Reading TermsThis page has some explanations for the reading terms your child's teacher might use while discussing their progress in learning how to read. Since learning to read is a process, I've also included some information on letter recognition and sight words. Letter RecognitionOne of the first reading terms you might discuss with your child's teacher is letter recognition.Students first learn the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make in words. For example, the short and long sounds of the vowels, the sounds of consonants in different words, and some letter blends (sh, ch, tch). While your child is learning the letters and their sounds, they also begin to learn words. Sight WordsSome of the first words you child will learn are sight words. These are also known as high frequency words.These words will sometimes be categorized into wordlists. These wordlists will be divided by grade level or sometimes into categories. Some of these could be the days of the week, months of the year, number words, or color words. To visit our Wordlist Information page for the words to make flashcards with,click here. Word FamiliesWord families are groups of words that have the same blend of letters at the end of the word.For example, if you start with the word in, you can make the word family of in, bin, fin, kin, pin, sin, tin, and win. This is just a sample of the words in this family; you and your child can start a list and add words as you discover them. So once you child knows a sight word, it can help them in learning other words because they already know a part of the word. Being familiar with word families will help your child with decoding text. Decoding text is simply using the letter combinations and the sounds they already know to help them prenounce a new word. Click here to visit the Phonics Word Families page. Reading LevelYour child's Reading Level based on the evaluation method your child's school uses. For example, in our schools some levels are a specific letter of the alphabet with A representing a beginning reader and L representing a higher level.Another system uses numbers, with 1 representing the beginner reader, level 10 being 1st grade, level 20 being second grade and so on. A level 15 would be for a student in the middle of first grade. Please ask you child's teacher to explain the system their school uses and how your child is progressing. If your child's teacher uses one of these systems or a different one, make certain that you understand the system and where your child should be within that system. Reading RateThe reading terms of Reading Rate or Reading Speed informs you of the number of words your child reads per minute.Working with word flashcards will help to increase your child's reading rate. Your child can also read stories that are easier to read to gain confidence and build up their rate. Reading FluencyThe reading term reading fluency describes the rate your child reads aloud and is understood by the person they are reading to. Your child should read aloud at about the same rate they naturally speak in conversation. As with learning any skill, your child's reading fluency will improve with practice.Working with word flashcards will help to increase your child's reading fluency. Reading ComprehensionReading Comprehension is understanding what you have read. As a teacher, I would explain this to my students by saying that I could read a medical journal and pronounce a lot of the words correctly (fluency) but for the most part would not have any idea of what I had read about (comprehension).Another reading term having to do with reading comprehension is context clues. I have added a page about this and you can visit that page by clicking on the link below.
For some ideas on improving Reading Comprehension, click here. Click here for help and information about Context Clues. Reading InterventionsReading interventions are actions taken by you, your child's teacher, and possibly by reading specialists to help your child improve their reading skills.Interventions can be a simple as spending a little extra time on a specific skill to bringing in a Reading Specialist to initiate a specialized program for a student who is significantly struggling with reading or any other subject. For some Reading Intervention ideas, click here. To see a list of reviews of books about reading, click here. To leave a comment or suggestion, click here. To return to our Home Page, click here.
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