“I wanted to read that”

My daughter just turned 5, and she will start Kindergarten in August. She loves books (like her momma) and is always wanting to be read a story. When we were reading at bedtime last night, she got upset when I finished reading one of the books. She told me that she wanted to read that book to me. I pointed to the bookcase and told her to go get one, and she could read to me for the next story. She looked up at me and said she didn’t know how to read those but she knew how to read the one I just read.

I started thinking about that book from last night. The story was presented in a predictable pattern. The words on the pages were clearly depicted in the illustrations. This was also a story she had heard several times before, so she knew what to expect (she even caught it when I missed a page). The familiarity of the story and story elements made her feel comfortable.

I want her to become a fluent reader, so that she won’t have to worry so much about the mechanics of reading that she won’t be able to experience the joy the can be found in reading a story. There are several things I could have done with the story I read last night to work on that skill (without sounding too much like a teacher to my child):

• Echo Reading: I could read aloud one or two sentences and then let my daughter attempt to “echo” my reading. This strategy works on sight vocabulary, decoding skills, and oral fluency. My daughter can hear the words and sounds I emphasize when I read and try to do the same thing.
• Easy Reading: I can find stories  the contain words and sentence patterns familiar to my daughter. Using this strategy should be pressure-free and enjoyable for both the child and parent/teachers. We could start by taking turns reading sections/pages until she feel comfortable enough to want to read it all by herself. I think great illustrations help here too.
• Repeated Reading: This reading fluency strategy works right along with the saying, “The more you practice, the better you will get.” As a parent or teacher, I often tell my child (or students) that they more we read a story, the more things we will notice about the story. Repeated Reading helps the child know what to expect and how it should sound.

There are many books/stories on Big Universe that I can use with these strategies to work on oral fluency without it seeming like I am working on oral fluency with my daughter.  Did you know that one of the ways to search for Big Universe books is by publisher? I have seen it in a list of ways to search Big Universe (I might have even made a list like that), but I had not tried it out until today. One of the publishers is Reading Reading Books, LCC.  On the Big Universe page for this publisher, you can find this description:

Reading Reading Books, LLC is an independently owned and operated publishing company located in Reading, Pennsylvania. The books published by Reading Reading Books, LLC are written to promote a young reader’s enjoyment of literature… with books they can really read! Each book is carefully developed by an experienced, certified K-12 Reading Specialist, with a concentration in the area of primary literacy. Our books are ideal for a variety of students including: lower level first graders, on level pre-kindergarten and kindergarteners, elementary school children with special needs, and English as a Second Language learners.

When I saw the second sentence of this description, I knew I had found some books that would be great for me to use with my daughter. This will also be a great publisher to recommend for anyone working with any children who would experience success reading this type of book. I can’t wait to try it out! I think we will start with Bedtime for Carl.

Reading strategies from The Howard Street Tutoring Manual, pages 205-206