According to information provided by the Edmonton Catholic School District, research shows that when students learn phonics in context with stories, poems and songs, they learn and understand phonetic applications better than they do in classrooms without this context. When teachers include phonetic writing, this further emphasizes and develops phonetic skills. Combining a variety of instruction materials to form balanced reading lessons further enhances first-grade reading skills.
First-grade balanced reading lessons include more than just phonics and whole-word approaches. Phonics application through worksheets and practice gives children practical help in developing reading skills. Reading aloud to children and listening to them reading encourages oral reading skills and helps ensure they are practicing proper decoding strategies. Choral reading adds another dimension which especially helps struggling readers.
People in general apply information they have previously learned to any new information they assimilate. For first-grade readers, this means they compare known and unknown words as they read. First-graders read better when a word is in context as opposed to by itself. One way to build on this is to incorporate pictures, drawings or photos, An additional way uses stories that draw in children and allow them to participate in reading. By applying decoding skills to familiar words, children can more readily apply them to unfamiliar words as well.
Different types of assessments for the reading lessons help teachers see what concepts students grasp in addition to where they struggle. Teacher observations of how children read and respond provide preliminary indications of how they will do on tests. Reading through sight word lists offers another way to ensure that first-graders know foundational words. Adding reading passages as skills increase further assesses their reading skills. Written and oral questions on meaning and comprehension, predictions and comparisons provide further information on reading abilities.