Today I’m hosting Chapter 3 of the Summer Book Study of Jim Trelease’s book The Read Aloud Handbook. Find more details about the book study here with a schedule. Chapter 3 is titled “The Stages of Read-Aloud”. This chapter was full of great information! I will just touch on a few points.
Reading Aloud in Early Childhood
In chapter 3, Trelease talks about the importance of reading aloud to children in early childhood, even (or especially) in infancy. He says, “children hearing the most language will have the best chance of having the best language skills.” He talks about the importance of rhyme in early childhood by frequently using books that rhyme and simple nursery rhyme poems. Rhyming is so important in early childhood, and children who cannot rhyme are likely to have reading problems down the road. In my classroom, we recite nursery rhymes every day, usually during our large group time, but they are also great for transitions, such as while waiting in line or as a time filler.
Building Attention Spans for Story Time
For building attention spans, Trelease suggests varying your voice and using interactive dialogue (asking simple questions during the story for children to respond to). He states, “attention spans are not built overnight – they are built minute by minute, page by page, day by day.” One thing I believe is important for building attention spans as well as getting children hooked on books, is to pay close attention to our book choices at the beginning of the year. Often we as teachers want to choose books on a particular theme at back-to-school time: books about apples or books about going to school. Those books are not always the best books to hook kids at the beginning of the year. My back-to-school books are ones like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, The Lady with the Alligator Purse, Pete the Cat, etc. Those are books that aren’t too long to hold their attention and also hook their interest. We can increase the length of stories later on, as their attention spans grow.
Repetition: The Same Book Over and Over
Trelease suggests reading the same book multiple times because repetition helps children learn language and learn comprehension. I admit I sometimes hesitate to read the same book, even though I know repetition is important, because someone always says, “We read that book already!” I tend to interpret it as a complaint, but it could very well be they just think I don’t know what I’m doing. I have found that when given the choice, children will choose to read a book again.
Building Vocabulary While Reading
Children gain more vocabulary when you read and give explanations of words than if you do not give explanations. I have noticed many children’s books will use a big new vocabulary word and then explain it in the same sentence or the next sentence. When they don’t explain it, I say “that means __” and then we’ll go back to the word at the end of the story and talk about it. I always try to pick at least one new vocabulary word from every book we read that we can discuss. If possible, hand motions when explaining a word seem to be extra helpful for children to retain a new vocabulary word. For example, I seem to have several books in my collection that use the word “enormous” and when we talk about that word, we spread our arms out as big as we can as we say it. I also make sure to explain “book language” to my class – those words that are in books, but not in their everyday conversation, such as sigh, reply, cry (to call out), gasp, etc.
Book Discussions
Trelease says, “Discussion after the story is of critical importance, but it doesn’t have to last forever. Reading needs to be a social experience, giving them the chance to share their feelings about the book and its characters.” I agree, always save time at the end to let children talk about the book at least for a little while. I actually allow my class to talk about the book during the story, as long as it is very brief, and we can continue on. Doing that tends to encourage random comments that interrupt the story, so I remind them frequently that if they say something in the middle of a story, it has to be about the story. Think of it like Oprah’s incredibly popular Book Club: people enjoy reading more when they can discuss it.
Finish work early? Read.
In one of the anecdotes in the chapter, Trelease mentioned that a fourth grade teacher had her students read when they finish work. This is something I do in Pre-K as well, even though they are picture-reading. When we do our small groups, my children are told to go look at books when they are done with their activity. They get a book from the Reading Center and lounge on the carpet or on the chairs in the Reading Center. They quickly catch on and know this is what they should always do when they finish. They love this! They would often rather skip small group entirely and just go read books.
Other Thoughts
I love that he recommends doing a “Red Riding Hood” week, author weeks, picture book series, and chapter books (long picture books or short novels of 60-100 pages).
Trelease says many children benefit from following along with a book as it is read aloud. This includes using an audio book to follow along with text. In my Reading Center, we have books on CD and/or iPod along with the book that children can follow along with. I also like the iPad apps or the books in the iBooks store that allow children to listen and follow along with a book. I think the advantage to apps over CDs is that the voice over story waits until the child has turned the page, so the story doesn’t continue on without the child.
Thanks for joining me today for Chapter 3! You will find Chapter 4 over at Teach Preschool on July 19. You can find more discussions of The Read Aloud Handbook in the Linky below.
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Great summary, Karen. I also liked his idea of reading different versions of the same story, picture book series, author studies, etc. Last year, almost as the whim of a new first grade teacher, we read several versions of the 3 Little Pigs. I think that was one of my favorite things. At the end of the year we were focusing on folk tales and ended up reading different versions of a couple of those. This next year, I’m going to be more intentional about it.
