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Reading in the Early Childhood Classroom

The Scaffolding Early Learning (SEL) framework supports the use of research-based strategies for reading to and with children. The strategies that follow are appropriate modes of reading in early childhood classrooms.

Read Aloud

Definition:  Reading to children.

Purposes: To expand children’s background knowledge, facilitate understanding of story structure, and expand thinking skills and imagination.

Examples of Appropriate Texts: Traditional tales, such as Three Little Pigs, Patricia Polacco’s Thunder Cake, Paul O. Zelinsky’s, Rumpelstiltskin, Tomie dePaola’s  Strega Nona, or even folktale variants like Ed Young’s  Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China and The Rough-Face Girl, a Native American Cinderella tale by Rafe Martin have a strong sense of story with the following story elements of characters, setting, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Modern fantasies, such as Corduroy, Stellaluna, and Baby Rattlesnake, where toys are personified and animals behave like humans, respectively, help children develop their imaginations.

Non-fiction books: Provide factual information to young children through simple text and illustrations on the biological, physical, and social sciences. Popular young children’s authors include, Gail Gibbons, Aliki, and Paul Showers.

Steps to Reading Aloud:

Before Reading: Select a text. Pre-read it and think about how to introduce it to the children and what to explain (vocabulary, expressions, etc.).

During Reading: Use expression, check understanding, and encourage participation using “think-pair-share.” It is important not to interrupt the flow of the story by stopping to ask too many questions (limit questions during reading to about two).

After Reading: Draw out personal connections, extend experience by acting out the character roles, and brainstorm roles and role speech for play time.

Interactive Reading

Definition: Children talk with the teacher about the pictures and the story while the teacher reads.  The teacher uses a variety of techniques to engage the children.

Purposes: To enhance children’s language and literacy skills.

Examples of Appropriate Texts:  Brown Bear, Brown Bear is a good example of repetition; The Gingerbread Man and The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything are good cumulative examples, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a good example of prediction.

Steps to Interactive Reading:

Before Reading: Explain to the children appropriate ways to participate. This will vary based on the text –they may chant, use hand gestures, make sounds on cue, use puppets, etc.

During Reading: Encourage children to chime in when appropriate.

After Reading: Use puppets, props, and costumes to retell the story. Possibly, put on a performance for parents!

 

Dialogic Reading

Definition: Conversation between the teacher and student(s) about a book. Includes 3–5 students to encourage active participation.

Purposes: To develop oral language and vocabulary.

Examples of Appropriate Texts: Books with outstanding illustrations (i.e., Caldecott Medal winners and Illustrators who have received Caldecott honors), such as Arrow to the Sun (1975), The Polar Express (1986), Owl Moon (1988), What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? (2004 Honor Book), and books with interesting details, such as those illustrated by Jan Brett (e.g., The Hat). Additional books appropriate for dialogic reading would be books in other languages.  Note: When translating there is no print to word match; therefore, reading these books aloud cannot be modeled.

Phases of Dialogic Reading:

1. The teacher asks W-H questions and expands on the child’s vocabulary by asking, “What is this?” “What is he doing?”


2. The teacher uses vocabulary developed in phase 1 to tell a story. The teacher asks open-ended questions; for example, “What’s happening on this page?”


3. The teacher helps the child make a connection, either personal or within the story, with the book and uses statements such as these: “Did we see these animals when we went to the zoo?” “Do you remember what happened in the beginning and why he is doing this?”

Shared Reading

Definition: Reading familiar texts with children.

Purposes:  Child learns to participate and behave like a reader. The teacher models fluent reading and introduces reading concepts and skills (concepts of print, such as one-to-one correspondence; parts of a book; concept of word; directionality; or phonological awareness skills, such as rhyming words; word families).

Examples of Appropriate Texts: Big books with simple texts and large print, child- or class-made books, lyrics to popular songs on sentence strips (e.g.,  “Happy Birthday” song), simple poems written on posters or large chart paper, and products of interactive writing (i.e., Morning Message).

Steps to Shared Reading:

Step 1: Orient children to the print.  Purposefully choose a concept to discuss (e.g., front of the book, back of the book, or story title if it’s a big book; line-by-line structure if it’s a poem)

Step 2: Teacher Reading. Purposefully choose a skill to emphasize (e.g., demonstrate one-to-one correspondence, emphasize rhyming words, predict what might happen next). 

Step 3: Teacher and children read together. For example, children choral read as the teacher points.

Step 4: Response or Extension Activities:  Children may finger-point and read independently or  little book versions may be created; the children can hear the stories again at the listening center. 

Buddy Reading

Definition: Reading by children with partners from a wide selection of books.

Purposes: Fosters expressive and receptive oral language skills while conversing with peers, book handling, print awareness, and positive social interactions with peers.

Examples of Appropriate Texts: Books that are very familiar to the children, so they have something to discuss with each other. These might include picture books appropriate for young children in a variety of genres, including fiction, non-fiction, books about people, animals, different cultures, science,  child-made books, and class-created books.

Step 1: Children pick books from tubs that are categorized and labeled. The teacher hands mediator cards (lips and ears) to pairs of children.

Step 2: The child labels pictures or retells the story when it’s his or her turn to “read”.  The teacher gives a signal, and the children switch roles. The children talk about what they liked about the story.

Step 3: Children put books away in proper tub.

 

The Elkonin Movement Game

The Elkonin Movement Game is an activity that supports phonological awareness. Teachers in SEL classrooms often implement it before introducing more complicated SEL strategies, such as Mystery Word. The Elkonin Movement Game and Mystery Word support children learning

• Beginning and ending sounds 
• Sequencing (concepts of ‘first” and “last”)
• Oral language
• Social skills
• Cognitive flexibility

Watch a demonstration of the Elkonin Movement Game.

References

Lonigan, C. (2007) Implementing dialogic reading.

McGee, L. M. & Richgels, D. J. (1996). Literacy beginnings:  Supporting young readers and writers (2nd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Tomlinson, C. M. & Lynch-Brown, C. (1996). Essentials of children’s literature (2nd ed.). Needham Heights, MA:  Allyn & Bacon.

U. S. Department of Education. (2007). WWC intervention report: Interactive shared book reading.  Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/intervention_reports/WWC_ISBR_011807.pdf