Hi, this is Jennifer Gonzalez for Cult of Pedagogy. If you have a child between kindergarten and grade two, it's likely that that child's teacher has assigned about 10, 20, or 30 minutes of reading per night for homework. In this video, we're going to talk about what parents and other caregivers can do to make sure this homework really helps your child become a better reader. The first thing you should do is sit side-by-side with your child. While they read. Although it's really tempting to try to get other work done, the point of this homework is to have an adult following along. When you sit side-by-side, you can watch the words as she reads them. This allows you to give her immediate feedback when she needs it. Number two is don't tell the words. To learn how to decode words on her own, a child needs lots of time to wrestle with them. If you jump in to tell her what the words are, she'll miss the learning that comes from that struggle. Sometimes all you have to do is wait quietly, giving her time to figure a word out. The snake... Charmer? Good, yeah. Sits in the front of a basket and begins to play a flute. Number three, move beyond sound it out. Just trying to sound out a word, letter by letter, is not the most effective way to figure out what the word is. There are tons of strategies for decoding a word. One way is to think about similar words. If she's trying to read the word rake, point out that it has a lot of the same letters as the word cake, a word she already knows. That can help her guess the right pronunciation for rake. Chunking is another strategy. Breaking the word into bigger chunks rather than trying to sound out each individual letter. Finally, allow your child to use the pictures in the book to make a guess. Never cover up the pictures when your child is reading. They're important tools to help her figure out words independently. You can also try covering up part of a word to see if your child can read the other part first. Is the cobra really dancing to the music? No, it's...can't. You can hear it. Snakes have no...oh, I didn't know. Can you check on that word? We take off the end of it. What's that? Out. That's out. And then... Outer. Outer. Good. Number four, have your child reread some passages for fluency. If your child is merely sounding out individual words, she won't really get the meaning of a sentence. For the words to make sense together, they need to be read smoothly. So if your child takes a while to get through a particular sentence, have her go back and reread it so it makes more sense. A long time ago, savers thought these meant that someone was going to die. Good. Now, we kind of slow down right there, so let's try to smooth the sentence out. A long time ago, savers thought this meant that someone was going to die. Much nicer that time. Just be careful not to overdo it. Asking your child to repeat dozens of sentences in one session will drive her crazy. A few times is enough. And if she's struggling through most of every page, it's probably not the right book for her. Choose an easier one or tell the teacher that she's struggling at this level. Number five, allow some mistakes to go uncorrected. It's not necessary to correct every single error your child makes. Is head... that's actually two words first together. Headdress. Yeah. Had the golden cobra on it. Because the child is working hard to get the word headdress right and then puts a lot of concentration into golden cobra, pointing out that she said the, when she should have said, a, would be too much of a distraction. Once she gets the more difficult words down, you can be more picky about making sure she reads all the words right. Number six, allow your child to read the same book multiple times. If she reads a book on Monday and wants to read the same one again on Tuesday, that's okay. With each successive read, she'll get better and better at building her fluency. And by the end of the week, she should easily recognize words she struggled with at the beginning. Finally, you should keep reading to your child. Just because your child is learning how to read on her own, it doesn't mean she can't still learn a lot from listening to you read. By continuing to read to her for pleasure, you model correct pacing, reading with expression, and a love of books that will help make her a lifelong reader. Hey, I'm glad you're still here. If you're a parent or a teacher, take a look at one of our other videos, distract the distractor. It will show you a really simple way to get off-task kids quickly back on track without creating a lot of drama. If you like this video and want to be notified every time we make a new one, subscribe to our YouTube channel. And please visit our website Cult of Pedagogy. Come on over and take a look.