
When it comes to assigning reading books in the infant classes, everyone is excited. Teacher, excited to reach this stage of progression in pupil learning.
Children, excited to handle and even take home their little reading books.
Parents, excited to see that their child is reading.
Reading - that's the crux of the matter.
We select and assign books to correspond with the reading skills we have been teaching and nurturing. Books are also often assigned as homework to reinforce reading skills that have been taught in school.
Regardless of text type or text programme, be it predictable, levelled, or decodable text, the most important focus for the child is the text. The words printed on each page.
How can I support young readers navigating early reading books?
Focus on the words!

This might sound straightforward or obvious, but unless the children are reading the words, they are not reading the text. Many early readers have interesting, brightly coloured illustrations to mirror exactly what the text says, and it is perfectly natural that the child's eye will be drawn to these. Usually, teachers (or parents) will read the text aloud for the children, to which they listen and retain the general gist of the text. With obvious illustrations and often a predictable pattern throughout the text, many children will partially memorise the text or use the illustrations to help them piece it all together without every having to pay much attention to the words unless asked to do so. While reading illustrations and recalling text are examples of 'emergent reading' skills, this is not the type of conventional reading we are aiming for once formal reading instruction has begun. Additionally, if readers are assigned for homework, it is crucially important that parents are aware of what the expectations are, what counts as reading, and what doesn't!
There are a few very simple strategies we as teachers (or parents) can employ to ensure that our young readers are reading the text and not relying on memory or guesswork.
Adult reads, child tracks
Adult reads aloud, child tracks each corresponding word with their finger. As you read the text aloud for the child, ask them to track each word that you read with their finger. This is a useful opportunity for you to observe concepts of print, book awareness, and word awareness. It also presents opportunities to highlight multisyllabic, temporarily irregular or permanently irregular words where they arise.
Cover the pictures
Adult covers the illustrations with a blank page while the child reads the text. The easiest way to ensure that children focus their full attention on the words is by hiding the illustration. Fold over the illustrated page or cover the illustrations across the spread with a blank page. A blank page ensures there are no distractions or anything else to draw attention away from the words.
Track the words
If you are unsure that a child is actually reading the text or recalling it from memory, invite them to demonstrate their reading and tracking each word with their index finger as they read aloud.
Avoid strategies which may encourage guessing
Guessing is not reading. Reading is not guessing. Traditions in practice demonstrate the use of various 'reading cues' - I wrote about this last year, click here for more on that. Basically, if you're asking the children to do something that takes their focus away from the word in question (e.g. skipping ahead, looking at the picture for clues, thinking about what might make sense there, etc.) then it's not going to be helpful or effective in the long run. As Seidenberg puts it, 'The best cue to a word, is the word itself!'
Empower and encourage the child to apply their reading skills in tackling unfamiliar words
Model and demonstrate how you use your reading knowledge to tackle an unfamiliar word. Keep the young reader's attention on the word and encourage them to use their phonics and phonological awareness knowledge to decode (where possible) and read the word. If it's a word that cannot be decoded, then appropriately explicit instruction of the word (and similar words) will be required.
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