Read a sentence aloud

What it looks like when your child can do it

• — Your child reads "The cat slept under the warm blanket" in one smooth pass, with the voice settling at the period.
• — Asked to read "We walked ___ the park" with through in the gap, your child reads the whole sentence straight through and says whether it sounds right.
• — When your child stumbles, they go back and reread the sentence without being asked.

How to teach it at the kitchen table

1. 01

   Read it to them first

   Read the sentence aloud yourself at an ordinary talking pace. Then let your child read the same sentence. Hearing it first shows what smooth sounds like.

2. 02

   Read in chunks, not single words

   Show how words fall into groups: "The big dog / ran / across the yard." A light pencil slash between chunks helps. Reading in chunks is what makes a sentence sound like talking.

3. 03

   Pause at commas, stop at periods

   A comma is a short breath and a period is a full stop. Let your child tap the table at each period. Several lessons in the book ask whether a sentence sounds finished, and this is where that ear starts.

4. 04

   Practice the swap-in read

   Write "The ball rolled ___ the couch." Say a word, like under, and let your child read the whole sentence with it in place. Try two or three words. The skill is rereading the full sentence each time, not only the new word.

5. 05

   Treat rereading as normal

   The second reading is almost always smoother than the first. Rereading is what good readers do, not a sign of a mistake. Three reads of one sentence is fine.

You will need: Paper and a pencil

Try it together

1. Try 1

   Write: "My grandma bakes bread on Sunday mornings." Ask your child to read it aloud twice.

   Listen for  Listen for the second read to be smoother, with the words grouped naturally and the voice settling at the end. A few slow words are fine.

2. Try 2

   Write: "The frog jumped ___ the pond." Ask your child to read it with into in the gap, then again with over.

   Listen for  Two smooth readings of the whole sentence. Then ask which one means the frog got wet. Into, and noticing the difference is the point of reading it back.

3. Try 3

   Write: "After dinner, we played a game." Ask your child to read it aloud.

   Listen for  A short pause at the comma and a stop at the period. If your child runs straight through the comma, read it once yourself and let them copy you.

4. Try 4

   Write a sentence with names like the ones in the book, such as "Poseidon drove his chariot across the Aegean Sea." Ask your child to read it.

   Listen for  The names may slow things down. Say the names together first, then let your child read the whole sentence. Listen for the rest of it to flow.

Watch for

• — Reading only the new word when a word is swapped into a gap. The whole sentence needs to be read again, or the ear has nothing to judge.

If it is not there yet

• — Read the sentence together at the same time, side by side, a few times a day. Then let your voice drop out halfway and let your child finish alone.
• — Use shorter sentences, five or six words, made of words your child already reads quickly. Build back up to longer ones over a week or two.

A few days of this is normal, and it is time well spent. The lesson will still be there, and it will go faster.

Where this skill comes up

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 1

  Nouns: Words That Name a Person, Place, Thing, or Idea

  Needs it because every noun on this sheet is found inside a sentence the child reads first.

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 19

  Prepositions: Words That Show Position and Direction

  Needs it because the gap test only works when a child can read the whole sentence back with a word dropped in.