READING IS THINKING

The ability to read with confidence and understanding involves more than just decoding letters. To be a good reader, we need to practice predicting, making inferences, questioning, making connections, visualising and summarising. You can develop these skills with your child by encouraging them to discuss their reading texts with you.  

PREDICT.  When we predict, we use the clues in the text to state what we think is going to happen.            As we continue reading, we can find out if our predictions were correct. Ask questions such as "What do you think will happen?"  Develop this skill by making predictions with your child, using phrases such as "I think ... will happen because...”

INFER.  To be able to infer we use both written and unwritten clues to make sense of the text.  Unlike predictions, the answers to what we infer are not given.  Discuss the text with your child using the follow phrases, “I wonder why...? I wonder how ...?  I wonder why...? I think this means…." 

VISUALISE.  The skill of creating mental images from text can be developed by asking your child to draw the main character or re-create a key scene as a comic strip.  Discuss films of books with your child, making comparisons.

CONNECT.  To be able to make connections helps us to understand texts better.  Encourage your child to apply their existing knowledge to the text.   When making connections with your child, use phrases such as, “This reminds me of .... This part is like ... I can relate to the character because..."

QUESTION. Encourage your child to ask questions about the text using open questions as well as closed/one answer only questions.  Encourage your child to explain their answers and to refer back to the text.  For example, which character did you like best? Why?

SUMMARISE.  The ability to summarise enables us to determine which ideas are most important. When discussing non-fiction, we can use the questions who, what, when, where, why and how?  In recalling stories, encourage your child to discuss the main character, the setting, as well as the beginning, middle and ending.  The SWBS strategy is very useful.