How Students 
Learn to Read

We all know reading is very important. It is one of the most important life skills for school & work. It also brings joy into our lives through stories and learning. From kindergarten through third grade, it’s really important for kids to learn how to read well. After third grade, your child will need to be able to read to learn about all different subjects in school. That’s why it is very important to get really good at reading during those early years of school.

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How It Works

When kids get clear & specific teaching in reading every year, called the science of reading or structured literacy , 95% of them can learn to read at their grade level.

People used to think that kids learn to read just by being around books, like they learn to talk. But that’s not true. Reading is something that must be taught. That means we need to be taught how to:

  1. Turn words on a page into the words we hear in our head (Word Recognition)
  2. Understand what we just read (Language Comprehension)

Word Recognition

When we read, our brain decodes letters & turns them into sounds we hear in our head. Letters are like a code that makes different sounds. To be good at reading, students have to learn what sound each letter makes. For example, the letter p sounds like a /p/, & the letters ph sound like /f/. Students can only learn the code if someone teaches it to them.

This is called phonics, which means to sound out a word using the code. Usually, it takes kids two to three years to learn how to read English. English is really tricky, because it has a lot of letter & sound combinations.

This is why it is important for students to learn some common sight words , so they can recognize them & don’t have to sound them out every time. That way, they can recognize words that don’t follow the usual rules.

If kids don’t learn these basic phonics skills, most of them will have a hard time reading quickly and easily.

Language Comprehension

To be good at reading, students need to know more than just how to say the words. They also need to understand what the words mean.

  • Having background knowledge about the topic of what they’re reading is helpful for understanding. Even if a book is hard, if it’s about something they know, they will understand the text better.
  • We can learn about things by experiencing them ourselves & by reading about them in books. Reading books about our own culture is important, & we can also learn by reading about Social Studies or Science. That’s why students learn how to read in all subjects, including Social Studies & Science. They learn about more topics & learn new words, which helps them become strong
    readers.
  • It’s important to know what a lot of words mean to be a good reader. We have a map of words in our head, & we make it bigger as we learn new words. Most of the words we know, we learned from hearing or reading them. The stronger our word map, the more we can understand what we read.
  • Reading makes our word map bigger. Reading helps us learn new words that we might not hear when people talk, and what those words mean. When adults read to kids starting at birth, it helps them learn more words & become better readers.
To become good at reading, students need to read interesting books & learn ways to understand them better. Then, they need chances to practice what they learned.

Everyday Activities to Support Student Learning

Listen to Your Child’s Reading and Pronunciation

Watch for signs that something is wrong. If your child is guessing at words, ask them to say all the sounds in the word & blend them together. If they have a hard time doing that, talk with the teacher. They may need more practice with letters & sounds. Look at their spelling, too. It is common for children to learn spelling after reading. But if your child can read many words but not spell them, talk to the teacher.

Ask for Help if Your Child Needs Support

By the start of second grade, your child should be able to decode most words easily. If they can’t, they may need more practice & now is the time to get it. Don’t wait until third or fourth grade to ask for help. By then, they will need to “read to learn,” & it will be harder for them to catch up on basic reading skills. You can ask the school to test your child’s reading level & the school has to do it. You have the right to get the information you want. You can get free, in-person or online tutoring through your local library, learn more here.

Communicate to Your Child

Talk to your kids. It sounds simple, but talking matters— even before your children can talk back. They need to learn about sounds & words, & you can help by talking to them, singing to them & playing with rhymes.

Visit the Library

Go to the Hennepin County Library together often-it’s free! Anyone can get a free library card, regardless of immigration status.

Read at home

You can help your child by reading books with them or having them read to you. When you read to them, let them watch you sound out the word.

