Wednesday, March 21, 2012

reading lessons without paper and pencil

We usually think reading instruction needs paper and a pencil but there are many ways to help your reader while you are riding in a car or waiting in a line.

Sing the ABC song. Knowing the alphabet has many important functions. Even older children need this review.

Your 5th, 6th, 7th grade child needs to be good at alphabetical order. (Exams like to ask students of this age to alphabetize a list of words and often extend the task to the 2nd or 3rd letter: shield / shred and scald / screed, etc.)

Quiz the names of the vowels: Aa, Ee, Ii, Oo, Uu, and Yy.

Children forget which letters are in the vowel group. Your child needs to know which letters are vowels:
1) when changing y to i, such a berry to berries.
2) when adding ed, ing, er, able, as opposed to ly, s, or ment. (different rules for vowels)

Play "I spy." With beginning readers stick with single letters at the start of a word, like p or t. Tell your child you spy something that begins with a p (pretzel)  Ask your child to look around and guess what you "spy." Let your child tell you the first letter of something he "spies," and you guess.   
As your child gets more capable, add things that begin with a double letter, like br (bridge, braces, brown shoes, etc.) or ch, th, sh, wh, pl, pr, and so on.

Have fun with these activities; they will make a difference to your child's reading! 

I now use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up.

I have created a few books to help your child be a star with the tricky lessons and comprehension. Lots of story-reading and skills practice; lots of color pictures, include my contact info. Be sure your child is ready for any challenge!

Please feel welcome to leave a question or a comment. Thank you for visiting my blog.
Mary Maisner



Tuesday, March 20, 2012

oi oy vowels help your child read


Do you think our leopard enjoys sitting
high in its tree?   yes    no   maybe
Rhyming families are an easy way for your child to see how sounds work. First, show your child how rhyming works. Point to and read this list together:

man         fan          tan           plan
can          ran          pan          than

Help your child see that only the starting sound changes. Say: tell me how man is different from can.

Now that your child sees how rhyming works, let's look at oi and oy. Oi / oy are special vowel teams that do not use long vowel or short vowel sounds.  Oi / oy always use the same sound you hear in boy and boil.

Let your child point as you read these words several times, letting him join in when he can:

boy    joy      Roy       enjoy        ahoy         annoy

toy     soy     Troy      cowboy    destroy      employ

Enjoy and cowboy have longer beginning sounds but they still end with the same sound.

Let's try the boil / coil rhyming family (toil means to work: I am toiling when I wash the floor.)

boil           broil          coil         foil          soil        spoil       toil

When oi and oy are together they always make this same sound. Try these words:

royal     loyal     voyage

Use my blog's search box -  top left corner - to find other lessons. If you want a book, I use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help Vowels or Instant Reading Help 1 Grade, 2nd Grade or Instant Reading Help plus your child's grade level.

Thank you for visiting my blog, Mary Maisner



Saturday, March 17, 2012

Help for 3rd grade reading troubles

Teachers are soft-hearted. They will say your child will catch up. Research says you have to help. Do not panic. I have books (at bottom) and you can start today: 

(Tip: quit stopping to sound out. Tell your child unknown words; best to build comprehension.)

One: Be sure your child is instant with b, d, g, p, q. You may already know your child confuses b / d  or  p / q / g when reading words. Let's look at that problem.

Give your child a pencil and paper. Tell your child to try to spell the words you are going to say.  Avoid stress for your child - you are only looking at the underlined letter - ignore the others. Words: saber, harbor, harder, tread, cupboard, ragged, kinder, tried, snagged.

A child that confuses letters must get instant with b / d and p / q / g within words
When you are cooking or cleaning - give your child pencil and paper to print the words you are going to say. 
Start with b and stick with it. Use a dictionary or story; say 6 words a day: b at the start, b in the middle. And buy used books - Goodwill & ARC -  for your child to circle the letters you tell him to circle - find and circle b - have your child show you what he circled. Then move on to d, then p / q.  (Note: Qq says kw: quiz, quick, quest.)

Two: Get a list of the 1st 100 sight words - target one word at a time. Ask your child to circle the word in a used book and show you. Put the list on the frig - have your child put a star beside each learned word. Review his known words every day & add two new words. Then get the 2nd 100 sight word list.  All sight word lists are the same and in the same order. Your school may call it: Snap, Instant Words, High Frequency, etc. (Download sight words or buy my books which include a list of the 1st 300.)

Three: Use my search box - top left corner - put in: backward b, then working memory, then high school reading (to see a quick comprehension method for every age.) 

Comprehension: Schools to do not stress comprehension with the troubled reader but that is where my books start. All of my books show your child how to immediately get a strong connection to comprehension. Surprisingly, this tool makes everything else easier.

I now use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will come up for you. All are brand new and include my contact info; email or call for help.

Write me with questions, I will help you. Mary Maisner


Tuesday, March 6, 2012

My good reader is having trouble; what can I do?

Research from England published December 2011, states the alarming discovery that 39% of children who enter primary school with a "bright start" are "no longer reaching advanced levels when they leave."

Three problems can happen at school:
1) Teachers believe phonics (letter / sound connections) are boring and good readers do not need to learn them.

2) Teachers are unaware of exactly how to teach the skills tools required.

3) Teachers do not have enough time for the practice required for children to gain mastery.

As words and the ideas within the text start to become more complex, being instant with the tricky phonics components becomes required. Aim to have your child ready by mid-3rd Grade. One-on-one with a parent is huge help; see what to do:

Use my search box - top left corner - to get quick help at home. Put into my search box: backward b and fix reading trouble; later comprehension and short vowel long vowel and compound words and ce, ci, cy and ge, gi, gy. This blog has 160 lessons.

I now use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help, all my books will pop up for you. All books are brand new and teach a special comprehension method plus the tricky phonics in stories and skills pages, with lots of color picture. 

The wonderful Little Owl watercolor above was drawn by Albrecht Durer in the year 1508.
You can read the BBC article quoted above by putting in your search line BBC News: Slow starting students don't catch up.

Please feel welcome to leave a question or comment. Thank you, Mary Maisner