Helping DD to read books which are a bit too hard

[IndigoBell]

If a book is a bit too hard for a child, so that they can sound out each word but can't understand what they've read, because they've spent so much effort sounding out the words what's the best thing to do?

1. Get the child to read it 3 times so that they do understand it?

1. Read it together first, and then they read it second?

1. Read it to them first, and then they read it second?

1. Something else?

(Most of you have heard about my ongoing saga with DD - so I don't want to repeat it here. But she is 8 and can't read anything fluently - so reading simpler texts isn't an option and neither is not reading and leaving it a while...)

Indigo - if it were me, I would take alternate pages - or paragraphs if more than one on page.

Page/paragraph 1 - you read first then dd reads same page/para

Page/paragraph 2 - she reads first, then you read to aid comprehension.

That way she gets sufficient support to understand the book, but also gets quite a lot of practice of first-time decoding too. I'll PM you too.

I would summarise the passage rather than read it first. If you read it first there is always the risk the child is remembering what you have read rather than decoding the words herself, which is the underlying skill you are trying to speed up.

This is from Siegfried Engelmann: Improving Reading Rate of Low Performers.
www.zigsite.com/PDFs/readingrate.pdf

What I do with DS2 when he does

"D-a-d Dad h-a-d had t-h-e oh I remember the c-a-p cap o-n on"

is repeat bits of the sentence as he's going along, particularly if there's a long pause, or I repeat the sentence when he's read it, saying "yes, Dad had the cap on, that's right", which seems to help him get the words. Otherwise he's just lost in the individual letters.

Maleuca - that article is very interesting and provides lots of good ideas.

It recommends we start with 'duet reading', where me and DD alternate reading words.

That seems really counter intuitive to me. How will she be able to comprehend what we are reading if she has to alternate so much between reading and listening?

Sarah's idea of alternating who reads a passage first sounds like it would work better.....

Have you ever tried alternating reading words? Is the child able to understand a passage read in this way?

Yes I have done it many times with poor or reluctant readers and it works well. When she reads she has to learn to listen to herself!

Have you tried 'preparing' the page/book with her first? eg if the text is 'The ball is red', then say something like 'let's look at the ball in the picture. What colour is it?' or 'I wonder what colour the ball is. Let's find out.'
I've been on a series of reading courses which are the stage above reading recovery (Pink/red level readers) and we are told to always prepare the book with the child first with loads of discussion so that they feel confident in the meaning and helps them concentrate on reading the words.

Chocciechoc - thanks for that. There are loads of tips which teachers know which us parents don't :)

But as a result of this thread I kind of worked out I was meant to be doing that a bit more, and so have been doing loads more discussing about the story and the words before reading the story - and it has really helped.

As well as preparing her, we have been alternating sentences or paragraphs (sorry Malaleuca - I wasn't brave enough to try alternating words)

And these last 2 nights I have seen progress. The books now seem more of 'a stretch' rather than 'too hard' - so I'm really pleased.

And DDs feeling better as well - is far less reluctant to read with me.

That's brilliant, well done her and you