Fun, Effective Ways to Help Your
First Grader Become a Better
Reader
Presented by: Jennifer Mariano
Reading Specialist/Literacy Coach
Sara Lindemuth/Anna Carter Primary School
The Importance of Raising a Reader
 Reading is fundamental to living a successful life (reading directions, medicine bottles/prescriptions, bills, job applications/forms, signs,
maps, bank forms, ingredient lists, e-mails, texts, etc.).
 Reading is important in finding and keeping a well-paying job. Reading is required for many job performance tasks such reading reports,
understanding training manuals and work memos.
 Reading helps grow the mind. The mind is a muscle. It needs exercise. Understanding the written word is one way the mind grows in its
ability. Teaching young children to read helps them develop their language skills. It also helps them learn to listen. Everybody wants to
talk, but few can really listen. Lack of listening skills can result in major misunderstandings which can lead to job loss and other disasters
- small and great. Reading helps children [and adults] focus on what someone else is communicating.
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Reading helps us discover new topics.
Reading helps grow the imagination.
Reading helps expand vocabulary.
Reading can be a great hobby.
The list goes on…
Top Ten Tried and True Ways
to Raise a Reader
#1 Make Reading a Regular Part of Every Day
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Don’t leave home without a book.
Make a reading bag for the car.
Reading during bath time.
Don’t forget a bedtime story.
Model reading every day (magazines, newspaper, books).
#2 Point out Real Life Reading/Build a Sense
of Urgency
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Point out signs in the community.
Show your child some pieces of mail.
If you have to read a text for work, show it to your child.
Challenge your child to keep a tally chart to show how many times you read
during a day (ANY reading counts).
• Have a talk with your child about the real world importance of reading.
#3 Visit the Library Often
• Take your child to the Dauphin County Library to get his/her very own
library card. What a way to feel like a reader!
• Before going to the library, encourage your child to think about the types of
books he/she would like to check-out. It helps to have some sort of plan.
• Don’t forget to check out the seasonal book displays.
• The DCLS offers many fun, exciting FREE programs for children.
#4 Reread!
• It’s perfectly fine for your child to reread the same book/poem/song over
and over again. You may be bored, but your child isn’t.
• Rereading helps build fluency (rate of reading, smoothness, use of
expression).
• It helps build sight word recognition.
#5 Be Patient
• When your child comes to a tricky word, here are some ideas to try:
 Encourage your reader to look closely at the word (think about the beginning sound,
ending sound, middle sound, known parts).
 Once your reader “thinks” he/she figured out the word, he/she should ask these
questions:
 Does it look right?
 Does it sound right?
 Does it make sense?
 The pictures can be used as well, but in harder texts there may not be pictures/they may not
offer support.
#6 Gently Help Correct Your Reader When
Mistakes Happen
• When your child makes an error when reading, ask the following questions
(choose as appropriate):
 Does that word look like the word you said? What looks like this word?
 Does that word sound like the word you said? What would sound right?
 Does that word make sense in what you are reading? Let’s think of some words that
may look like this word AND make sense in what we are reading.
*If you child is making multiple errors on a page, the text may be too challenging. Offer to
read it to your child, or encourage your child to find another text. It’s o.k. to do this. As
adults, we abandon texts for multiple reasons (I know I do ).
#7 Use the “I PICK” strategy for helping your
child choose “just-right” books.
#8 Get Hooked on a Series
• Book series have familiar characters and a familiar style. Readers enjoy
reading about the adventures of characters in a series.
• There are many series to try. Some great ones for first graders include:
 Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems
 Max & Ruby by Rosemary Wells
 Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant
 Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel
 Fly Guy books by Ted Arnold
 Young Cam Jansen/Cam Jansen by David Adler
 Nate the Great books by Marjorie Weinman
#9 Dive Deeper into a Book!
• Help support comprehension by discussing what your child reads.
• Use the provided bookmarks to help guide discussions about what your child reads.
• Don’t wait until your child finished reading to discuss a book. Take time before
reading to preview the book, make predictions, discuss any similar books (by
author/topic).
• During reading, naturally discuss the text (discuss pictures, any important events or
new information learned).
• After reading, discuss favorite parts, recommendations and/or review what was read.
#10 Host a Family Dinner Book Club
• Make dinnertime fun by starting a family book club. Here is how it works:
 Encourage your family to choose a book from the list provided.
 Borrow or buy the book.
 Read the book ahead of time so you know what it is about.
 Each night, during dinner, read a part of the book to your family. When finished with each
reading session, discuss what was read.
 Your family can plan a book-themed dinner and activity to celebrate when the book is over.
 Use ideas from the attached Dinner Book Club ideas.
 This is a great way to involve your whole family in a fun reading activity.
Ideas taken from http://growingbookbybook.com/literacy-activities/family-dinner-book-club/