Reading with Kids

Tips and Tricks to Help Your Student Improve Their Reading Level

Coalition for Refugees from Burma

December 15, 2016

Learn about IRLA

Review elementary school IRLA levels.

Look at IRLA books.

Watch kids read.

Discuss how parents can support reading growth.

Reading with Kids overview

When do you use reading in your daily life?

How did you learn to read? Share any good or bad experiences you may have had.

Did you enjoy reading as a child? Why or why not?

Questions for you

A standards-based framework used by teachers to teach children how to read. The program includes books and assessments.

What is IRLA?

What skills are students learning?

Students are learning to love reading and how books work.

What can you do to help?

Read to your child. Any book, any genre, any language. Teach your child how a book is used.

Read To Me

What skills are students learning?

Students are using a repeated sentence pattern and the pictures in the book to “read”.

What can you do to help?

Read the first 1-2 pages, then ask your child to finish the book. Have your child point to each word as he/she says it. Support students to make the initial sound of the new word on the page, then name the picture.

The Yellow Levels

What skills are students learning?

Students are memorizing many “power words” that will help them to read and understand books.

What can you do to help?

Practice the power words with your child. Use flashcards, play games. Read 1 and 2G books with your child. Encourage your child to self-correct if something doesn’t seem right. Ask your child questions about the book. Praise your child.

The Green Levels

What skills are students learning?

Students begin to decode one and two-syllable words.

The Blue Levels

What can you do to help?

When your child comes to a new word, help them find a familiar “chunk”. Practice 1 and 2B Tricky words using flashcards. Encourage your child to self-correct if something doesn’t seem right. Ask your child questions about the book. Praise your child.

The Blue Levels

What skills are students working on?

Students begin to decode three-syllable words.

What can you do to help?

When your child comes to a new word, help them find a familiar “chunk”. Practice 1R Tricky words using flashcards. Encourage your child to self-correct if something doesn’t seem right. Ask your child questions about the book. Praise your child.

The Red Levels: 1R

What skills are students working on?

Students are now using all of their skills to decode any word familiar from speech.

What can you do to help?

If your child struggles with a new word, encourage him to ‘try it a different way’ until he or she recognizes the word. Practice 2R Tricky Words using flashcards. Encourage your child to self-correct if something doesn’t seem right. Ask your child questions about the book. Praise your child.

The Red Levels: 2R

What skills are students working on?

BUILD ACADEMIC VOCABULARY

FIND EVIDENCE & MAKE INFERENCES

DEMONSTRATE PROFICIENCY IN NEW GENRES

What can you do to help?

Ensure your child reads for 30 min each day. Support a silent reading habit. Help your child finish 1 chapter book each week. When your child reads an unfamiliar word, help him find the meaning using the context of the sentence. Help her find a known word that could substitute. Practice word lists (tricky words or root words) with flashcards. Ask questions about the story. Provide reference books, like dictionaries, to help students with new words. Make sure students have a variety of genres to read.

White, Black, Orange & Purple

What can I do to help? Review parent guide