Using Emergent Readers With Early Readers
While helping a teacher who was struggling with assessment scores and student’s abilities to grasp early reading skills, I asked her how often her students had eyes-on-text, meaning how often did students have a book in their hands to read? She replied that her reading curriculum only had passages to read…….. Well, the first rule of teaching someone to read is to let them have success with books that are at their independent or instructional level. Kids need books to learn how to read!
Instructional Reading practice is an important part of the literacy spectrum as it is a time to work with students of similar needs and abilities using material at their instructional level. It is a time to introduce and practice important reading strategies, build one to one correspondence, and to practice the importance of rereading text, and more. In essence, it is The Science of Reading in Action! Kids need eyes on text. After all isn’t the reading of books the purpose for all of that phonics and phonemic awareness practice!
Independent practice follows with books that students can read, well, independently!
If you are like me and find the reading books in your basal series to be marginal at best, you need something more. I have been making thematic books for two decades now, and find they fit the bill for effective instructional and independent reading. I have several sets for sale at our on-line store, they are moderately priced. My students love these little books! I usually sent home one or two a week.
With these paper readers it is so easy to make emergent reading a more authentic experience. The books can match the themes you are teaching in your classroom, books can match focus sight words —- focus decoding, or other reading skills being taught.
One activity I like to do is to have students play detective and circle a particular sight word such as, "Circle all of the words the." I can also focus on decoding, beginning sound and more phonics skills. Because students can write on these books, the instruction can be broad and varied.
