and simple. They don’t really honour the intelligence and maturity of a 4 year-old, never mind a 9 year-old who is still struggling to get started with reading. Kids can get down and bored being forced to read only “baby” books. When you read to them, they get a break.
- Teaching. In the classroom I choose read a-louds very carefully and intentionally. I may use one to introduce a new math concept, and another to model a type of text for writing. One may actually teach a scientific concept in an interesting way (I love Magic school bus) and another help me introduce a comprehension or decoding strategy we’ll be using. At home you can use these read a-louds to help teach behavior or values (there’s a ton of books with lessons about kindness, sharing, etc), reinforce strategies and help your child understand concepts you know he’s learning about in school. You can also help your child to begin to develop their own interests and burgeoning talents by reading to them about areas of interest and helping them find information on the internet. You can either read these digital texts to them on screen, print them out, or let them use text to speech software.
- Choice. It’s simple. We like what we like and there’s not a lot to like in very beginning levelled books no matter how hard publishers and authors try. Children will take to reading much younger and easier if they see that there are books that will interest and engage them when they do learn to read. It’s like the saying, “eat your wheeties and you’ll grow up big and strong”. If they know what they’re working towards, they’ll be much more motivated to work at it!
- Online availability. There are a ton of websites now that host interactive books. Unfortunately, many are VERY expensive and geared at libraries and schools. Good news is, you can usually find a way to gain free access through your school district, public library or even state or provincial school jurisdiction. Alberta Education has a website called Learn Alberta. EVERY school board in the province has a username and password. There is access to thousands of online resources from bookflix, tumblebooks, online encyclopedias, etc. If your school/school board/jurisdiction does not have something like this, look to your local public library.
Fiction vs non-fiction
I could write for days on this topic. We just don’t give young children enough access to non-fiction, even though it’s what we consume and create most in the real world. AND, they love love love it! Many people encourage introducing non-fiction to engage boys in reading. Guess what??? just like lego and playing outside… Girls like it too. It also allows girls early permission to strive towards male dominated fields like the hard sciences or technology. Don’t get me wrong, fiction is important too. You’re never going to see Shakespeare go off the reading list for good, it’s just good to provide a balance early on to open up interest and educational doors.
“I’ve tried, but I just can’t find the right level books for my kid and the school doesn’t believe in levelled books or send home reading.”
There are some schools that are very against labelling and levelling. I don’t like the idea of broadcasting everyone’s grades and psych reports either, but you can walk into any grade one classroom in the world and ask any kid, “Who do you go to for help when you can’t read a word and there’s no teacher available.” That kid will tell you the top three readers in the class. They’ll be able to tell you who can’t read too. Kids know who can and who can’t. I don’t think we should put their pictures on a ladder on the board and laugh at the ones who can’t, but we will never get away from knowing each other’s business to some extent, so we might as well honour and celebrate where they are and work from there using tools to help them.
Levelled books
I use levelled books in my classroom, but I don’t level them myself. There are much smarter people in the world who have already done that for me! I just know where to find the information.
You may notice that your local library has big letters on the front or back corners of the picture books (or a particular section of books). These letters are from Fountas and Pinnell’s levelling system. They’ve created an A-Z (end of Kindergarten to grade 6) rating system to give a guideline for teachers and educators. Parents can use them too. Unfortunately, many publishers try to make this EASY for us by putting levels on books, but they’re rarely consistent with each other. Fountas and Pinnell’s website has a tool that allows you to search thousands of books by title or author and gives you their level. Their book levelling website is pay per login, so probably not worth it for a family. Luckily, the scholastic website has a free online tool called the Scholastic book wizard. It allows you to search by title and gives you the guided reading level of the book, as well as suggested age of interest. There are worksheets, but these are NOT worth your time. I know, they say they’re developed by teachers, but so are all worksheets and VERY few will ever be worth your child’s time. Another thing this website does is suggest books of a similar level. This is SUPER helpful for children in grades 3-6 who are stuck on one series of books and could use some branching out!
This chart is one that we used in my school board to compare the different leveling systems based upon the assessment tools schools used. If your child has a number for their reading level rather than a letter, they may be using the PM benchmarks or the DRA reading assessments. Ask your child’s teacher what system they use if you’re confused.
For SHORT term intervention and a lack of access to beginning levelled texts (grade on/two level) I would go with the website reading a-z . The book wizard and F&P website are wonderful, but they’re still just telling you the level of the high-level books you’ve already got. This site has a ton of free books. They want you to sign up for the whole system, but you don’t need to (and if you really want to, just sign up for the reading a-z part). First, use the free books. There are instructions on how to print them and put them together if you want to, and there is the option to download the PDF version (projectable) as well, which works great on your computer or tablet. I like to print them in black and white so kids can colour them too and make them their own. They also have a 14 day free trial, which is an excellent choice if your child is stuck on a level for a while and you need to download a LOT of the same level. Another nice thing is that the website previews the books for you so you can see the book before you download.
The great thing about kids becoming fluent and confident readers is that once they’re reading past a grade three level (or above grade level if they’re older), they don’t need the levelled text anymore. It’s a short term tool to get them over the hump and reading fluently. The even greater thing is that once they’re at that level, they will be building their brains daily. Once a child’s reading comprehension level exceeds their oral vocabulary, they will be acquiring 3-6 new words every day, not to mention, building upon their background knowledge, applying new learning, synthesizing understandings across topics and areas of study… basically just getting smarter and ready for higher education, business, travel… life!
So... you want your Child to Learn to Read... 