Read not Guess is providing a Back-to-School Reading Challenge for striving readers and their caregivers! The goal of the challenge is to create and reinforce positive reading habits. By the end of the challenge, striving readers will understand that English is read from left to right, identify and sound out the most common letter sounds, begin blending these sounds into words, and even read simple sentences. Even more experienced readers will benefit from practice using their sound-letter knowledge to blend sounds into words … Read not Guess!
Why is Read not Guess an important skill for striving readers? For even the briefest moment a child’s eyes leave the text to use picture clues or the three cueing system ( Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?) they are not practicing the phonics skills that will, in the end, help them be proficient readers. They are reinforcing the habit of guessing!
So many of our striving readers have a wonderful memory for “sight words” that lulls us into thinking that they are on their way to reading fluently. But, given a more advanced word that is actually quite easy to decode such as “compose”, they are stumped. Striving readers must learn to break a word into chunks, break those chunks into sounds, and put the word back together again to make sense. Striving readers should be explicitly taught how to do this and practice these blending skills daily.
The Read not Guess Back-to-School Reading Challenge will provide daily emails with a 5-10 minute activity for child and caregiver to do together. The Challenge will also provide caregivers with a deeper understanding of phonics; practice talking to their child about reading; additional tools and games for practice; and assessments to monitor their child’s reading progress.
The Challenge begins July 18 and runs through August 19. Don’t miss this opportunity to share these wonderful resources with your child. Sign up for the Read not Guess Back-to-School Reading Challenge today!
Thank you to Chad Adelman, Policy Director at the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University and Founder of Read not Guess, for permission to share the Back-to-School Reading Challenge with you. Chad recommends the following free resources to families of striving readers: Teach Your Monster for online games; Reading Rockets for parent resources; and find and use your local public library. He also suggests the short Readiness Check from Learning Heroes, or these age-specific Literacy Assessment Toolkits to test or monitor your child’s progress.
Finally, if your child needs more help than you can provide, don’t hesitate to contact me about Reading Tutoring Services at Sand Dollar Tutoring!
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