Reading Time!

During reading time we work in small ability groups.  We have a range of things that we are focussing on during this first reading of the book.

When they come to an unknown word we say things like:

• Look at the first letter of the word, what sound does that make?  What word might start with that sound?  Sometimes it helps to re-read the first part of the sentence for them so they can think about the answer.
• Read to the end of the sentence (skip the word) and then come back and see if you can work it out.
• Look for something in the word that you know that could help you? eg 'at' in 'cat' or 'the' in 'mother'.

If they make an error we don't jump in straight away.  We give them a short amount of time to see if they notice it and correct it themselves.  (Which is what we want them to do)

If they don't correct it themselves we ask them things like:

• Did that look right?
• You said "the dog walking down the road", did that sound right?  (Often when you repeat what they have read they can hear the error.)
• Did that make sense? (again, repeat what they have said)

This line of questioning gives the students some skills to use when attempting unknown words and to self correct when they make an error which is what all good readers do!