How to teach a P1 child to read

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:09:40 GMT

MMM — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:09:40 GMT

jedamum:
i think some parents have the misconception that primary school teachers will really teach A for Apple like our time.

Yes... we are of the same era. I remember only learning ABC when I was in P1. I struggled as I am hearing english for the 1st time....

BTW, they used to teach multiplication very much later on as well but kids nowadays are required to know by P2.

But I do agree that some parents think that they should not \"deprive\" their kids of childhood and do not want to \"stress\" them. They fail to understand that by not preparing the child for primary school, they are stressing the child not now but later. In fact, it's going to be more stressful and I hate to say, will affect the child's self-esteem and confidence on his/ her ability as they need to go to \"special\" classes and are \"isolated\" from rest of their friends. They will think they are not good enough.

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:56:41 GMT

vividlaurel — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:56:41 GMT

Thanks chamonix,

I knew if I posted it here, I would get loads of very workable solutions...:D

chamonix:
Hi vividlaurel,

Besides not being actively taught to read, I would think these kids are also seldom read to. Perhaps getting interesting picture books with repeitive words may also help them learn to read as well as motivate them to read. One good book to try out would be http://www.amazon.com/Were-Going-Bear-Michael-Rosen/dp/0689853491/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265892317&sr=8-1 .

I'm sure the kids will definitely appreciate your effort. Well done, vividlaurel!

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:52:36 GMT

vividlaurel — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:52:36 GMT

Hi jedamum,

The sugesstions by you are good and very implementable. I'll use them the next time I go which is after CNY.

The school is doing phonics since it is obvious that not children are on the same level. This term in fact the school is not doing Maths, instead focusing on English.

jedamum:
kids not being able to read at P1 is very real. the pcf that my ds1 used to attend did not have a structured phonics programme. instead they have optional phonics by vendors on a different time slot. some middle lower income parents may treat these as optional and really thought that the preschool will teach these kids to read before P1.
Besides efforts from pv and parents (if the sch can get the parents to commit), the kids themselves have to take in interest in their learning for effective results. as sight words make up 75% of any reading material, i would suggest to zoom in onto memorization of sight words. once the kid is able to master sightwords and able to read chunks of stories, they may be more motivated to try to sound out the other words which require phonics skills. additionally, does the RP has methods of introducing individual phonetic sounds to the children? i think my ds1's sch uses songs. blending can come later with practice.

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:48:03 GMT

metz — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:48:03 GMT

Hi vividlaurel,

Besides not being actively taught to read, I would think these kids are also seldom read to. Perhaps getting interesting picture books with repeitive words may also help them learn to read as well as motivate them to read. One good book to try out would be http://www.amazon.com/Were-Going-Bear-Michael-Rosen/dp/0689853491/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265892317&sr=8-1 .

I'm sure the kids will definitely appreciate your effort. Well done, vividlaurel!

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:25:46 GMT

jedamum — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:25:46 GMT

MMM:
In my niece's case, my sil is the educated mum but probably bochap.

bochap or thinking of not stressing the kid and letting the kid enjoy her childhood?
i think some parents have the misconception that primary school teachers will really teach A for Apple like our time. i remember not knowing how to speak english when i started P1 and surprisingly still came in 2nd in SA1 - time/syllabus has change man.

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:21:33 GMT

jedamum — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:21:33 GMT

kids not being able to read at P1 is very real. the pcf that my ds1 used to attend did not have a structured phonics programme. instead they have optional phonics by vendors on a different time slot. some middle lower income parents may treat these as optional and really thought that the preschool will teach these kids to read before P1.

Besides efforts from pv and parents (if the sch can get the parents to commit), the kids themselves have to take in interest in their learning for effective results. as sight words make up 75% of any reading material, i would suggest to zoom in onto memorization of sight words. once the kid is able to master sightwords and able to read chunks of stories, they may be more motivated to try to sound out the other words which require phonics skills. additionally, does the RP has methods of introducing individual phonetic sounds to the children? i think my ds1’s sch uses songs. blending can come later with practice.

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:20:12 GMT

metz — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:20:12 GMT

mummy of 2:
I'm surprised that there are still kids who can't read in P1. From what I read in KSP, I thought most kids can read simple words by the time they complete pre-school. Made me really :scared: and forced me to start some sort of reading programme at home with DS1.

Some kids are really poor things. I heard of one case who couldn't read at P1. He came from a rather well-to-do family. Unfortunately, his family was too busy battling with the mom's illness to ensure he was prepared for P1.

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:05:41 GMT

vividlaurel — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:05:41 GMT

Totally true MMM! It’s only when you go to the school that you learn about things like this! I used to think my DD is bad in reading, but after seeing this, I now feel that she is not so bad, but of course needs some more work to make her better! :!:

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:07:00 GMT

MMM — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:07:00 GMT

mummy of 2:
I'm surprised that there are still kids who can't read in P1. From what I read in KSP, I thought most kids can read simple words by the time they complete pre-school. Made me really :scared: and forced me to start some sort of reading programme at home with DS1.

