Reading at Home

Helping @ Home with Reading

At Ormond Primary School we encourage all students from Foundation to Year 6 to practice their reading skills daily at home. Parents are encouraged to make a special quiet time to listen to their child read every day. We hope this is a happy part of the day when you can enjoy reading together. 

During reading we encourage: 

• Your child to read out aloud and ‘listen’ to their own reading. This will assist him or her to hear mistakes and try to fix them. 
• Children hold their own book and turn pages. This installs ownership in the child. 
• Discussion around unknown vocabulary to build on current knowledge. 
• With older, more independent readers, to organise a daily time when you may both be reading. This will show your child that you value and enjoy reading. 
• Students to read a range of text types. 

How Can You Support Reading Development? 

**Talk to your child about the book before they start reading** 

• Look at the front cover, title, author – predict what they think the story is about. 
• Browse through the pictures and discuss the events. 
• Identify unusual or unfamiliar words and ideas and talk about them. 

When a book is being read by your child, to assist, use the 3 P’s – Pause, Prompt, Praise. 

• Pause if the child is unsure; wait a few seconds before jumping in. Let your child look at the pictures and words to work out the meaning. They may be able to work out the words on his/her own. 
• Give a prompt or clue that encourages your child to look closer and have a go. Ask a question such as: 
  What would make sense? 
  What would sound right? 
  What would look right? 
  After a few attempts if your child still can’t work it out with your support tell your child the word. Encourage them to go back and re-read from the start of the sentence and discuss the meaning of the word. 
• Praise all efforts. This will greatly assist your child’s reading development.
  Try comments like: 
  I like the way….. 
  You did a lot of investigating today….. 
  Well done for….. 

Keep the Pause, Prompt, Praise process short, so as not to interrupt the story flow.