Last Updated On: February 11th, 2022
Teaching anything across digital platforms has its pros and cons. One of the most highly requested and difficult subjects to teach over the digital divide is reading. Most children of the last decade have seen lower literacy rates as our world has been slowly transitioning to technology. However, with the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic it has made what was once a barrier into a hurdle.
Although parents, teachers, and tutors alike face insurmountable odds, it’s impressive to see how we have risen to the challenge and found innovative ways to continue the essential task of educating our children.
So let’s take a look at best practices for learning how to read online …
Step 1: Find a book the student likes.
Often this is the trickiest part. It’s important when selecting a book that you find something genre specific that the student tends to like. Just because parents and educators may gravitate towards the book, doesn’t mean a younger student will be able to hold attention and focus. The more we enjoy a subject, the greater our reading comprehension and retention will be too. It really does matter.
Always bear in mind your child’s reading level. Lexile scores or levels are another way that teachers get more specific with literacy. They tend to have measurements that can either be provided by taking a test or by standard assessment of where your child is at in their reading experience. Scholastic provides a comprehensive chart with lexile scores describing where children tend to fall based on their grade level, but it’s important to remember that everything is subjective. If you have no idea where your child lands, try asking their teacher. If that isn’t an option or you want more specific results, it’s always a great idea to find texts/short stories with a variety of reading levels and see where you feel they are most comfortable. MetaMetrics provides a fantastic search tool to see what books might fit your child’s reading level by grade, lexile score, or preferred genre. Usually from there you can search for excerpts of the book.
When hunting for books to help students learn to read I prefer to err on the side of a medium difficulty level. While it’s important to get through the pages, it’s almost more important to have the child feel accomplished and moderately challenged. If they don’t have at least 3 spots on the page where a word or sentence stumps them, it’s not hard enough. Confidence building during reading is still important, but we’ll get to that part later.
Step 2: Download an e-book.
Although traditional paper books are always a wonderful tool to learn on, if you’re going to be teaching someone to read or improve their reading skills online, e-books are essential. There are many websites to locate and order e-books including renting these from your public library.
Step 3: Find a tool to follow along.
If you’re going to be sitting next to your child and helping them learn how to read on a device it’s ok to use something more tangible like a ruler, index card, or pencil to help them follow along and keep track of what line they’re on. If you’re going to be teaching from a remote location, this is where Zoom can come in handy. If you select “Vanishing Pen,” it’s easy to share your screen and draw a line under words, phrases, or sentences as you go. To make it fun for students, you can even let them pick the “color of the day.” Neither option is better than the other and both are just a helping hand for children as they learn to read and improve upon their literacy skills.
Step 4: Emphasize periods and commas.
Similar to in-person reading practice, you must stop to work on specific skills. For young readers, punctuation is one of the most frequently missed concepts. They’re typically so excited they get the word or phrase that they don’t want to stop. It’s important to make the student revisit moments that required a comma. By making them redo the sentence and insert a pause or breath, you help them relearn the author’s correct intention. Additionally, by having them overemphasize the breath and listen to the sentence once more out loud, you can increase comprehension and retention. Not to mention, you prepare them for any writing assignments and skills that could arise in the future.
Periods tend to present the same problems. Often students get so eager or antsy that they rush to the next sentence. Then sometimes they truly can’t hear the differentiation between one sentence and the next. It’s very important to figure out where your child falls. If they are struggling with how the thoughts should be organized then it’s worth revisiting the period and once again practicing the overemphasizing beat between two sentences. If they are simply proud of their ability to read the words and get to that moment, then it’s more an issue of slowing down and enjoying the process. Regardless, it’s not good practice to allow students to flow through one sentence to the next.
Step 5: Encourage working in word clusters.
Often students are taught to sound out words slowly. While that is a fundamental skill for young readers, it isn’t the only way to tackle a text bit by bit. Even if a student needs to sound out every word in the sentence, it’s important that they read it in clusters or chunks. Having them sound out 3-4 words and then read those words as a cluster is a great way to break the sentence into manageable pieces. Then they can sound out the next 3-4 words and read those as a unit. Now they have two word clusters they know. Have them try starting from the top of the sentence. Can they retain and recite the two word clusters without error? Excellent. Now move on to sounding out the next 3-4 words. It sounds tedious because it is. Without taking the time to step through a text slowly with a child, you’re skipping the rudimentary principles of reading.
Step 6: Repeat daily.
This is the missing component for most. It’s hard to set aside time to read daily. It’s hard for adults and it’s hard for students alike. However, it really makes a WORLD of difference. It’s ok if the daily time investment can only be 10 minutes. It’s more about the act of doing the reading. Just like any skill, it has to become a habitual practice. Reading has to become a muscle that is worked, used, and improved upon daily. Even if you can only commit to weekday reading, that’s somewhere to start. Instilling values like daily reading before bed will not only improve the skill that is reading, but also the ability to grow and expand the reading level more quickly.
Things to note …
Although it’s tempting to read aloud to your student, it’s not the same skill and definitely won’t provide the same benefits to their education. While it’s frustrating to be patient and take this kind of meticulous effort, it’s also the difference between a mediocre reader and an advanced reader.
While reading from a classic paper book might be your preference and the way you learned, it’s just not what most kids find appealing. Younger readers are entranced by digital devices and they don’t feel the precious connection to paper that our generation felt. It’s ok to acknowledge this is “not your way of learning,” but try to do what’s best for your child. If they want e-books and digital sources of reading, jump on board.
Most kids that “hate reading” only dislike it because they don’t feel confident. Make sure to celebrate their wins and congratulate them when they get a word cluster right and especially when they get an entire sentence correct. By showing them you care and rejoice in their success, they will find value in their success.
Practice modeling good behavior. Read in front of your child. Show them the importance of a daily reading routine. Don’t allow them to hate or feel apathy for something that challenges them. Tell them stories about books that also challenged you and how you grew from the experience. Share value through example.
Reading is a process, a skill that is worked at throughout your whole life. Don’t expect your child to be a competitive reader within 6 months. Every child will have a different pace in their growth. Just keep the daily practice and trust that the foundation is there.
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels
