READING GUIDE
How to help your child read better
This summary of reading instruction is designed to help you understand how our teachers teach reading, and
explain the vocabulary you can use at home to reinforce the work teachers do in class. Our reading program
is designed to help students understand what they read so they can discuss it, connect it to knowledge they
already have and gain new understanding.
1. Connections
When students make connections, they think about what they already know and connect that
information to something new. Making a connection is sometimes called activating schema or prior
knowledge. There are three different ways to make these connections.
o Text-to-Self: Readers compare what they're reading to past experiences or knowledge
 Text-to-Text: Readers compare what they're reading to things they have already read
 Text-to-World: Readers make connections between what they're reading and what they know
about the issues, events or concerns of the world at large
2. Questioning
Asking questions help students clear up confusion, improve understanding, find answers, solve
problems and discover new information. Questioning leads to wondering, pondering, learning and
synthesizing.
Successful readers ask questions before, during and after reading. Readers question the content, the
author, the author's ideas and opinions, and the issues presented in the text.
3. Visualizing
Readers use their imagination to make pictures in their minds as they read. This helps the words on
the page become more real and concrete. Visualizing creates meaning from the text, stimulates
imagination, links past experiences, involves the reader more deeply with the story and characters,
and brings more joy to reading.
4. Inferring
Inferences are made when readers figure out information from clues in the text. When students notice
clues, the clues can blend with the child's own knowledge and experiences. This understanding leads
students to draw conclusions, make predictions or have opinions about the main theme or idea in the
text.
What can you infer from this statement, "The children were all sweating and out of breath." Some
possible inferences: The children were in gym class. The children had just finished a long race. The
children were running away from something scary.
5. Determining Importance
Students need practice determining the main idea or essence of the text. What is most important may
not be what is the most interesting. Students need to learn to figure out what is important in the
materials they read. The following questions can help students make this determination.
 What is the theme or opinion the author offers?
 What is the author's message?
 Which facts are important or essential to the paragraph?
6. Synthesize (How thoughts evolve)
Students synthesize by combining new information with facts they already know, to create an original
idea or new way of thinking. Readers must sift through a lot of information, extract the key ideas and
put them together to get the overall sense of the reading material. Then they synthesize to come up
with their own ideas.
7, Fix-up strategies
Students need to learn how to monitor their own comprehension. They need to realize when
something does not make sense and take action. Fix-up strategies include: rereading, sounding out
unknown words, using context or a dictionary to understand unfamiliar vocabulary, and asking for
help.
HOW CAN YOU HELP YOUR CHILD WITH READING?
When you are reading to your child, or listening to your child read:
 Ask your child to predict what might happen next. (inferring)
 Have your child describe the picture he or she is imagining while they are reading. (visualization)
 Talk about how the reading material relates to an experience you have shared.
 Talk about how the reading material relates to other books or articles you have read together.
(connections, schema, background knowledge)
 Ask your child to figure out the most important information in a paragraph. (determining importance)
 Ask questions as you read. Have your child develop and ask their own questions. "Think of a
question you can ask me." (questioning)
 Have your child tell you what she or he infers, or figured out from a paragraph. Look for ideas that
the author hasn't clearly stated. (inferring)
 Ask your child to sum up what has just been read in one or two sentences
 Think aloud as you read, so your child hears what you are thinking.
Where Are Answers to
Questions Found?
In The Book:
RIGHT THERE
The answer is in the text, usually easy to find.
The words used to make up the question and
words used to answer the question are
right there in the same sentence.
THINK AND SEARCH (Putting It Together)
The answer is in the text, but the words used
in the question and those used for the answer
are not in the same sentence. You need to
think about different parts .of the text and
how ideas can be put together before you
answer the question.
In My Head:
AUTHOR AND YOU
The answer is not in the story. You need
to think about what you already know,
what the author tells you in the text, and
how it fits together.
ON MY OWN
The answer is not in the story. The author
can't help you much. The text got you
thinking, but the answer is inside your head.
Use what you already know to answer
the question.