Teaching Literacy, Grade 1 and 2, Home School

Teaching Literacy, Grade 1 and 2

Grades 1 and 2

Teaching reading and writing is possible for any non-teacher using the literacy units on this website. I am confident that parents can help with children using these literacy packs. The way I lay out my materials helps to make sense of what happens in the classroom. Here is an overview of teaching packages on this site.

Overview For Grade 1 And 2

Most units begin with a story. This is the reading task. See Teaching Grade 1 and Grade 2 below to find out HOW to teach the reading.

• The stories are intended to use words several times in context.
• The stories focus on spelling patterns for the early grades.
• Animals and pets feature in many stories.
• What boys like is a feature of story content in several units.
• The texts use common words.
• Also, a chosen set of words with important spelling patterns, such as ai and oa, are targeted teaching in each unit.

Examples of Lesson Packs

My Dad Is A Mechanic is a short story retold by a child who helps his father in the workshop.

That Bad Cat, Molly is about a naughty cat that has to go to live with grandma. Usually, the title tells it all.

https://www.tutoringprimary.com/product/reading-writing-dad-mechanic/

https://www.tutoringprimary.com/product/bad-cat-molly/

Overlap Between Year Levels

For many reasons, parents want to teach their children. Home Schooling is available to parents. Others have unwell children or live in isolated places. For these reasons, our lesson packs usually overlap by one or two years. You can only take your child forward from the point they are at. This is regardless of the year level by age. So a narrow view of the year level does not apply here.

In some cases, literacy items on this website are suitable for late Prep. They may also be suitable for the first six months of Year 2.

His Name is Nip and  Sam Finds A Baby Bird are both suitable for first year at school.

https://www.tutoringprimary.com/product/his-name-is-nip/

https://www.tutoringprimary.com/product/sam-finds-baby-bird/

And there are many others.

Teaching Reading

Many of these suggestions can be found in each item. My suggestions to parents are along these lines:

• Read the text twice with your child. The first reading is for decoding. The second reading is for comprehension. A learner-reader cannot be expected to decode and comprehend well on one reading. If your child can do this then the text is not demanding enough.
• On account of teaching methods in early primary schools that are common today, many children hurry through their reading. They make mistakes. They often guess. They skip words. And this is all due to the idea given to children that reading well means reading fast. Encourage your child to slow down. Even a ruler under the line helps to guide your child’s vision.
• Each of my texts is followed by activities. Ask your child to read the instruction aloud so you know that he or she has understood what he has to do. Some children are inclined to rush into a task and begin to make mistakes. The tasks here usually increase in difficulty. Many children will not finish in one sitting.
• So follow up with another reading of the text a few days later and then return to the tasks. Some children think that reading and completing activities is a memory task and your child can be reassured it is not. By saying, “Let’s check the text and see what it says,” helps a child to realize that the answer or the word is in the story.
• Here is a link to an item for Prep and Grade 1. https://www.tutoringprimary.com/product/sam-finds-baby-bird-literacy/

Some Free Downloads

https://www.tutoringprimary.com/product/alphabet-pictures/

https://www.tutoringprimary.com/product/early-primary-school-word-wall/

There are helpful hints on other Pages for each year level. While I say in many of my posts and products: “Any parent can download, print and teach…” I believe that is true. But every parent can do with help as well.