Best Practices

Meaning, structure and visual cues are crucial as students develop into independent readers.

Meaning- Does it make sense? There are several different strategies readers can use to help them along the way.

Use the picture- Ask, "What is this?" or say, "Look at the picture, what could the word be?"

Making connections- prompting them with questions helps them to think about what they already know.

"What does a ____ say?"

"What did you see on the beach last summer?"

"How does a firetruck drive on the way to a fire?"

"What does grandma always wear?"

Meaning Cues- "Does that make sense?" or "Is that what is happening in the picture?"

Structure - Does it sound right?

Ask "Did that sound right?" or "Is that the way we say that?"

If a child get stuck on a word or phrase, you can prompt them with reminders about know word patterns - "What do we say when...?"

"What do we say when we leave?"

"What does the lady in the store ask us?"

"What do we say before we go to bed?"

Visual- Does it look right?

Word Prompts

Word prompts - point to another word on the page. "That is the same word here, what was that word?"

"This word is like bat, but it has c at the beginning, what could that be?"

Letter Sound Prompts

Prompt for the initial sound - "Get your mouth ready, what is the first sound? What could the word be?"

"I see an "sh" at the beginning, what sound does that make?" What word could that be?"

"There are a lot of sounds in this word you may know, stretch the sounds and blend them together."

Visual Prompts

"Does that look right?"

"Does what you read match the word on the page?" (beginning sound, ending sound)