This is one of several articles published by the Daily News about how parents can help their children become successful readers.

From: News and Views | City Beat |
Wednesday, July 07, 1999

Early Grades Are Crucial

By JOANNE WASSERMAN
Daily News Staff Writer

our children are 5 years old, and they're off to school - the bright,
happy world of kindergarten. They don't know it, but what they do among the building blocks and small tables and chairs will influence their
lives. For this is where they start their formal education in reading.
Diana Barrett reads to her 10-year-old daughter, Eliza.
They need to get off on the right foot, then build on what they learn in
first and second grade.

These are the years when children start as emerging readers and move
toward complete literacy. Step by step, they master the complex skill of
understanding that letters make words and that words have meaning.

Their first task is breaking the code - making sense of printed words.
Once that happens, they start to read and progress through increasingly
challenging books. Their vocabularies grow, and they start to analyze,
discuss and write about what they read.

But they need help. Lots of help. In school and, importantly, at home.

The more children are talked to and read to, the more sophisticated
their language skills will become. This is true from the very beginning.

Yesterday, we told you about prereaders, children 4 and younger who are
starting on the journey toward reading. For them, it is important to
live in a world of books and to be read to constantly.

Kindergarten teachers know how this pays off because children arrive at
their classes with dramatically different levels of preparation. Some
are starting to read and write and have memorized sight words that they
see frequently. Other children know little about the sounds of letters.

Today the focus is children in kindergarten through second grade,
generally from 5 to 7 years old. Tomorrow we'll move on to children in
grades 3 and 4, when they should be fluent readers.

Who is the Emerging Reader?

Children come to kindergarten eager to soak up all the school has to
offer.

They have developed attention spans that let them sit and listen to a
teacher or classmates. They also are able to use language to express
simple feelings and thoughts.

Kindergarten teachers start breaking the code in a variety of ways. They
may have classes sing songs about the alphabet and look at letter
charts. They may read from alphabet books and highlight the first letter
in the name of each member of the class.

Some teachers expose children to simple literature. Often, they will
work with an enlarged text that the whole class can see. They may cover
up a word and ask the children to guess what that word might be.

In first grade, teachers introduce children to books with dialogue, an
increasing number of words on a page and more complicated plots.

They also discuss punctuation. When children read dialogue, for example,
teachers will explain that those little curling lines above words are
quotation marks.

Most importantly, the emphasis starts to shift from breaking the code to
helping children understand and discuss what they are reading.

In second grade, reading materials become more challenging again. A
first-grade vocabulary typically includes words such as "mother,"
"there" and "where," while a second-grade vocabulary includes "about,"
"everything" and "ready."

The books also become more difficult. A typical first-grade book, such
as "Green Eggs and Ham," is made up of short, rhyming words. A
second-grade picture book, such as "The True Story of the Three Little
Pigs," uses more complicated language and plays with point of view by
telling the story from the wolf's perspective.

Writing also becomes increasingly important. By now, children should be
able to write about books they read, typically answering questions posed
by teachers.

For example, a teacher might ask students to write a book review this
way: "I want to write my friend a letter and tell her about this great
book. How can I start my review so it isn't boring? Now you go back to
your desk and write a really exciting review."

How Can Parents Help?
Antionne Cruz of Brooklyn reads to her daughter.
Because children come to kindergarten at different academic levels, it's
important for parents to talk to teachers about which books are
appropriate for reading at home.

Understand that there is no one way to learn to read, including the
method you remember. Children gain from a combination of techniques.

You can break words apart and sound out letters: "A says ah, T says tuh,
for the word 'at.' "

You can use familiar words to help children learn new ones: "If you know
'toy,' you can get to 'boy.' If you know 'house,' you can get to
'mouse.' "

You can focus on sight words, picking one out and asking your child to
find it everywhere it appears in a book.

To encourage children in kindergarten and first grade to read, try the
"I read a page; you read a page; we read a page together" technique to
make reading a fun activity.

