After reading a story to a child give her the op-
portunity to talk about the story. She can tell you her
favorite part of the story; you might also encourage
her to retell the story in her own words. Children
enjoy rereading the books that have been read to
them. They will pull out the same book to be read
again and again. They may even ‘‘read’’ their books
by looking at the pictures and telling the story. This
pretend reading, known as book talk, provides anoth-
er brick in the foundation of their reading pathway.
If a child were retelling the story ‘‘The Three Lit-
tle Pigs,’’ he would probably include the language: ‘‘I
will huff and puff and blow your house down.’’ The
words ‘‘huff’’ and ‘‘puff’’ are not typically in a child’s
basic vocabulary. These are examples of book talk
words; using such words shows that the child has re-
told the story using the language from the book. Nor-
mally these book words are important to the story
structure or story meaning.
Book talks, story retellings, singing songs, and
noticing rhymes in words are ways that children like
to play with words. A child is ready to begin formal
reading instruction when she is recognizing symbols,
demonstrating vocabulary knowledge by using book
talk, and identifying word patterns with rhymes.
Beginning to Read: Kindergarten and
Primary Grades
Formal reading instruction begins when a child
is introduced to the letters in the alphabet. This typi-
cally occurs in kindergarten or the primary grades of
elementary school. Children must learn that the writ-
ten word is made up of letters that are symbols for the
sounds they hear. Children must match those known
sounds with letters. To help children match the
sounds that they hear to letters, they need opportuni-
ties to use different literacy tools such as writing lists,
making signs in block building, writing notes, and
using icons and words when exploring computer
games.
Children’s writing experiences should allow the
flexibility to use nonconventional forms of writing at
first, what is called inventive spelling. These spelling
attempts show where they are developmentally in
their reading. Children go from hearing the begin-
ning sound, then the ending sound, before they begin
to look at letters in the middle of a word. If they at-
tempt to spell the word ‘‘jump’’ with a ‘‘j,’’ they are
looking at the beginning letter of a word when they
read. If they spell ‘‘jump’’ with ‘‘jp,’’ that would indi-
cate that they are looking at both the beginning and
ending letters of words when they read. When chil-
dren look at both the beginning and ending sounds,
they are then ready to look at the letters in the middle
of the word. At this point children would spell ‘‘jump’’
either ‘‘jup’’ or ‘‘jop.’’ To help children look at the en-
tire word, they should be encouraged to stretch out
the sounds they hear: ‘‘j-u-m-p.’’
In this beginning stage of reading, children
‘‘read’’ from matching what they hear to letters in the
word. Having the children stretch out the word
‘‘jump’’ to hear the individual sounds will help them
realize that there are four different sounds. When
they can hear and identify those four different sounds
they will be able to read and write ‘‘jump’’ with con-
ventional spelling. Once children understand this let-
ter sound match, they should be encouraged to write
on their own as the next step in their literacy develop-
ment.
In addition to being read to, children need to be
encouraged to read independently. In the early stages
of learning, children depend on illustrations to help
them read a story. Before having a child read, have
him look at and discuss what he sees in the pictures.
This process, known as a picture walk, helps the child
gather words he needs to read the story and is also an
opportunity to teach any unfamiliar vocabulary found
in the book. For example, while doing a picture walk
the child tells you he sees a crocodile but the word on
the page is ‘‘alligator.’’ A parent would tell the child,
‘‘yes that does look like a crocodile, but it is really an
alligator.’’ When the child is reading the book and he
comes to the word ‘‘alligator,’’ he will be able to read
the word successfully because of the discussion during
the picture walk.
As children master high frequency words, they
begin to look at words in chunks or parts (st-amp, fl-
oat, gl-ad). They will start to recognize common
blends (st, pl, br) and digraphs (ew, ar, ou). To be-
come independent readers, children need to know
several strategies to help them decode an unknown
word. These strategies include: using the picture,
sounding out the word, looking for sound chunks in
a word, rereading the sentence, skipping the word,
and thinking about the story.
During this early reading stage, it is very impor-
tant that children continue to be read to. They need
to be read meaningful stories and informational sto-
ries daily to continue to build vocabulary meanings of
unknown words.Reading to Learn: Second Grade through
High School
Once a child can decode words using a variety of
strategies, the focus of reading changes from word
recognition to comprehension and reading fluency.
Reading becomes an opportunity to learn as children
read a variety of texts. Their reading success dependsREADING 343