Students need to have decoding skills in place before they can move on to reading more fluently and developing their reading comprehension. Teach lots of different strategies. Break down sentences into words and words into chunks so that a student only has to tackle a small chunk at a time. Show students how to use pictures to work out what a word should be. If they still struggle with a particular word, have them continue reading the sentence and then come back to the word to see if putting the word in context helps. Play word games to build confidence and to increase phoneme knowledge and word recognition skills.
A fluent reader decodes quickly and reads without hesitation or pauses. She reads with emphasis and expression. Develop this skill in your students through the use of choral reading activities. Read together as a class or read in small groups, with everyone reading the same text aloud together. Split the class into teams, each team taking a turn to read, or have every one read a sentence in turn from the same text. Demonstrate fluent reading to your class by reading to them often and showing them how to add expression and feeling. Share lots of different texts to read aloud; stories, poems, speeches and play scripts all work well.
Guided reading sessions are not just about hearing children read; they are used to actually teach the skills of reading. Group children according to ability, and provide texts that they will find moderately challenging, but not too challenging. Everyone has the same text and reads individually, not in unison or in turn. Guided reading sessions should have a specific focus or learning objective so they can be differentiated according to need. After students have had the opportunity to read, return to the text and discuss the specific objective. Guided reading provides students with strategies for successful reading and helps them become fluent readers. It also gives the teacher an opportunity to spend some focused time with each student. Guided reading provides an opportunity for students to engage in dialogic talk, expressing their views and learning from each other.
It is important that students have plenty of opportunity to practice their reading skills. Make time for reading every day. Try to have an allocated time when you listen to individual students read. While you are doing this, other students can read independently or to adult helpers. Introduce peer reading and consider having a buddy reading scheme in your class. The more your students read, the better they will get and the more confidence they will have.
Ensure that your students have access to a variety of reading materials. Make sure you provide plenty of nonfiction books as well as storybooks and novels. Include information books, atlases, guides and even catalogues. Finding a book on a subject that interests a student can encourage him to practice reading and can have a positive effect on a student's attitude.