Strategies to Support Reading

RWI strategies support reading and children are very familiar with them. You can use these strategies at home to support your child. 

Decoding

Fred Talking helps children to decode words by saying the sounds and blending them together. Help your child to look for 'special friends'.

Contextual understanding means using the context to determine what an unfamiliar word might say. If the children understand the other words in the sentence or text they can make a sensible guess about what the unfamiliar word is. 

Picture cues are an important strategy when learning to read and children can gain more understanding of the text by using the pictures.

Comprehension

'Find it' or 'prove it' questions help children to answer questions about the text to show their understanding. If they are answering a 'find it' question they know that they are looking for a word, phrase or sentence that tells them the answer. If they are answering a 'prove it' question they know that they will need to use the text to give them clues to explain the answer to the question. These are often 'why' or 'how' questions.

Underlining the part of the text that gives them the answer or clue can help children to focus on the relevant part of the text. 

Linking to other texts shows a deeper understanding. For example; This story is similar to one I read last week because they are both about children who had an adventure.

These are just some of the many strategies we use to support reading. Please speak to your child's class teacher if you would like to know more about how to support your child.