This document outlines techniques for teaching children to read. It discusses the benefits of reading as a necessary life skill and social experience. Everyday strategies for parents include reading aloud to children for 10 minutes daily, pointing out words, and modeling reading. Specific teaching strategies covered are phonics activities to learn letter-sounds, shared reading where the adult models skills, and vocabulary word maps to promote comprehension.

1. Techniques for Teaching Children
to Read

2. Benefits of Reading
● Reading is a necessary skill for everyday life
● Highly functional - needed for understanding
texts and language
● Used for entertainment, following instructions,
learning new information, forming opinions on
certain topics, and communicating with others
● Literacy is a social experience used for
connecting with people and used within
cultures, groups and communities

3. Everyday Strategies
● Reading to a child for 10 minutes minimum
daily
● Pointing out examples of words or texts
● Modeling reading yourself
● Having a wide range of text types available that
connect with child's interests, e.g picture books,
narratives, non-fiction books, recipe books, e-
books on a tablet, etc.

4. Specific Teaching Strategy-
Phonics
Phonics – outlining the relationship between
written letters and spoken sounds.
Blending and segmenting word games help
develop phonological awareness.
Example: Guess-the-Word Game
Words are stretched out into their component
syllables, (e.g “Fll-aaaaa-ggg”) using picture
cards. Adult presents picture, says the word
slowly and child has to guess the word.

5. Example of Phonics Activities

6. Specific Teaching Strategy -
Shared Reading
Shared Reading – Interactive reading where
the adult models the skills of proficient readers
and child(ren) follow along during the reading.
● Adult demonstrates reading skills such as
fluency, expression, anaylsing visual cues,
prediction, and highlights significant or 'tricky'
words or phrases as well as language
conventions like rhyme and alliteration.

7. Shared Reading can build on a child's sight word
knowledge, develop an understanding of text
structure, and learn reading strategies for higher
comprehension.

8. Specific Teaching Strategy-
Vocabulary Word Maps
Word Map – a graphic organiser used to
promote vocabulary development.
An enhanced knowledge of vocabulary words is
important for reading comprehension.
Word Maps engages children to research and
think about a word in various ways. They
include finding the word definition, its
synonyms, antonyms, as well thinking of
examples in the word and practicing sentence
writing.

9. Example of a Word Map

10. Summary
● Benefits of Reading – Highly functional life skill
used in many activities and connects people
socially.
● Everyday Strategies – Reading aloud daily to
child, highlighting examples of literacy,
modeling reading yourself, access to texts.
● Specific Teaching Strategies – Phonics
activities, Shared Reading and Vocabulary
Word Maps.

11. References
● Seely Flint, A., Kitson, L., Lowe, K., & Shaw, K.
(2014). Literacy in Australia. Pedagogies for
engagement. Wiley.
● McDonald, L. (2013). Examining literature. In A
literature companion for teachers (pp. 66-84).
Newtown, NSW. : PETAA.
● http://www.readingrockets.org/