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What to Do if Your Child is Behind

If your child is having a hard time reading, it is important for their teacher to learn why. They might be having trouble recognizing words, or understanding what they read, or both. Once they know what the problem is, they can work on it with them & get them the right help. If you are worried your student is behind in reading:

  1. Talk to the teacher. Ask them if your child is reading on grade level. Ask to see tests.
  2. If their tests show they are behind, ask the teacher what specific skills your child needs to work on.
  3. Learn what your child should be able to do in reading at their grade level. You can find this information in the English Language Arts section of each grade.
  4. Find resources to help your child with the skills they need to work on. There is free in-person or online tutoring available through Hennepin County Libraries, learn more here.
  5. Talk with your child about how they feel when they read & what is hard for them in reading.
Adult reading to children

Tips for Talking to Teachers

A strong relationship between families and teachers is key to ensuring students have what they need to succeed. Parent involvement not only leads to higher grades and test scores, but also helps students develop self-confidence, motivation, and social skills. Knowing what questions to ask at school visits and parent-teacher conferences can help you feel confident when it comes to addressing your child’s’ academic needs.

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The numeric value of a digit in a number. The value of the digit is based on its position in the number. See the chart below for the number 4,367.082.

A group of words that means something different than its literal meaning. For example: “raining cats & dogs” means “to rain heavily” & “piece of cake,” means “something that is easy to do.”

The skills needed to read, write, & speak.

How sentences are put together, & how the order of words can change what it means. It’s like building with blocks – knowing a lot of words is like having a lot of different blocks, but understanding sentence structure is like knowing how to put the blocks together to build something bigger and more meaningful.

When we already know something about a topic before we read about it. When we know more about the topic, we can understand the text better.

When we know a word without having to sound it out. Good readers do this with words that are very common or with words that do not follow the “rules” of phonics.

The ability to read & write. Students get better at literacy with clear & specific instruction & with practice.

Synonyms are words that mean the same thing. “Big” & “enormous” are synonyms.

Words that mean the opposite of each other. “Big” and “small” are antonyms.

Addition is when we find the total amount by combining two or more values. Adding 2 & 3 gives us a total of 5. Adding 4, 1, & 3 gives us a total of 8. When we add, the total becomes more.

Counting numbers in order (1,2,3,4,5…)

Knowing that words are made up of many individual sounds (or phonemes). Students should be able to identify, produce & play with these individual sounds. You can find a video with all 44 English phonemes at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBuA589kfMg.

Books with sound & spelling patterns that teachers have already taught in class. Students can decode or sound out most words in the text.

When students can read with speed, accuracy, & proper expressions that shows they understand what they read.

A number consisting of both a whole number & a fraction, such as 1 3/8.

A fraction in which the top is bigger than the bottom, such as 7/5.

After ordering the data set from lowest to highest, the median is the value in the middle of the data set.

The mean is sometimes also referred to as the average. The mean is found by adding together all of the values in a data set & then dividing by the total number of values.

The relationship between two sets of numbers that are not equal. Inequalities typically include an unknown number. For example, 7x < 28.

Factors are numbers we can multiply together to get another number. For example, 2 & 3 are factors of 6 because 2 times 3 equals 6.

The author’s point of view describes from what perspective the story is being told. For example, it may be a character in the story that is narrating, or the author may be an outside observer.

The amount of 3-dimensional (3D) space that an object takes up. Volume tells us the amount we need to fill the object. For example, the amount of water needed to fill a bottle. We measure the volume of an object in cubic units such as cubic centimeters, cubic inches, cubic feet, etc.

The chance of something happening. Probability is expressed as a decimal or fraction from 0-1 or as a percent from 0-100%. For example, the probability of flipping a coin & it being “tails” is .5, 1/2, or 50%.

Properties of algebra describe the different ways that numbers can be combined. In 6th grade students use the associative, commutative & distributive properties of algebra.

The order of operations is the rule that tells us the order we should use to solve an expression with many steps. The order we follow can be remembered with the acronym PEMDAS:
1) Parentheses
2) Exponents
3) Multiplication & Division from left to right
4) Addition & Subtraction from left to right

Equivalent expressions are expressions that work the same even though they look different. If two expressions are equivalent, then the two expressions have the same value when we put in the same value for the variable. For example, 2x + x + x is equivalent to 4x.

A coordinate plane is a flat plane formed by the intersection of a vertical number line called y-axis & a horizontal number line called x-axis. These are perpendicular lines that intersect each other at zero, & this point is called the origin.

Circumference is the distance around a shape. It is found by adding the length of all of the sides. For a circle, the circumference is proportional to the diameter by a factor of pi

The distance a number is from zero. The symbol “|” is placed on both sides of a number to mean absolute value, so we the absolute value of x is written as |x|. |4|=4 |-5|=5

A variable is an unknown numerical value in an equation or a math expression. Variables are shown with a symbol (usually a letter).

