Questions your child can ask to help figure out unknown words:

1. What makes sense here?
2. What sound does it start with?
3. Are there any little words in the bigger word that might help me?
4. Are there root words, prefixes, suffixes, or endings that I know?
5. Should I skip the word and keep reading?
6. Should I ask someone?

Helpful things to say when your child is reading:

1.  If  your child has made an attempt to figure out the word but has been unsuccessful, value the attempt and follow it up with information or a suggestion that might help your child make a prediction:

• That's a good try.  See if you can find any clue in the picture that might help you.

• I noticed that you used the picture to help you.  Try looking at the first sound in the word and see if it helps you find a word in the picture that might fit there.

2.  Try to make a link to a word that was in a book your child has already read or to another story.  This kind of prompt encourages your child to draw on previous experiences as a reader and make connections between texts.

• Rabbit made one of these in the story you read yesterday.

• This part tells about the size of the whale, like the dinosaur book did.

3.  If your child stops at a word and does not seem to know what to do next, encourage him/her to think about some strategies to try.  then experiment with any suggestion he/she makes, to see how it works.

• What do you think we might do to help figure out this word?

4.  If your child is still unable to figure out a word after several attempts, then you will need to suggest solutions:

• Let's try leaving it out and moving on this time.

• Try rereading the sentence and taking another run at the word.

• Read on and see if that helps.

• Try skipping the word for now and maybe you will get it after you finish reading the sentence.

• Try using another word that you think might work there.

• Look at the beginning sound of the word and see if that will help you decide what word might make sense.

   Some prompts are neither effective nor supportive.  These prompts imply criticism of your child's ability to read, even if said in a praising way.  Try to avoid saying these things:

• Oh, come on now, you know this word.

• We learned this word yesterday. You remember, don't you?

• That word was on the last page.  I told it to you then.

• Sound it out.  You know how to do that!

• That word's not hard.  You can figure it out if you try.

This information is taken from the book  Improving Reading: Strategies & Resources by Susan D. Lenski, Jerry L. Johns