Reading Help for 2nd grade??

[pocjets]

How do you take your child to the next level in reading or do I even need to worry about this right now? My second grader can read, I guess on level. She is currently reading, The Littles, and I have to help her with about 4 words per page. She is not reading very smoothly though and I feel like she is making very slow progress. Is there anything I can do to encourage fluency or take it to the next level or is she doing OK? I'm just looking at the VP reading suggestions for second grade and do not think she could read those yet so I'm a little concerned that she is behind?? Thanks so much.

 

[dragonflyer]

Speed and fluency will mostly come from what she is reading BELOW her current level.  Let her zip through some Dr. Seuss, Little Bear, Frog & Toad.  No more than half of her reading should come from books that stretch her skill and comprehension.  Would she be excited to stay up an "extra" 10 minutes to read some favorite books in bed?

For 2nd grade, reading ability is wildly variable.  It sounds like she is doing great and will continue to improve at her own pace.

[Tanikit]

Reading fluency like dragonflyer said does come from reading easier reading material - I also found with my own child that getting her to read songs or music that I printed out helped trememendously with fluency since there is a natural rhythm to that type of writing and once they get it with the songs/rhymes they know it can transfer to other writing. Fluency can also be taught by letting them read simple plays and expecting them to act as the characters - "speak like the character would have said that" which will not allow for halting reading.

 

What I did with my DD was to buy many of the Sonlight readers (you can get any book that is at the next level for your child) and have that as my childs reader - she can read what she likes when she likes of the easier reading and occassionally for a reader we do give her easier material to work only on fluency - but I have her read aloud to me every single day even though she is at the moment reading between a 4th and 6th grade level. This has helped me see what it is she is struggling with - be it longer multipsyllable words, vocabulary, fluency or comprehension. It has also helped me to find out what her stamina is and to expect slightly more so that she realises she is capable of reading more - she now reads aloud a chapter to me each day but I started with her with a sentence at a time a long time ago. 

 

For fluency alone: give her an easier reader and then teach fluent reading with that - make her say the sentence again fluently - "that is not how we speak," can you read that again? "How do you think that character might have said that - was he angry? or really excited perhaps?" Make her think about what she is reading. Fluency must come with out loud reading before it can come with silent reading (which is a slightly different thing altogether.)