1. Parent Information Session
Maria Forster – Literacy Coach
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2. Helpful hints for reading at home with your child
Fostering a love for reading.... Home reading should be an enjoyable (and not stressful) time for both you and your child. Speak to your child’s teacher if you have any concerns or queries about home reading or your child’s reading progress in general. Encourage your child to read everything – signs, notes, invitations, labels, messages, anything at all that will help them to see words and how they are used.

3. Learning Sight Words at Home
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4. Learning Sight Words at Home
What are sight words?
Sight words are ‘tricky’ or ‘common’ words that are hard to learn and sound out.
They are words that readers should recognise on ‘sight’. These words are also referred to as ‘high frequency words’ because they are the most commonly used words found in most texts.

5. Benefits of learning sight words
Sight words are confidence builders.
When a child recognises more than half the words on the page, they have the confidence to attempt to read it.
Sight words free up a child’s energy to tackle more challenging words.
Once children learn sight words, they only need to spend energy on slowing down their reading to focus on decoding new, challenging words.
Sight words sometimes defy decoding strategies.
While phonics instruction is vital in helping children learn to read, some sight words need to be taught so they can be instantly recognised as some words can not use the strategy of ‘sounding out’.

6. Activities to assist your child with learning sight words.
Make sight words with magnetic letters, blocks or scrabble tiles.
Write sight words in sand, flour or shaving cream. Alternatively, make sight words using play dough or pipe cleaners.
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7. Activities to assist your child with learning sight words.
Word hunt - cut out sight words from magazines and newspapers.
Search for sight words hidden around the house.
Find sight words in reading books and environmental print.
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8. Sight word games
Bingo – makes copies of bingo mats and calling cards. If cards is called, see if that word matches a word on the Bingo mat!
Dominoes – play as you would regular dominoes, matching words instead of numbers.
Snap – make two copies of the sight words and see if your child can match and recognise the same word.
Memory / Concentration – make two copies of the sight words. Place all cards face down and player take turns of turning two cards over. If a match is found, the player keeps the pair.
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9. Active sight word games
Bowling
Trampoline words
Sight word Soccer (4)
Sight word Twister (6)
Hopscotch
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11. Before reading Activate prior knowledge Predict / make inferences
What do I already know about this topic?
Predict / make inferences
I predict this book will be about… because…
Question
I wonder why…
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12. Reading Hints for Prep - 3 Parents Reading with their Children
Before reading
Look for clues and predict
Talk about the cover, illustration and title.
Ask your child if this reminds them of anything else?
What do they think it is going to be about?
Picture Flick
Go through the book page by page.
Talk about the pictures and the words or ideas that might be in the book.
Point out a couple of words that may be difficult. Ask: “How will you remember these?”

13. During reading Make connections Visualise Make inferences Question
I know what that feels like because….
Visualise
I can make pictures in my mind
Make inferences
I think what the author is trying to tell me is……
Question
I wonder why….
Revise and adjust predictions
I predicted… would happen, but I think.…
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14. Reading Hints for Prep - 3 Parents Reading with their Children
During reading
Reading is all about getting the meaning from the print.
Praise all efforts in independent reading, especially if confidence is low.
When your child gets to an unknown word, give your child time to work it out. Five to ten seconds is reasonable.
Encourage your child to a range of strategies to decode unknown words.

15. Strategies include: Beanie babies
Eagle Eye
Look at the picture
Look at the picture for clues.
Lips the Fish
Get your lips ready!
Look at the beginning letter, say the first sound, and think about the picture.
Stretchy Snake
S-t-r-e-t-c-h it out!
Stretch the word out slowly.
Put the sounds together to figure out the word.

16. Strategies include: Beanie babies
Chunky Monkey
Chunk the word!
Look at what you know inside the word (patterns, chunks and blends).
Skippy Frog
Skip it, Skip it!
Read-on by missing the unknown words and then reread the sentence
Tryin’ Lion
Try it again!
Reread the sentence and try a word that makes sense.

17. Strategies include: Beanie babies
Flippy Dolphin
Flip the vowel sound!
Try the other vowel sound.
Flipping between short and long vowels.
Helpful kangaroo
Ask for help!
After you have tries all other strategies, ask for help.

18. After reading Retell / Summarise Question Evaluate the text
The main idea of the story is…
Question
I would like to find out why ….
Evaluate the text
I found this book useful for my report because…..
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19. Reading Hints for Prep - 7 Parents Reading with their Children
After reading
After reading with your child, discuss the events in the story and the different characters.
Ask your child questions about the text to ensure they comprehended the story and whether they have obtained meaning from the print.
Examples of questions:
Did you enjoy the book? Why? Why not?
What was the main character’s name? Describe this character.
What was your favourite part?
Did the story teach you something?
Can you retell what happened in the story in your own words?

20. Reading Years 4 -7
Students are aware that different kinds of meaning can be constructed during reading and that multiple meanings exist around a text.
A reader’s prior knowledge significantly influences comprehension. If readers are familiar with a topic, they spontaneously relate information in text to personal experience and relate new information to familiar ideas.
Image: Teaching reading and viewing Comprehension strategies and activities for Years1-9 (QSA- September 2010)

21. Reading Years 4 -7 Question answer relationships
Readers can identify facts and details which are “right there” in the text.
Readers use details from the text, as well as from other texts they’ve read, to draw a conclusion or to make an inference.
Readers use what the author has written to make connections to their own experiences. (Author and Me)
Image: Teaching reading and viewing Comprehension strategies and activities for Years1-9 (QSA- September 2010)

22. Reading Years 4 -7 Comprehension Strategies
Identifying Facts and Details – who, what, where, when, why
Sequencing – order of events
Finding the main idea – the most important idea in the paragraph or
text
Compare and contrast ideas – how two or more things are alike or
different
Find Causes and effects – the reason something happens because
of the cause
Make inferences – to draw a conclusion
Identify facts and opinions
Identify the Author’s Purpose – to entertain, explain, describe or
persuade.

23. Questions
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