Chunk words, reading help

At school, when your child is reading a sentence and comes to a word he cannot read, his teacher will tell him to chunk the word.  

To chunk is to look for a smaller word or word part inside a larger word. The word and is an easy chunk. Look for and inside these larger words:
 
candle          demand           sandwich

One of the best ways to help your child build his chunking skills is by practicing rhyming words. This strengthens your child's ability to see these small words inside larger words. Any rhyming word families you can think of will provide practice. Look:

      and                 bell               bill             
      band               dell               dill
      hand               fell                fill
      land                sell               hill
      sand               tell                pill
      stand              well               till

After practicing the rhyming word families above, help your child see how to use little rhyming words to chunk these larger words:

until      thrilling     still    doorbell    smelly    welcome      handlebar     pillow     hillside 

All the lessons your child will need are included in my books. Plus, the books are full of secrets and advanced skills for when your child is ready. I now use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up.  All books include my contact info; email or call for help. 

Write with questions. Help your child have fun reading! Mary Maisner

Behind in reading

 

Every child is unique but when there are reading problems, every child has trouble with the same lesson set. Research shows that early instruction was unclear for the child; it was not the fault of the child.

(Fast help for 3rd Grade-high school: put into my search box- top left corner- fix reading trouble.)

What goes wrong?  Parents depend on preschool and Kindergarten. Parents have no way of knowing the amount of repetition required to be ready to read b, d, g, p, q within words when starting to read in early 1st Grade.

Luckily only these five letters require rigorous attention.

The child knows the name and sound but confuses the shapes of b /d and p / q / g when trying to read words. Are the letters toab or toad? A child has to hold a lot in his mind all at once. Recognizing each letter in a word is crucial to success. Teachers believe the child is merely getting a slow start and will catch up next year. Research shows only 6 / 50 children ever catch up from a slow start in 1st Grade. Do not panic; teach my letter rules: 

Bb rule: b is the 2nd letter in the ABCs and b's round face always looks the way words go in a story >. Help your child draw lots of giant b's. Draw eyes looking the way words go > and a smile. Look for b at the start, middle, and end of words. Get sure with b. 

Dd rule: d's straight line blocks the round face of d from seeing the way words go. Draw lots of giant d's with sad eyes and a sad mouth; d is sad because d's round face is blocked by d's line and cannot see the way words go in a story. Watch for d at the start, middle, and end of words. Play games: find three d's, find three words with d inside the word.

Gg rule: the fancy tail of g tries to reach up and tickle g's face. Help your child draw lots of g's with eyes looking down at g's fancy tail. Watch for g at the start, middle, and end of words. The fancy tail of g hangs below the bottom line of lined-paper, as do the tails of p, q, j, and y.

Pp rule: the round face of p looks the way words go, just like b; b and p can see. Help your child draw lots of giant p's with eyes looking the way words go and a smile. Find p at the start, middle, and end of words. The tail of lower-case p hangs below the bottom line on lined-paper.

Qq rule: the round face of q is blocked by q's straight line. Help your child draw lots of q's with sad eyes and a sad mouth because the round face of q is blocked and cannot see. 

Be clear: online and in printed stories, q's line is straight. The tail of handwritten q has a small hook that curves up and away from q's round face. Handwritten q is the opposite of g.

Qq says kw, together say: quick, quest, question; u always come after q. While reading stories watch for q at the start and middle of words: queen, squirrel, quick, quiet, quest.

If you do not have the time, or you and your child do not work well together - very common - buy my books and hire a tutor (not a tutor company). I use eBay as my website; search: Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up.  All include my contact info; email or call for help.

 

My methods are proven. Three of my 5th and 7th Grade tutor students made the Honor Roll at their school. A 3rd Grade boy got the highest score of his entire class on a social studies test.

Thank you, Mary Maisner

Help child read

This blog offers 160 lessons. Use the search box - top left corner.

Possibilities: backward b;  short vowels long vowels;  sight words;  working memory;   oy;   silent gh;  adding ing; 

also ce, ci, cy;   tion, sian;    tient, cious;  compound words; silent h;    silent t,  kindergarten reading; 1st Grade, etc.

Tip: Quit stopping to sound out. Telling your child the unknown word is a better path. Stopping breaks up your child's comprehension - which is weak in early readers. 

Use this comprehension path:

With your child pointing to every word, read a story with your child. Let your child read whatever words he can. Talk about the story. Recap what is happening in the story to help your child connect to comprehension.  

Next, use the story to play games: find and point to the word this; find and point to there, find and point to why - these are tricky sight words. Assign "find and point" to words you know your child has trouble reading. Used books are great for this kind of fun; your child can circle words.

One-on-one help with parents is the key. 15 minutes a day is enough.  Teachers believe kids will catch up next year; research says no.

I now use ebay for my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up. All are brand new, teach all the tricky phonics in stories, Q & A, an easy comprehension method, and include my contact info; email or call for help.

Have fun reading with your child. Best wishes, Mary Maisner

 

Help child read

Mountain goats like a challenge.

A tiny set of lessons snarl all struggling readers. 

1) b /d and p / q / g shapes look alike within words when a child starts reading words in early 1st Grade. This is the major cause of failure. 

The child has no way to help himself and new lessons never stop coming. Do not depend on teachers -  your child needs your help.

2) Slow with look-alike sight words, like: these, those, there, their, etc. also cause a child to fall behind.  All sight word lists are the same and in the same order. Your school might call them Instant Words, High Frequency, etc.

Preschool-kindergarten-1st Grade: use my blog's search box - top left corner - put in backward b  and  working memory.

2nd Grade - high school: use my blog's search box - top left corner - put in struggling reader.

You are going to get an easy, immediate method for comprehension.   Later, put into my search box: 

sight words     or ce, ci, cy      or ge, gi, gy     or oy      or compound words     or short vowel long vowel

or add ed     or change y to i      or tion or tient -- my blog has 160 skills lessons.

If you want a book, I use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you. All are brand new, full of stories, skills lessons, comprehension exercises, etc. Include my contact info, email or call.      Have a great day, Mary Maisner      

Sight word smart

Will the fish win this fight?
Artist: Kuniyoshi Kitagawa

Sight words are confusing for nearly every child to learn because so many look alike (were, we're, where). Plus, sight words do not have clear, concrete meanings.

Your child can make a mental image for lion, frog, etc.

Example: The 2nd sight word of has no clear meaning. Of can be confused with for (sight word # 13) and or (# 24).  My tutor kids have proven this sad lesson to me.

Practicing sight words in sentences and stories is much faster than flashcards because a child needs context to grasp the difference between look-alike words.  All sight word lists are the same and in the same order. Download it; or, all of my books include a list of the first 300.

Today's tip: buy any book at a used book store. Any book will be full of the tricky sight words: there, their, they're; this, these, those, then, were, whether; are, our, hour, etc.  

Assigned your child the Treasure Hunt of finding and circling words you know are tricky.

National Institutes of Health tells us only six out of fifty kids who get a slow start in 1st Grade ever catch up. Do not panic; my blog has 160 free lessons. 

My work with struggling older readers has shown me that rarely is a child a slow learner. When a child has trouble it is because specific early lessons were not clearly instructed. 

My books make it easy. The mother of a struggling 2nd Grader wrote back to tell me she could see immediately which words were holding back her daughter. I use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help plus your child's grade level. Instant Reading Help Kindergarten. Instant Reading Help 3rd Grade, etc.

Have fun reading! Mary Maisner