When you think about reading, you know that it is more than memorizing the alphabet or recognizing words. Therefore, exploring oral language through lots of conversation and experimenting with expressive writing are as key to early reading as exploring letter sounds. In good first grades, children learn to read as part of a language and literacy program that is integrated throughout the curriculum. For example, your child may use nonfiction books about birds as part of a science activity, look at picture books about firefighters as part of a social studies theme on community workers, or brainstorm lists of words about the rain forest. Specific reading subskills such as word recognition and phonics may be practiced with the teacher in small groups.
Good books are central to the language and literacy approach.
Children are read to daily by teachers and other adults from books carefully selected for their high-quality stories and illustrations. These books are also readily available for children to look at independently in classrooms and school libraries. In recent years the definition of first grade reading has been broadened to include all the strategies children use to interpret print. When he makes a good guess at what a word might mean in the context of a sign, he is reading. And it's certainly not the end of your child's chances for school success.