Discuss with your children what they've read, but don't grill them.
Instead, gently raise questions like, "I wonder why the girl did that."

For second-graders who are reading books with few or no pictures, help
your child visualize ideas by asking questions. For example: "Can you
picture how big and hairy that giant must be?"

Keep reading to your children, and try to select books that are slightly more challenging than they are ready to read themselves. This will help prepare them to read on a higher level on their own.

Encourage your child to write, including such everyday things as the
grocery list, a phone message or a thank-you note.

Read in front of your child to show that you value books. And get your child a library card and visit at least once a week.

How Well Is Your Child Doing?

Children should leave kindergarten knowing at least 50 sight words. They
should be able to write at least 30 words, such as their name, "am,"
"the," "like," "look" and "this."

After first grade, children should be able to read books with two or
more lines of print on a page. They should know all the letter-sound
relationships and be able to draw on words they know to learn new ones.
For example, if they know "ring," it should help with "sing." At the end
of second grade, children should be able to read a simple chapter book
and be able to answer questions that go beyond retelling the story: "Was
the giant really mean to Jack?"

What to Look for in a Book

"Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss became an instant classic among
children when it was published in 1960.

The whimsical story of Sam-I-Am's obsessive quest to persuade a friend
to try green eggs and ham is terrific for helping young children develop
their reading skills.

Here are some reasons why:

-The story is fun and imaginative.

-The words and sentences are simple, but rhyming and repetition make them delightfully silly. This seduces youngsters into reading a fairly hefty
text.

-It is illustrated with big, bright cartoons. They often correspond to
nearby words, giving children added clues to understanding them.

-Words are repeated over and over so children ultimately recognize them
immediately.

-Many of the words look and sound the same, helping children to see that
similar words often sound the same. "Box" is like "fox," and "mouse" is
like "house."

How One Family Does It

Reginald and Jennifer Early want to make readers of their daughters this
summer. The Earlys, of Springfield Gardens, Queens, are using a number
of strategies to help Raquelle, 7, and Rozalyn, 9, sharpen their skills
and spark an interest in books.

They use games, reading exercises drawn from everyday experience and a
powerful motivator: money.

The games are simple and follow naturally from the Earlys' involvement
in helping the girls with homework. One game they play when traveling by
car keeps them sharp about letters and spelling.

"We play the license plate game," said Reginald, a Port Authority
mechanic. "Each person has to pick out the first letter on a license
plate and spell a word it starts with."

The Earlys also get Raquelle and Rozalyn to read at every opportunity,
even on a trip to the corner store.

"When we go to the store for birthday cards, they have to read the one
they pick to us," said Reginald.

The Earlys encourage the girls constantly to plunge into books. For
example, Jennifer, a caseworker for the Administration for Children's
Services, buys duplicates of their books so she can read along.

"I'll say 'I'm in Chapter 3. Where are you?' " Jennifer said.

Finally, the Earlys are making sure that Raquelle and Rozalyn keep
reading while school is out. How?

"We have to find incentives," said Jennifer. "So I said to the girls,
'If you read five books, I'll give you $20.' "

The girls, students at Public School 181 in Rosedale, scampered off to
the library. They took out "two scary chapter books. 'Goosebumps,' "
Jennifer said.

CONTRIBUTORS
This special Daily News series was prepared in consultation with a team
of top reading experts:
Helen Freidus, co-chairwoman of the Bank Street College of Education
department of reading and literacy;
Jane Ashdown, director of the Reading Recovery Project of the New York
University department of teaching and learning;
Maria Utevsky, director of Reading Interventions of Community School
District 2 in Manhattan, and
Lucy Calkins, professor of English education and director of the Reading
and Writing Project, Teachers College, Columbia University.

Kids, Teachers Get a Roasting (07/07/1999)
Students Beating Heat the Old-Fashioned Way (07/07/1999)
City Hit by Heat and Dark (07/07/1999)
A Summer in School (07/06/1999)
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