Thanks, Scott! We must have been thinking along the same lines last year because I made a point to read a fairy tale each month (we reread it several times) as well as a different version of the fairy tale. We compared the 2 books and recorded the similarities and differences on a chart. Some of the books we compared were Goldilocks and the Three Bears vs. The Three Snow Bears (Jan Brett) and Little Red Hiding Hood vs. Pretty Salma. I noticed that children began to make comparisons on their own.
Karen, you summarized the chapter well. Thanks. I loved Trelease’s ideas to naturally progress from picture books to novels, reading several versions of the same story. I do that with the Gingerbread stories at Christmas time, but will incorporate this idea at other times during the year. I must say I’ve not done an author study but will focus on this idea during this coming year.
Thanks, Carol! The gingerbread stories are great for different versions because there are so many available. An author study doesn’t necessarily have to be really elaborate (as in your entire week and everything you do related to the author). It can be as simple as reading several of an author’s books and talking with the children a little about the author and making a poster with images of that author’s books to help the kids make the connection. A fun author study for Pre-K is Mo Willems!
Thanks for the suggestion on an author study.
Great write up Karen. One idea I was introduced last year was to front load vocabulary (both individual words and phrases) BEFORE reading a story. I pulled new words and/or phrases from a story ahead of time. Sitting in a circle, I would read the word/phrase and ask someone to either explain/define it or sometimes act is out in the middle of the circle. This allowed those children who knew the words to shine and those who didn’t to learn from their peers instead of me.
Finally, we’d read the story. As the new words/phrases came up, I could see (and sometimes hear) the light bulb illuminating above children’s heads. 🙂
I found this technique really powerful and allowed children to make their own connections to new words during the story.
Matt I love your idea of presenting words or phrases before you read the book. I also do a similar thing, but use visuals before we read the book ( example, a white mitten if reading the book The Mitten) along with the word mitten before I read the book. I think this year I may have the book available along with the visuals in a story box for them to use during center time. Thank you Karen for a great summary of chapter 3..
I love your idea of sharing word/phrases prior to reading a book. As I read this I thought about using a visual with word and then read Becky’s comment. Love it.
That’s a great idea, Matt, to “sandwich” the vocabulary learning with new word intro/story/new word reinforcement. I like that.
Matt, I like the idea of introducing words beforehand, too. I’ve done this in our reading curriculum – talking about words before we read them later. I need to add this step to our read-aloud books.
Matt, inducing new vocabulary prior to reading is helpful . My students enjoy suddenly hearing the new word pop up in the story and telling me what it means. Also, I make a big effort to use those words through the day or week whenever possible.
But if I come across a word I should have introduced, but didn’t, it is interesting to ask who has an idea what it could mean. Then I ask how they came to that thought. In this way, the class gets a to see how classmates find clues in the text, pictures, and sometimes through their own experience. It’s a good way to show how readers find meaning.
When it comes to vocabulary I highly recommend the book Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Dr. Isabel Beck et al. This book is an extremely valuable resource for helping teachers choose the correct vocabulary words to target during read aloud. It is a fabulous resource and one that I have used in my classroom and applied the strategies so I know they work. Dr. Beck is a professor at Pitt and also one of the consultants of the PBS series Martha Speaks. Good stuff!
Karen, I enjoyed this chapter too. Rhyming is very important at an early age. My Pre-k students love to rhyme…I hear them rhyming during playtime, at lunch, on the bus, etc. also, during read alouds if there’s a word vocabulary word that they my not understand I will explain it and discuss it again after I have finished the story. Sometimes I would write the word on the easel and at the end of the day ask the students if they remembered what that word meant. If they used that vocabulary word during the day they get very excited and let me know.
Good idea to reinforce new words at the end of the day. Thanks for joining in the book study, Connie!
Hello Karen!
Thanks for your detailed summary of Chapter 3! I admit I am a bit skeptical about the ability of my class to handle longer books, but since all of you (and the examples in the book) have done it, I need to give it a try. I think one of the challenges which I foresee is the fact that many/most of my students are not native English speakers, and quite a few have disabilities which affect their ability to process language. However, Trelease points to the importance of reading aloud with both of these groups, so I need to just give it a try!
I’ve never heard of Mo Willems. What makes him one of your favorites, Karen? I’m always open to a new author! Like you, I often choose to read a book several times, generally four to five times a week (once a each school day). Although often students comment on the repetition, most seem to enjoy it and to benefit from hearing the language multiple times. The trick is to find a book that is worth all of the rereading, so I am open to all of the suggestions which everyone has.
Thanks for joining our book study, Joy! Like Trelease says, you have to build up to longer books by building their attention spans. One thing I often do with the really long picture books, like Crickwing or Stellaluna by Jannell Cannon, is to read half of the book before outside play & read the rest after. Or sometimes, I’ll even read half one day and half the next. That way, I don’t lose their attention, and they get to experience the suspense of what is going to happen next.
