How to support developing readers at home:

• Try to listen to and read with your child regularly, 5-10 minutes a day is better than a longer session once a week.  It can help if a regular time is set aside so that it becomes part of a routine. 
• Find a quiet place to share books where you can feel comfortable and relaxed – learning to read needs to be a positive experience - build their confidence by praising their efforts.
• Encourage your child to have a go at reading words, by using phonic skills to read any unfamiliar words, and by working on building up their sight vocabulary.
• Talk about the meanings of words to help to develop your child’s understanding and use of language. 
• Encourage your child to read a range of texts such as stories, newspapers, comics, labels, poetry, non-fiction, tickets, signs, leaflets etc.
• Read books to your child as well; if they see you enjoying a book it will encourage and motivate them to want to learn to read.
• Ask them questions about the text to develop their understanding. 

Questions to Develop Understanding:

Fiction:

Where/when does the story take place?

Who are the characters in the story?

What happens in this part of the story?

Tell me one/two things that the main character does in this part of the story?

Can you retell the story using your own words?

Tell me what this character was like?

Tell me the most interesting/ exciting/ funniest/ your favourite part of the story? Why?

What do you think the character feels about...? How can you tell?

What do you think would have happened if…?

What do you think is going to happen next?

Which part of this book did you like best/least?  Why?

How has the author used words/phrases to make this character funny/ sad/ clever/ frightening/ excited etc?

Why is … a good title for this story/book/chapter/play?

Do you know any more stories like this? Tell me how they are alike.

Do you know another story with similar characters in? Tell me how they are similar.

What do you think this story is trying to tell us?

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

Non Fiction

Tell me two things you found out that you didn’t know before.

What does this part of the text tell us about ….?

Which part of the text tells us about …? 

Why are some words in bold?

How does this text/ layout help the reader?

How does (a diagram/picture/caption) help you to understand the information on this page?