Reading a sentence: slowing down is the best way forward

Is your child is struggling to understand the sentences they read within a paragraph? 

The key to helping your child here is to slow down the reading process and take time to explore the text a sentence at a time. 

This may mean that in 10 minutes, you only read and discuss one or two sentences, but the progress your child makes may be more significant than if they struggled through a whole paragraph with little understanding.

It can feel excruciating pulling apart just one sentence, but stick with it, and you won’t have to do this indefinitely!

The payoff for slowing down is that you will be teaching them the vital skill of visualisation and the importance of understanding each word in a sentence.

This then becomes a habit, and they will automatically visualise when reading by themselves. And, as we know, reading and writing go hand-in-hand, which means that this technique will also help with their creative writing sentence structure!



What you need:
• 10 minutes
• Your child’s reading book
• A pack of post-it-notes + pencil
• A quiet place to have a chat



Example text (for a Year 4 child):
The machine-gun chattered again. The road was narrow, hemmed in on both sides by a wire fence. There was only one way to go, and that was straight ahead. But there was the bridge. It was looming up at us, a humpback bridge with a railway line on top. I could



What to do:
Discuss one sentence: Example: The road was narrow, hemmed in on both sides by a wire fence.



1. Imagine this road. Have you ever been on a narrow road?
2. Why could a narrow road be difficult for a driver?
3. Let’s look up the phrase ‘hemmed in’ (definition: to surround in a restrictive manner).
4. How would it feel to be hemmed in?
5. What’s the difference between a wire fence and a wooden fence?
6. Where do we see wire fences? Do they give a friendly or unfriendly feeling?
7. Take a post-it-note and write ‘hemmed-in’ on the note. Stick it on the bathroom mirror. The following day (while brushing teeth) think of a sentence using ‘hemmed-in’. Then, say the sentence. (Note: if a child can say a sentence, they should then be able to write it).



Good luck with this technique, and let us know how you get on.
Anna