Good readers help themselves

Last week we started our next reading unit: Good readers help themselves. During this unit students become familiar with a variety of strategies good readers use to decode while reading. One of our main goals in first grade reading is to help the children become independent problem solvers in their reading. We are working on an anchor chart of these strategies and will re-visit it throughout the school year. Throughout the year we work on developing a strong sense of self-monitoring and stopping at the point of difficulty to figure out new and unknown words. I have been bringing some of our habit 1 "be proactive" into the teaching as well because it fits in nicely!

Here are the essential questions we are working on in this unit:

- What do readers do when their reading doesn’t make sense?
- What do readers do when they make mistakes?
- Why is reading fluently important?
- What do readers do when they come to a word they don't know?

So far we have learned that good readers...
1. Look carefully at the cover of a book
2. Take a picture walk before reading
3. Study the pictures carefully
4. Think about what is happening in the story
5. Get their mouth ready to say the first sound (and look through the word to middle and end sounds)

In the next few lessons we will be adding to our chart:
6. Go back and re-read
7. Skip the unknown word and come back to it
8. Use what you already know to help you figure out new words (our spelling patterns and vowl knowledge)
9. Use multiple strategies when needed

At some point I will send our strategies "cheat sheet" home so you can have a copy to use with your child. It is helpful when we use common language as we coach our emerging readers. :)