What to say when your child doesn't know a word...

We are winding down the first semester of school and our Jefferson Bear readers are becoming more independent in their reading each day. However, there are still opportunities for parents to help out when your child gets stuck on a tricky word. The article below gives some handy tips on how you can help without having your child become to reliant on you for reading their take-home books:
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Reading Strategies for Unknown Words
Please take into consideration that the reading strategies you pick for your reader will totally depend on his reading development. For example, if a child is reading at a third grade level, the strategy of “look at the picture” may not be appropriate for him or the text he’s reading. At this point, he has most likely outgrown that strategy.

Think about the Meaning

Encourage readers to THINK about what they are reading. After all, reading=thinking! Here are some things you can say to help them do just that:

• What would make sense in the sentence?
• You read ________. Does that make sense?
• Look at the picture to help you read the word.
• Think about what is happening in the story right now.
• Go back to the beginning of that sentence and start it again.
• Skip over the word and continue reading until the end of the sentence. Now, go back to the beginning of the sentence and start again.

 Use Visual Clues from the Words

• Look at the first letter(s) of the word. Say the first sound(s).
• If the word is ____________, what would you expect to see at the beginning/middle/end of the word?
• Spell the word out loud. Look at each letter.
• We’ve seen that word before in this book. Let’s find it on the other page.
• Do you see a part of the word (word chunk) that you already know?
• Let’s cover up a part of the word and read the part we see. (For example, if the word is jumping, cover up the -ing)
• Sound it out. (This only works if the child has the word knowledge and/or strategies.)
• Do you see a prefix in the word that you know? (longer words)
• Do you see a suffix in the word that you know? (longer words)
• Can you break the word into syllables?

Relate it to Talking

• Does that sound right to you?
• Can you point to the word that sounded wrong?
• You read ______, is that how we say it?

 (from: http://thisreadingmama.com/strategies-for-unknown-words/#comment-24314)