How can I help my 1st grader read better?

My daughter is in the first grade and she is having trouble with her reading. She is in special resource classes and while she has progressed a little this year I am worried that she will slip behind even further. We have her registered for a reading program this summer and we help her every night by reading the insane amounts of books that the teachers send home with her (sometimes up to 10 books a night!) Do you think we are pushing her too hard and she is just shutting down or do we need to continue this amount of reading everyday and hope for the best?

I think you are very caring parents and are trying to do your best for your child. All of the things you are doing are wonderful but if she is shutting down sometimes instead of things that feel like school to her. Do some games that have phonics in them. For instance kindergarten and 1st grade level cd-rom games on the computer. This always helped my kids when we were homeschooling and they just didn't feel like school work any more. They thought they were playing but it still was interactive learning. There are many free online games for learning that are fun. Let her pick some books at the library. Make it an adventure for her picking out her books. She'll be more apt to want you to read them to her. I hope this helps.

I am homeschooling a first grader, and she is okay at reading. But, I wanted to motivate her to make reading an activity she wants to do on her own...just like playing with a favorite toy, or watching TV.

I created a contest. It's called the 1,000 Minute Challenge. The Challenge-- Read 1,000 minutes, in 1,000 hours, and earn 1,000 cents. I did a whole poster, and created a fun character to help her on her way. I made a colorful reading log, featuring the character, with good reading advice. (ie, phonics rules I know she struggles with, etc).

I bought her a stopwatch to time her reading. I found one at a learning store, which is specifically for timing reading--it's a timer on a bookmark. It makes it more fun, but any timer, stopwatch, or simple glance at the clock will do.

We keep a reading log, and every day we look at her log. Every time she reads 10 minutes, she gets a card for her poster. There are 100 spaces on the poster. All she has to do, is fill up her poster to win, the challenge.

The grand  prize: 1,000 cents ($10), a medal (purchased from a toy or trophy store) and a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. Now, there are many other prize levels. If she only gets to 250 minutes, there is a different prize package. If she only gets to 500, or 750, there are other prize packages.

1,000 minutes is 17 hours, and 1,000 hours is 6 weeks. And, the way it realistically works out, is that to win, she only has to read 24 minutes a day. That's not that difficult.

From what you are saying, it does sound like a lot to me. In addition to the reading challenge, I have a few other tips. When my student first came to me from a traditional kindergarten class, she struggled too. We did a couple of things.

The first thing that I saw helped TREMENDOUSLY was reading with Microsoft Word. Whenever we would read, and she stumbled on a word, I would type the word out in like 150 point font. I would use the mouse to highlight, and analyze the word. You have to remember, young eyes not used to seeing small type and can get overwhelmed. Also, sometimes the letters run together, and they have difficulty noticing an important letter squashed in there.  

Another thing I should mention, is that at such a young age, many times vision problems are not yet diagnosed. Poor reading is one of the ways it comes up. Consider having her eyes checked. For some kids, that is all it takes. A pair of glasses, and the kid's life is changed.

Remember, she is only six or seven. She'll get it. I've never met an adult of reasonable intelligence that never learned to read. Some kids are just late bloomers.

My student struggled with Dick and Jane readers for the first quarter. Then literally, woke up one day and could read anything she wanted. It was so weird.

But my advice, relax, and don't make her hate reading. And 10 BOOKS A NIGHT FOR A FIRST GRADER?! Geez! A maximum of 25-30 minutes/day of required reading is plenty. Get through what you can in that time period, and tell the teacher to take her 10 books/night and shove them where the sun don't shine!

The summer program is a great idea, since kid lose so much when they are off from school. Kids learn to read by reading, so the best thing you can do is read, read, read. Take her to the library often so she can pick out books (and magazines). It may motivate her to pick what she wants to read, just make sure they're at an appropriate level for her. It's really important that you read to her as well. Sight word flashcards are valuable. Re-reading the same books helps with fluency. Encourage her to use the word attack strategies she's learning in school when she comes to a ord she doesn't know. Ask her qustions about the stories.