Reading TIPS for Grades 9-12

Literacy Tips for Parents of High School Students There are many ways parents/guardians can support their students’ reading development and encourage them to maintain positive reading habits in high school.

Three Components of Reading Support

  • Vocabulary—words students must know to communicate and read effectively
  • Fluency—the capacity to read text accurately, quickly, and smoothly
  • Comprehension—the ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read

Why is it important to improve reading skills?

  • High school students need strong vocabulary skills and reading comprehension skills to perform well on state assessments such as ACT, SAT, WorkKeys, and End of Course exams.
  • Having strong reading skills is critical to success in college, careers and in life. What can parents/guardians do?

Help students increase their vocabulary.

  • Encourage your students to ask about new words they hear or read.
  • Students learn new words through verbal interactions with others. Find ways to increase conversation time at home. Adults should make a conscious effort to use more complex language in their conversations with their students.
  • Play word games. ⎫ Visit museums, zoos, historical sites, and plays. Through these experiences, students will gain exposure to new vocabulary words.
  • Provide books and magazines at home.
  • Visit the library. Help students improve reading fluency.
  • Model fluent reading by choosing a section of a book, magazine, or newspaper, and then read it effortlessly and smoothly to your student.
  • Try “repeated reading” where you will read a passage and then ask the student to repeat the reading. The student should practice the passage until he/she reads the passage effortlessly.
  • Try “echo reading” by reading a line or sentence from a book, and then have the student read the same line, trying to mimic the adult’s expression and fluency.

Help support the development of reading comprehension skills.

  • Read the books that your student is assigned so that you can discuss the book and check for comprehension.
  • Encourage your child to be an active reader, which means that reading should be done with one hand on the book and the other holding a pen. Students should note details about characters, whether it’s in the book itself or in a separate notebook.
  • Remember the importance of location, location, location. Reading for school should be completed at a desk in a room that doesn’t have a TV, computer, or cell phone. Reading comprehension for texts that are more challenging requires careful attention and structure.

Inspiring Readers of All Ages

Read Strong featuring
Corey Thornton | Music Video

On Friday, ReadStrong Pinellas and Tampa Bay rapper, Corey Thornton celebrate Summer Learning Week by releasing Corey’s newest music video titled, READ STRONG. At the Barbara S. Ponce Library BreakSpot for Grab & Go Meals for Kids, ReadStrong Pinellas and Corey provided children with reading tips and links to Corey’s music video.