1st & 2nd Class: Literacy

Suggestions to Reinforce Literacy Skills at Home

• Shared Reading Approach 

1. Engage in shared reading aloud (child/adult) at the child’s reading level.

2. The adult accentuates reading with expression and being mindful of his/her reading rate as well. 

Guidelines for Parents/Guardians:

1. Make sure the atmosphere is happy and relaxed.

2. Find a quiet place where there are no distractions.

3. Keep each reading session short (about 10 minutes).

4. Sit down together so that both child/parent can see the book.

5. Talk about the book and any illustrations first.

6. Encourage your child to begin reading. 

7. If your child is trying to sound out an unknown word, give him/her time to do so. Many young readers may attempt a guess at a word based on its first letter, so encourage your child to sound out the whole word.

8. When your child misreads or is unsure of a word, provide the word in order to avoid the meaning of the story being lost. 

9. After reading, ask your child questions about the story they have just read and spend time together talking about the book. 

10. Give lots of praise for effort.

• Rereading Familiar Books

1. Rereading familiar books provides opportunities for your child to develop their reading fluency, comprehension and the enjoyment of a variety of books. 

2. Encourage your child to reread familiar books aloud to younger/older siblings, or other extended family members (about 5 mins) 

3. Examples of questions which may be used to aid your child’s comprehension skills are as follows:

   • Look at the picture - Can you make a prediction about this story after looking at the picture?

   • Name two characters in the story you have just read or listened to.

   • Which character did you like best? Why?

   • Which character would you like to meet?

   • If you had a chance to meet your favourite character in real life, what questions would you ask them? 

   • If you could change one thing about the story, what would it be?

   • What is the setting for this story?

   • Would the story have been just as good if it was set in a different place? Why/ why not?

   • Can you tell me about your favourite part of the story? 

   • What was the problem or challenge in the story? How was it resolved?

• Challenging Books

1. The parent/guardian can also read more challenging books to the child. 

2. This provides opportunities to extend your child’s range of vocabulary and to further develop their listening skills.

• eBooks and eAudiobooks – BorrowBox

1. We also recommend the use of eBooks and eAudiobooks

2. Information on the BorrowBox service can be found by following this link:    

  https://www.librariesireland.ie/elibrary/ebooks

• Summer Stars Reading Programme

1. Information on the Summer Stars reading programme for children can be found by following this link: https://www.librariesireland.ie/services/right-to-read/summer-stars

• Writing Activities

1. Write lists or short accounts about the pupil’s experiences, such as a shopping list, a trip to the zoo, etc. Illustrate if your child wishes. This may be in a scrapbook to allow for more freedom when writing and to provide colour and space to illustrate.

2. Encourage children to be creative with their oral language and writing. Consider making a theatre out of a cardboard box and using mismatched socks to make puppets – this can stimulate your child to write a well-known fairy tale or to write jokes.