| What makes a good reader? | | | | know to new words they encounter. This means |
| How do you teach reading? | | | | that rather than struggle to decode the word |
| What skills and strategies are important to aid | | | | "beep" one letter at a time, and then blending to |
| reading fluency? | | | | come up with a recognizable word, a child can |
| These questions have haunted the parents of | | | | more quickly and efficiently decode the word by |
| young children for decades but while learning to | | | | putting two familiar sounds together--the sound |
| read is a long, complex process there are many | | | | for b and the sound for -eep. Once the reader |
| easy and fun techniques parents can use to help | | | | begins to learn other phonograms then you can |
| their child learn to read. One of these important | | | | multiple this success many times over and the |
| strategies is word families. | | | | result is a more efficient and happy reader. |
| Research shows that strong readers are able to | | | | One easy strategy for introducing word families is |
| decode new words by comparing them to known | | | | to have your child color a picture related to one |
| words rather than by sounding them out letter by | | | | of the words in that word family and then, either |
| letter. The best way to separate between good | | | | in the white space surrounding the picture or on |
| and poor readers is repeatedly found to be their | | | | an attached piece of paper, write down words |
| knowledge of spelling patterns and their | | | | that you brainstorm together that also belong in |
| proficiency with spelling-sound translations. That is | | | | the family. Continue to build more homemade |
| why reading lessons that include phonograms, also | | | | word family charts until you have a book of word |
| called word families and chunks, are a highly | | | | families your child can refer to regularly. |
| effective way to help young children acquire and | | | | Word families are an important part of how to |
| implement these kinds of reading skills and | | | | teach reading because learning word families, or |
| strategies. | | | | word chunks, can help children decode new words |
| Phonograms are recognizable chunks of letters | | | | by comparing them to known words. Knowledge |
| that appear with regularity in words. For example, | | | | of spelling patterns and spelling-sound translation |
| frog, dog, and log all share the phonogram -og. | | | | are among the key skills of good readers and |
| When children learn the sound and spelling of | | | | word families are an important part of mastering |
| chunks such as -og they can decode by | | | | those skills. |
| comparison--that is they can apply what they | | | | |