A thesis statement is one or two sentences that summarize the essay’s main idea.

Scientific notation is a way of showing numbers that are too
large or too small to be easily written. For example the number 0.0000000000073 can be written more easily as 7.3 x 10-12

The square root is a factor of a number that, when multiplied by itself, gives the original number. For example, both 5 and -5 are square roots of 25

The slope of the line describes the direction & steepness of the line. It is found by dividing the change in y over the change in x between any two points on the graph.

A rational number is any number that can be shown as a fraction of two integers. An irrational number cannot be shown as a fraction. A decimal is irrational if it never ends & it has no repeating pattern.

After ordering the data set from lowest to highest, the median is the value in the middle of the data set.

Claiming someone else’s work or ideas as your own.

Rewording a sentence or paragraph in your own words.

An equation between two variables that makes a straight line when plotted on a graph

An expression that defines a relationship between one variable (the independent variable) & another variable (the dependent variable). If the function is linear, then when it is graphed on a coordinate plane, it will create a straight line with a constant slope.

Numbers, symbols, & operations (such as + and ÷) grouped together that show the value of something. For example, y + 4 is an expression, & 3 − x/2 is also an expression.

An exponent refers to the number of times the base number is multiplied by itself.
73 = 7 x 7 x 7

A statement in which two things are equal. Equations often have unknown numbers (called variables) that are shown as a letter. For example: 3b + 5 = 14

The information about a person that exists on the internet as a result of their online activity. This includes posts on social media, photos, online purchases & reviews, passwords, subscriptions, & many other types.

The y-intercept is the point at which the graph of a line passes the y axis.

Recognizing the sounds of language. For example. rhyme, syllables, & the sounds in words.

Words are made up of individual sounds called phonemes. Children should practice identifying, producing, & rhyming with these individual sounds.

When students learn to write, they write the sounds they
hear. They may not spell the words correctly. Teachers
call this “inventive spelling”. Students use the letter &
sound connections taught in school to sound out words.

Any words that a child can read quickly & naturally. For example, “to”, “the,” “at.”

Subtraction is when we take away from the total
amount. If we start with 7 & we subtract 4, we have
3 left. When we subtract the total becomes less.

The answer we get by adding two or more numbers.

Figurative language uses figures of speech to be more
interesting, effective, & impactful. (“My dog’s coat is as
black as coal.” “He fought with the strength of a lion.”)

The numerator is the top number in a fraction. It shows how many parts we have. The denominator is the bottom number in a fraction. It shows how many parts there are in the whole item.

Teachers often measure a student’s reading level, usually
marked by a letter or number. This helps teachers know what
students need to learn. But sometimes, children are only
allowed to read texts at that level (typically a lexile number).
Be wary of this practice. Children should not be limited to
reading only texts that are at or below their grade level goal.

Text complexity is a measure of how difficult a text is. Text complexity is based on many factors, including the structure of the text, how difficult the language is, how much knowledge students need to understand what is read, & how difficult it is to understand what the text means. Students should be exposed to high-quality & complex texts. Complex texts provide opportunities for students to think deeply & to gain knowledge of the world, which will help them succeed in college, career, & life.

A suffix is a group of letters added to the end of a word. Suffixes
can change the meaning of a word. Adding “less” to the end
of the word “end” changes its meaning to “without end.” A
suffix can also change how the word is used. The noun “child”
becomes an adjective “childish” when you add the suffix “ish.”

A prefix is a group of letters added to the beginning of a
word that changes its meaning. Adding “un” in front of the
word “clean” makes the word mean “not clean.” Other
common prefixes are “re,” “dis,” “over,” “mis,” & “out.”

Using letter-sound relationships to correctly sound out & pronounce words. For example, children who have learned the English sounds /a/, /c/, & /t/ can decode “cat.”

A popular leveling system used by students, teachers, & parents to show two things:

  1. A student’s individual reading level
  2. The difficulty of the text

You can often find the Lexile number on the back of the book or by searching the title on lexile.com.

Grade-appropriate Lexile levels:

This is an example definition. It has some things in it like

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