Actually, I am not surprised as I feel that alot depends on family support. A child may be attending kindys but is \"day dreaming\" everyday so he/ she might not be absorbing anything. Parents need to progressively evaluate their learning and identify if there are any issues.

Being a take it easy mum initially, my P2 going son nearly fall into that despite that he attends a decent kindy and does phonics enrichment lessons since K1. I just left everything to the teachers and thought that they should cover it in school. On learning his gap just before P1, we did last minute effort to beef him up (eg. reading to him, etc...) which helped and that \"saved\" him from LSP.

My girl used to have a classmate who is having remedial lessons for all subjects at P1. My girl commented that wonder what kind of pre-school her friend goes to as she was surprised. Note that the girl at P3 now is still having additional support from teachers to cope. On the other hand, my own niece (same age as my girl) had to undergo learning support program. My sil told me that she didn't send her for phonics classes and only realised that P1 that she has problem. In my niece's case, my sil is the educated mum but probably bochap.

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:41:54 GMT

mummy of 2 — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:41:54 GMT

I'm surprised that there are still kids who can't read in P1. From what I read in KSP, I thought most kids can read simple words by the time they complete pre-school. Made me really :scared: and forced me to start some sort of reading programme at home with DS1.

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:06:35 GMT

vividlaurel — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:06:35 GMT

Thanks katy and MMM,

I am only guessing at this stage since I met them just once. I think these children either come from disadvantaged families and hence may not have gone to preschool or that their parents either don't know and don't care enough to teach them at home. In fact I also did this same programme with the sister of one of the boys currently under me. I have committed to going to the school twice a week at 15 mins each time. They will have other PV who will deal with them for the 2 other days with one day being MT reading day in the school. I know it's not enough, but I guess since this is in addition to regular school hours, this is the best the school can do.

The school provides us with a graded set of books for them from the very basic to some advanced ones, but the kids I have are at below the basic level - they could not sight read words like \"open\", \"close\", \"and\" \"the\" etc. Since they also do not know phonics (which is what I used to teach my kids), it's a bit challenging for me to see how best I can teach them...

MMM:
Wow, that really sounds like a challenging job for you. I am not an eduator but just a normal mum trying to teach my K1 to read.

How much time are they being provided the support in school? I was just thinking if it is once a week and less than 1 hour each time, that don't seem sufficient. Particularly if they don't get such support at home.

Have you explored reading books that has repetitive words? My K1 is in beginning of intermediate phonics so her blending is not there yet. As part of her course at LW, she is required to bring home 2 books and read to teachers every week.

This is what I do with her and not sure if it will be helpful in your case but if they don't know basic words, they are probably as good as K1 level. We will point each words as we read. For those that she should know, I will pause and ask her to try to read it by herself. When it comes to new words, I will tell her. We will repeat this until, she is able to read the entire book by herself. So far, I feel that with this method, she is getting used to the common sight words. But this takes time and consistent efforts.

Good luck.

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:10:58 GMT

MMM — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:10:58 GMT

Wow, that really sounds like a challenging job for you. I am not an eduator but just a normal mum trying to teach my K1 to read.

How much time are they being provided the support in school? I was just thinking if it is once a week and less than 1 hour each time, that don’t seem sufficient. Particularly if they don’t get such support at home.

Have you explored reading books that has repetitive words? My K1 is in beginning of intermediate phonics so her blending is not there yet. As part of her course at LW, she is required to bring home 2 books and read to teachers every week.

This is what I do with her and not sure if it will be helpful in your case but if they don’t know basic words, they are probably as good as K1 level. We will point each words as we read. For those that she should know, I will pause and ask her to try to read it by herself. When it comes to new words, I will tell her. We will repeat this until, she is able to read the entire book by herself. So far, I feel that with this method, she is getting used to the common sight words. But this takes time and consistent efforts.

Good luck.

Reply to How to teach a P1 child to read on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:56:13 GMT

kaitlynangelica — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:56:13 GMT

vividlaurel:
Hi,

I am a PV in the reading programme in my kids school. This year I was assigned P1 and yesterday was the 1st day of the RP. I was shocked that most of the kids assigned to me could not even read basic words - words that I assume they would have learnt in their kindy. I asked them if they could break the word and read it and saw blank faces (guess they don't know phonics - could not say aa sound cl sound etc).

My question to any educator here - how do I teach them and help them with reading so that they can catch up with their peers?

Any help here will be invaluable...

Thanks

teach letter sounds first and then get them to blend. I think thats the only way. Another way that I found useful is to use the Peter and Jane series.