How to Support Reading at Home
This information leaflet has been produced to guide you in some strategies that you can employ at home to help develop your child’s reading skills.
It is important to understand that a child’s ability to read fluently and expressively, whilst important, is not how their reading will be assessed in school. Rather it is their understanding of what they have read that will be commented upon.
There are different styles of questions that will be asked in comprehension tasks: literal questions when the answer can be simply lifted from the text: deductive questions, where the reader must look for clues in order to formulate an answer and inference questions, which are the most challenging. Here the reader is asked to comment upon an author’s use of language or literary features and the effect upon the reader. Answers require giving evidence and often quotes from the text.
General Tips
Find some time to talk about the book as well as reading it.
Start with the title, look at the title and briefly talk about what you might find inside.
At the bottom of each page, encourage your child to predict might happen next.
If your child gets stuck, ask what word would fit best, ask them to sound it out (if appropriate) or simply supply the word yourself.
If your child misreads a word without changing the meaning, eg ‘Dad’ for ‘Father’, accept it. If they hesitate, repeat a word or leave one out, say nothing provided the meaning is not lost.
Encourage your child to retell the story you have just shared. This will give you an idea of how much they have understood.
Never describe a book as ‘too easy’ or ‘too hard’. Children need a range of reading materials. An ‘easy’ book helps them to relax with reading. A difficult book can be read to your child. Both are important.
Specific Questions
Obviously not all questions will be appropriate for each book you read, but they make a good starting point for discussion.
Literal questions
What kind of text is this? How do you know?
Where and when did the story take place?
Who are the characters in the book?
What happened when…..?
Inference and Deduction Questions
How did (character) feel? How do we know? What evidence in the text suggests this?
What does this tell us about how (character) is feeling?
Can you think how (character) will react?
What will happen next? What makes you think this?
What does (word/phrase/feature) mean? Why did the author use this phrase/feature? Eg: italics, repetition, simile, exclamation marks, bullet points, headings etc. Comment upon the effect.
How has the author shown that this character is funny/sad/angry/tense?
As a reader, how do you feel about the events in the text? How has the author created this feeling?
How does the author create this atmosphere? (Sentence structure/punctuation/layout etc)
Why is the author’s choice of vocabulary effective?
Can you think of another word that the author could have used?
What do you think these words mean and why do you think the writer chose them?
How does the layout help …? e.g. paragraphs, sub-headings, font
What does the author think about …? e.g. looking after the countryside
What can you tell about the viewpoint of the author?
Activities for after reading
Create a profile for the main characters and illustrate how you think they would look
Draw a timeline of the events.
Write a summary in no more than 100 words.
Make a poster to advertise the book using eye-catching layout and presentation
Find similes and metaphors in the book and illustrate them
Make a word bank of new vocabulary from the book and try to use in your own writing.
Draw a story map illustrating the character’s feelings
