Reading to Learn: Upper Elementary Reading Skills
Look for these signs of progress in your independent reader.
As a third grader, Rosie Struve had a tough time finding books to read at the library. "She'd open a book, look at the print and say, 'Too hard,' without even trying it," recounts her mom, Sally Andrews. But now, as a fourth grader, Rosie is willing to attempt more challenging books like Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen. "I am excited that Rosie is really becoming a reader," Andrews says.
The main goal in grades 3 to 5 is for children to become enthusiastic, independent readers who can use their skills to learn new material in all subjects — from history to math. Put simply, children focus on learning to read through second grade. After that, they "read to learn," as well as read for pleasure. If reading remains laborious in the upper grades, your child will avoid it. That problem is so common it's known as the "4th grade slump." (If your child is suffering, see Reluctant Readers.)
The National Research Council, the National Reading Panel, and the National Institute for Literacy identified these skills as key for kids to become strong, independent readers who enjoy reading:
Fluency
Comprehension
Spelling and writing
Vocabulary
Fluency: Fluent readers recognize words automatically so they can focus their attention on making connections among the ideas and their background knowledge. Readers who have not yet developed fluency read slowly, word by word. Because they are focusing their attention on figuring out individual words, it's hard for them to grasp the overall meaning.
"This is a case where the rich get richer," says Barbara Fox, a reading professor at North Carolina State University. "Children need to read a lot to get good at reading. The more they read the better they will get and the more they will want to read."
Reading milestones:
- Instant recognition of words
- Reading out loud with expression
- Reading quickly and accurately
Comprehension: To get the most out of reading, your child needs to read with a purpose — whether she's reading directions to a game, a textbook to learn about the first Thanksgiving, or a mystery for fun.
Your child also must read actively, constantly thinking and questioning. Reading expert Louisa C. Moats, co-author of Straight Talk About Reading, says good readers conduct an internal dialogue: "Did that make sense? What's going to happen next? Why did this character say that?"
Reading milestones:
- Putting events in sequence
- Articulating the main idea
- Summarizing a story orally or in writing
- Monitoring his comprehension — for example, saying to himself, "I don't get this sentence about ecosystems. I better go back and reread this section."
- Understanding the structure of texts, including the table of contents, index, chapters, titles, and subtitles
- Using pictures and diagrams to help understand and remember what she's reading
- Creating story maps that show the structure of stories including the characters, problems, different events in the story, and themes
- Relating what he reads to his own background experiences
- Using reading as a tool to learn from textbooks
Spelling and writing: The focus in the upper grades is learning to spell correctly and write more sophisticated compositions with organized paragraphs and correct punctuation. Your child learns how to find information from a variety of sources including, books, articles, and Web sites.
Milestones:
- Using a dictionary to look up words he doesn't know
- Researching and composing a simple report using a variety of sources
- Revising compositions with help from his teacher to make them more clear and understandable
- Checking his work for errors in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation
- Beginning to understand and use figures of speech — "as cold as ice"
Vocabulary: Your child still needs to be aware of subtle differences in speech sounds that distinguish words from one another, such as "goal" and "gold," "fresh" and "flesh." She also needs to learn prefixes and suffixes to master new words. For example, she learns that "un" means "not" (unbelievable) and "less" means "without" (hopeless).
Reading milestones:
- Figuring out word meanings from clues in the text
- Using synonyms and antonyms
- Using different parts of speech correctly, including nouns, verbs, and adjectives
- Knowing that some words have more than one meaning
