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Reading

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​The team at the Reading Centre has created a number of resources to assist you to support the reading and writing development of your child. These resources provide ideas about how to help your child get started and how you can support them to develop a reading and writing routine.

Advice on the amount of time your child should read each day is provided in the following video.

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Kindergarten to Year 2

The early years are a critical time for students to develop foundational literacy skills. Children in Kindergarten to Year 2 benefit from a range of activities that support their development of language and early reading skills.  The resources below offer advice to parents and a range of engaging reading and writing activities.

Using language to think, read and write

Does your child need some additional support for reading, writing and spelling? Here are some resources to help you:

This resource provides engaging ways for you to encourage young children to use language at home to learn to think, read and write.

Activities to encourage and support reading and writing at home in Prep to Year 2

There are many ways to encourage children in Prep to Year 2 to read and write. These resources offer some reading and writing activities that can be used for a range of texts and topics of interest to your child.

Sound letter matching

Matching letters to sounds is an important part of learning to read. Children need to know the name of each letter and match it to the sound they hear and make when they speak. For some children, making this link between letters and sounds requires lots of practice. They may need to hear the sound, see how the sound is made, feel what their mouth is doing, and connect that to the letter that represents that sound.

This video demonstrates how to see and hear the 44 sounds of English.

Sound-letter cards

Sound-letter cards can be used as a prompt to support your child’s learning of letters and sounds. Each card has the letter that usually represents that sound, in both upper case, or capital letter, and lower case in the top left corner.

The picture in the middle shows what your mouth looks like when you are making that sound.

Each picture are some very brief cues that describe how the sound is made. This might say for example for the sound /m/, lips together, air escapes through your nose. In the bottom right hand corner is a box with either a red circle or a green circle. A red circle tells us that this is a soft sound, like /p/. A green circle tells us that this is loud sound, like /b/.

Supporting your child’s understanding of phonics

Phonics is the term used to refer to the ability to identify the relationships between letters and sounds when we are reading and spelling. While learning at home, some children may benefit from some additional practice. The following set of resources assists parents and carers to engage with their children while they are learning their letters and sounds.

Supporting children with language difficulties through shared reading

Shared reading is the interaction that occurs between an adult and a child when reading or looking at a book. The following videos highlight how parents can help support their children who experience language difficulties with skills that are foundational to reading success. They are designed to assist parents challenge, extend, and support their children’s reading skills.

Supporting children with language difficulties

Retelling stories at home

Learning to tell a good story is an important step for young children. Being able to tell a good story means children can share their experiences, their ideas and their feelings. Understanding how stories work also helps children to understand the stories they read, and helps them to write good stories. This resource, Retelling stories at home, will help you to support your child to understand the elements of good storytelling.

Coach on the couch

Join the Reading Centre coaches for a chat on the couch. In this episode, the coaches discuss tips for getting your child started with reading and writing at home.

Partners in learning

Daily reading at home is one of the best ways to ensure your child continues to learn. The more reading your child does, the further he or she will develop as a reader and a learner. The following videos have been produced to assist parents and teachers to improve their skills in supporting students’ reading.

Years 3 and 4

Children in Years 3 and 4 benefit from ongoing support with their reading at home. This video provides ideas on how to support your child to progress their reading at home.

Reading a range of literary texts

Children in Years 3 and 4 are required to read a range of literary texts such as picture books, simple chapter books and poetry. The resources below offer a range of engaging reading and writing activities.

Words are my superpower

Parents and carers, this resource will help you to support your child to understand word meanings.

Understanding how morphemes work is important for decoding and spelling. Morphemes, or root words, help us to decode words because morphemes are always spelled the same way and they always have the same meaning. Building our understanding of morphemes allows us to make meaning of words we hear and words we read, and helps us to grow our vocabulary.

Word reading

This poster provides some very handy tips your child can use to help them spell new words and longer words.

Reading longer words

These resources explain to parents how they can help their child to read longer words. Longer words are multisyllabic, which means they have two or more syllables.

Years 5 and 6

Children in Years 5 and 6 are becoming more independent but may still require support with their reading of a range of texts. This video provides ideas on how to support your child to progress their reading at home.

Reading a range of literary texts

Children in Years 5 and 6 are required to read a range of literary texts including junior and early adolescent novels, plays and poetry. The resources below offer a range of engaging reading and writing activities.

How is your child progressing with their reading?

This slideshow provides examples of literal, inferential and evaluative questions that could be asked of a student in Years 5 or 6:

How do you write like an expert?

This slideshow shows you how to turn everyday writing into expert writing.

Words are my superpower

Parents and carers, this resource will help you to support your child to understand word meanings.

Understanding how morphemes work is important for decoding and spelling. Morphemes, or root words, help us to decode words because morphemes are always spelled the same way and they always have the same meaning. Building our understanding of morphemes allows us to make meaning of words we hear and words we read, and helps us to grow our vocabulary.

Years 7 to 10

Children in junior secondary are learners that are more independent but may still require support with reading and writing a range of texts, across several learning areas. The resources below provide advice on how to support your child’s reading and writing at home.

Students in Years 7 to 10 are required to write for different purposes. The resources below provide examples using a Science text, to help your child develop their writing skills.

Writing tips to support students to improve their writing style

Students in Years 7 to 10 are required to purposefully select language for particular audiences and purposes. The resources below provide information to support students to improve their writing style.

Further support

The Reading Centre provides an advisory service where parents and carers can access expert advice and information to support students to read and write. Our experts also provide advice for those with students experiencing learning difficulties, including dyslexia.

This service may be accessed by:

Email: reading.centre@qed.qld.gov.au
Telephone: (07) 3328 6950​​

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Last updated 16 February 2023