Given the new provincial screening requirements for primary reading, and our ongoing learning with respect to literacy in general, we wanted to provide a regular feature in our newsletter for the rest of this year.  We hope that families find this useful in supporting literacy learning at home.

As a starting point, we thought we would share some foundational information about reading for understanding (comprehension) - the ultimate goal in learning to read.  Automatic word recognition (decoding/word reading) and language comprehension are the skills that work together to facilitate skilled reading.  Supporting students in becoming successful readers requires careful attention to both word recognition and language comprehension so that they ultimately weave together as illustrated in The Reading Rope.

Supporting Reading at Home:

• Recognize that PRINT is spoken language written down - make space for meaningful conversations and ask good questions to support language comprehension
• Play games with words and letter sounds  - help children develop letter-sound correspondence, recognize sight words quickly, and develop rich vocabularies
• Provide experiences that allow for exposure to rich vocabulary - help students engage with the world around them, go to museums, travel, enjoy hobbies together, read books with rich vocabulary out loud and talk about your shared experiences