Margaret Watkinson

Learning to read is an amazing accomplishment that, at first blush, seems rather simple. Learn the graphic system for the specific language (in this case, the English alphabet), learn the phonemes/sounds that are tied to the letter/grapheme and schmush those sounds together and you have words, words make sentences etc. etc..more on all that to come in later posts!

The purpose of reading, however, is comprehension. The author is sharing information, telling a story, describing a place or a time or an event. The reader, or listener if being read to, is connecting in some manner to a person they likely don’t even know.

Children connect to is being read through what they have experienced. Each time a book is repeated, the child connects to something more, something else. Rereading promotes deeper understanding, invites kids to recreate the story in their mind, through their expanding dramatic play. A really good story allows the child to connect personally to the story. Text to self.

A well-read (to) child will soon discover text – to -text connections. Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Three Little Pigs can be connected to each other. The more experience with stories and books, the more text to text connections they will make.

Finally, kids will discover the world through what is being read. Connecting text to the world at large opens whole new vistas. A well loved book will create opportunities for a child to reread over and over as they make text to self, text to text and text to the world connections over time.

To activate these connections and promoting comprehension and to promote authentic interest yourself, ask questions you don’t know the answer to. Tailor your comments and questions to the child’s interests, a concept that you hope to open up to them or that helps them connect the story to their own experience.

A good start is to stick to three questions per reading, but go for multiple readings over a week or two; enough to promote retelling of the story.

• What does this remind you of? (activate prior experience/memory)
• What is happening in this picture/illustration? (attention to details)
• what might happen next? (prediction)
• Is this pretend/fiction or real/non-fiction? (genre study)
• What is this new word? What can it mean? (use the text/illustrations to guess and find out new vocabulary)
• What is happening in this picture
• How did the illustrator show ‘falling’ or ‘fast’ or ‘anger’ etc.

With younger children, point out and discuss details in the illustrations and help them connect the illustrations to the story and the story to themselves and their experiences.

Finally, while the foundation and aspects of decoding start with learning to speak and play with sounds at a very young age, a good way to look at the first four to five years is to view them as the “building comprehension” years. We’ve all read something that made no sense to us. We are able to decode most anything, but if we have little to no experience with the topic, the reading of the words has no purpose. Every sentence is an opportunity to discover a new way of looking at the world and our experiences, through the perspective of an author who took the time to commit their story, their information to paper.

Happy reading to your little one!