Mo Willems writes books that really speak to preschoolers. You can tell he is in touch with this age group. He wrote “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” which is probably his best & there’s a whole Pigeon series. He also wrote the Knuffle Bunny series. Your students will ask for his books to be read again & again. Other books kids beg for are the Pete the Cat books.
Sometimes I’ll start a longer picture book at the end of the day. Then we finish it at the beginning of the following day. And read the entire book another time. (Maybe I did do some things right this past year!)
I also never thought about reading longer books and not just use picture books in Pre-k. I think I might try Junie B. Jones books this year. The kids loved all the books when I taught kindergarten.
Nancy, I also never thought about reading longer books to my pre-k children either. As I kept reading, Junie B. Jones also come to my mind. I think my pre-k children would enjoy her stories.
Karen-
Great summary!! I enjoyed reading this chapter as well and it validated my belief in author studies- I love reading Kevin Henkes, Mo Willems, Laura Numeroff, the Pete the Cat series and the Llama Llama series. The children love these books and head to them time after time. I also liked the idea of introducing novels to the students. I think I may try that this year with certain stories!
So many great ideas people! I am totally doing more Nursery Rhymes during transitions next year w/ my pre-K classes.
Always love author studies and reading different versions of stories.
One of the stories we read different versions of is The Little Red Hen. One of my favorite versions is The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza… Oh my goodness such great vocabulary and such a fun version… I don’t know why but when I read it all the characters always have outrageous British accents. My preschool students love this book!!! They always can make the connection to the original story.
I also want to find a way to incorporate more poetry into our day…
I also am going to try to do Nursery Rhymes during transition times. When I was little, I knew a lot of Nursery Rhymes but I’m finding that the children that I teach do not.
I like how you talked about selecting books at the beginning of the year. I feel that sometimes we get so stuck on reading books that fit with a certain time of year or a holiday that it may not be what would be best at the time. My first year teaching Kindergarten my teaching partner suggested I read “The Kissing Hand” on the first day. It is a super cute book that teachers and parents love but I don’t know how much the kids appreciate it (especially my young JKs). This year I read Melanie Watt’s “You’re Finally Here” and it was a huge hit! Much funnier and leads itself to a very interactive read aloud.
I thought I was the only teacher who did not read “The Kissing Hand” on the first day – glad I’m not alone! I agree, it is a really cute book, but in my opinion, not the best choice. Thanks for the suggestion of “You’re Finally Here”. I’ll look that one up.
I’m on team “No Kissing Hand” too- way too long for pre-k for the first day. I always start the year with books like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus or No, David.
I am so excited to join the book study. I, like many of you, introduce new vocabulary words written (sometimes typed using different fonts) with illustrations. We then post these on the board that has the title, author, and illustrator. It is amazing to see their eyes look over at the board as I read the book for the second time. I often choose books at the beginning of the year that are a bit to long for their attention span. I will use your suggestion list this year. Trelease talks of discussion after thr read-aloud
I love the idea of introducing the words before the story. Often I would pull the vocab words from a themed bag or box as we read. The words had picture cues on the to help read. Also the suggestion to have a reading center with favorite books, magazines and newspapers is also offering more materials for them to engage in especially in dramatic play.
Karen, your summary included two tips I think are worth remembering as we head into a new school year. First, teachers ought to be very mindful of the first books they share with their new class. You are so right: great books, carefully chosen, can dazzle and delight them right away. The second thing is that children like repeated readings of favorite books. Sometimes they beg to have a story reread immediately or days later. Rereading lets them remember the sequence, anticipate a particular scene or word, and it lets the story grow. It can become a “favorite”.
Karen,
I’m sorry to say that I have not read the “The Read-Aloud Handbook” Jim Trelease yet but I did read all the comments & suggestions everyone gave. As I am preparing for another school year,(as I type this) I have several new ideas to use that was suggested from the people in your book study. Thanks. J. Haro
Lots of great comments concerning Chapter 3. I love the idea Matt shared about introducing and using the vocabulary words before he ever reads the story. I also think children can get a lot out of the author studies or reading various versions of fairy tales. Seems like we have lost some of that this day and time, so I am glad to hear that many teachers are still using fairy tales in the classroom. Many great life lessons are shared through fairy tales so that children’s social skills are also being developed. I was particularly intrigued this week with Trelease’s idea of reading books so far advanced of the children’s level. It makes perfect sense though, and that is an idea I will share with the pre-k teachers that I mentor. I also liked the fact that he states that kids are never too old for picture books. He gave such wonderful examples of books to use throughout this chapter. It certainly makes me want to add to my own collection! Thanks for the great summary Karen.