Q&A for How to Teach Reading

Start with teaching them phonics, or the sounds of letters, to help them break down words.

Find a book that's within their independent reading level, or else they might get confused and discouraged.

Have some patience and whenever you say a word, have them repeat after you multiple times. Break down the word into easily pronounceable syllables if they are having trouble.

Start with simple words and concepts and then work up to the difficult idea. Learning is all about forming connections.

Read materials that are suitable to your vocabulary ability. If you read at a third grade level then read more of books designed for that readability level. The beauty of reading is that it's simple... read more often. Write some thoughts and reflections as you read.

It depends on what the adult already knows. The relationship between sounds and letters must be taught (if they do not have knowledge of this), both for the sake of pronunciation and spelling/writing.

Start with picture books. Read to him. Have him transcribe the words. Read to him again. Ask him to try to read some back.

Education World is an excellent resource. I also like Scholastic's resources. Finally, Read Works will help you find materials.

Look for tutoring in your area. There is no shame in being illiterate, but anyone can learn to read and write. There's probably not much you can do for them yourself if you're not a trained educator, but you can help them hire someone.

It might be necessary to explain that sounding out words is only the first half of the reading process. Once words are correctly identified, part two of the process begins: understanding. Start by having the student read a sentence aloud. Then, have the student look away from the text and state, in his own words, what he just read. If he cannot do this, repeat this process. The idea is to train the student to process what he has read by thinking about and understanding it before going on to the next sentence. The long range goal is to train the student to do this automatically as he reads silently. It's a slow process. Be patient and never underestimate the power of encouragement.

Learn the sounds of the letters of the alphabet and memorize a list of high frequency words. Find websites online that have resources on how to learn reading, such as mythreereaders. Don't worry that many reading resources are geared toward children -- you can learn how to read using the same techniques at any age!

No, he's not. This is very common.

Cater books to their interests and hobbies which will motivate them more! If their level of reading is low, you can always get some books from the children's sections of libraries/book shops as these usually can still be quite appealing even to older readers.