Stages of Reading

THE STAGES OF READING

KINDERGARTEN THROUGH 3RD GRADE

As a Kindergartner, your child:

• Begins to see himself or herself as a reader

• Understands that print goes from left to right and has meaning

• Can say letters and point to letters of the alphabet

• Knows all the consonant sounds and may know the vowel sounds

• Recognizes simple words like: the, and, it, is

• Starts to read signs, food packages, and other everyday items

• Likes being read to and has favorite books and stories

• Produces rhyming words

• Can write his or her own name

As a First Grader, your child:

• Reads aloud slowly and deliberately (about 30 words per minute)

• Begins to use strategies to figure out new words

• Recognizes words at a glance

• Has a 300-500 word reading vocabulary

• Begins to read silently

• Can count the number of syllables in a word

• Can blend or segment the letter sounds of most one syllable words

As a Second Grader, your child:

• Reads about 60 words per minute

• Reads both fiction and non-fiction written for his or her grade level

• Can sound out unknown words of one or two syllables

• Has improved comprehension

• Re-reads sentences when meaning is not clear

• Recalls facts and details from what he or she has read

• Poses possible answers to: how, why, and what if questions

As a Third Grader, your child:

• Reads about 90 words per minute

• Reads aloud with fluency and comprehension when reading grade level material

• Has a good repertoire of "word attack" skills and strategies to sound out unknown words (e.g. using picture clues, getting mouth ready to say beginning sound of unknown word)

• Can summarize major points from fiction and non-fiction stories

• Can infer word meanings from roots, prefixes, and suffixes

• Reads many kinds of children's books

• Uses information from the story and personal knowledge to learn new words and understand stories

• Understands the themes or main ideas in what he or she reads

As you read to your child:

You can assist your child in kindergarten with exercises that help develop skills in sound recognition, letter recognition, simple blending, and simple rhyming.  In the first and second grades, there is additional focus on the three primary sub-areas of reading: accuracy, fluency, and comprehension.  By third grade, most children are reading by themselves.

It is important to continue reading aloud in order to further develop essential skills with more challenging reading material.  When you read aloud, you can read books at your child's listening level, which is higher than his or her reading level.  This gives you the opportunity to expand your child's vocabulary.  The wonderful, unique words found in children's literature are often words we do not use in everyday conversations.  A large vocabulary will improve your child's comprehension as he or she reads more sophisticated books.

At first, a child learns to read.  By third grade, a child must read to learn.  

Reading is an essential skill that is required in all other school subjects.