Reading

In Reading to Kindergarten Children, Mason, Peterman and Kerr discussed how beginning readers gain comprehension skills and some early understanding of language concepts from daily teacher read-alouds. The article described three different types of read-alouds -- storybooks, texts and picture books -- and the techniques teachers used for them. With all types, teachers were intentional about telling the children what to be thinking about and listening for during the reading and about employing follow-up activities to help children make connections between story elements and their experiences.

Mason and his colleagues noticed that teachers varied their introduction and during-reading strategies. While they spent time discussing settings and characters and asking prediction questions in story- and picture-book readings, teachers appropriately focused on demonstrations and prior-knowledge evaluation during textbook readings.

I was particularly interested in one teacher's strategy to foster observation skills by having the students comment on what the cover illustration told them about the setting -- climate, time period (long-ago or present-day), etc. -- of the story. It does seem like that would help nurture early learners' surroundings awareness as well as deductive-reasoning skills. My dyad teacher will often cue her students by saying, "Fifth-grade detectives, where will you find..., or how will you know..." I think that is another great example of encouraging students to be keen and observant.