Teach Your Child to Read Using Simple and Inexpensive Techniques!

Teach Your Child to Read

Using Simple and Inexpensive Techniques!

By: Sara Bengston Gauldin

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 Sara Gauldin

ISBN 9781310408212

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All Rights Reserved. World Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the copyright owner, except brief quotations for the purpose of reviews.

Instructional methods mentioned within are based solely on the personal and professional experiences of the author.

Chapter 1

How can I help my child learn to read?

This question has repeated itself hundreds of times during my professional career. Every parent wants to see their child achieve success, not only in school, but also in life. The truth is that it is absolutely imperative that a child becomes a proficient reader to have the capacity to be a capable student. The link between academic success and being able to function proficiently in the real world is no secret. The actual mystery for many families and even some educators is how to take a wiggly young child and somehow direct them to glean meaning from 52 characters arranged into words.

Almost a decade ago I completed my second term in the halls of higher education. I emerged from college victorious; I had not only earned a degree; I had also secured a teacher's license from a state whose standards ranked among the highest in the entire country. I was confident. I was brash. I was ambitious. I was hired as a first-grade teacher; and suddenly I was stumped. I envisioned myself boldly changing the lives of young people by granting them access to the Holy Grail that is literacy. I was supposed to be the ultimate holder of the key that would unlock the doors to their education and the potential in their youthful lives.

I can recall that first week of school vividly. Each day, I would begin the school day with reading class. I would have the children take out a reading book. I would attempt to have them read from it. I would then have them laboriously tear out a sheet from a workbook and have them attempt busy work. Of course, this was next to useless; they could not read the workbook page any more than they could read the story. In truth, having them compete the page was more of an assessment than instruction. I was supposed to be instructing. I was then that I reached out to my colleagues for help. Thankfully, I was blessed to have a talented array of fellow teachers who were willing and able to listen to my panicked ineptitude and offer me meaningful tidbits of actual instructional techniques that I could apply, and I was able to salvage the wreckage of that horrible first week.

Over the years, I have taught hundreds of children reading. I have learned many techniques, and I have worked with an