IMPORTANT!

Each year, I like to share the following information with parents because it is so very important…

 Why We Shouldn’t Say “Sound It Out”

When Reading & Writing With Children

It is very important that we are using common language at home and school in helping our children to become more efficient readers and writers. 

Using the term “sound it out” tends to make for inefficient reading and writing, and does not really help children to incorporate meaning, structure, and visual information, which is what we want children to do as readers. We want the children to use story meaning, language structure, and the visual information within words/text to take strategic actions as literacy learners.

Instead, try the following when you are helping your child to read and write at home:

• When he/she is reading and gets “stuck” (point of difficulty) say “what would look that way and make sense?” or “try it and think about what would look that way and make sense.” This will help to link the visual information with meaning and structure more efficiently than merely “sounding out” letters. 
• When he/she is writing and gets “stuck” use “say it to your self slowly and write down what you hear” (making the sounds within the words (from the mouth) match the writing on paper).  Also try, “do what writers do and re-read to check that your writing looks right, sounds right, and makes sense.”

 Being diligent about using common language with the children at home and school will help support more efficient readers and writers!

Happy Reading,

Mrs. Michelle Logan

 copyright M.Logan 2006