In the preschool years, teachers are developing pre-literacy skills, skills to prepare preschoolers to learn to read. Key tools for developing literacy are picture books and stories. You can use stories with preschoolers throughout the day. Think about these four ways to use stories with young children.
Ways to Incorporate Literacy into the Day
Read the story aloud.
Reading stories aloud gives children an opportunity to hear fluent, expressive reading. (They can follow this model later.) Read books that use rhymes or repetition, helping children anticipate the words of the story. Read other books with more involved plots and complicated vocabulary. Use familiar stories, such as fables and fairy tales, as well as new, unfamiliar stories.
When reading a book for the first time, briefly introduce the book. (“In this story, a boy is bored so he pretends to be in trouble so the people will come out to him. His pretending creates a problem.”) Explain unfamiliar words as you read, to build vocabulary. Stop occasionally and predict what will happen next. These steps will help children think about the story and understand what is happening.
Repeat the story.
Reread a book one or two days later (or later in the same day). A repeated reading helps children gain more understanding about the story. On the first reading, they are learning the general plot of the story. A repeated reading helps preschoolers absorb more of the story and think more deeply about it. Ask deeper questions, encouraging children to think about motives and feelings of characters.
A repeated reading does not need to be a read aloud. Use books with CDs. Read the book first to children in a group setting. Then place the book and CD in a center for children to use on their own. They can hear the story several times as they turn the pages of the book.
Retell the story.
Create opportunities for children to retell the story. A simple way to do this is to turn the pages of the book, asking a child to tell you what is happening on each page. The illustrations will encourage his memory of the story events. Or place the book in a center (without a recording). Encourage children to use the book to retell the story to friends. Place a doll with the book so children can retell the story to the doll.
Other resources can provide additional opportunities for retelling in learning centers or one on one with a teacher. For example, after reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?, provide felt figures and a felt board. Children can use the figures to retell the story. Or provide puppets or other props of the story for preschoolers to use as they retell the story.
Retelling a story reinforces a story’s plot and characters in the child’s mind. Also, a child can think about motivation, feelings, or causes of a character’s actions that will help him comprehend more about the story.
Rewrite the story.
To really help a child think beyond the story, provide activities that allow them to rewrite the story. Rewriting the story is changing events or characters. A child could change the ending or change simple facts in the story (what the character eats). Again, providing simple props in a group setting or center activity allows the child to think about and rewrite the story.
After you have read Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? several times and retold the story a few times, encourage children to change the book. Offer animal figures and suggest children tell the story with these animals instead of the ones in the book.
Read, repeat, retell, rewrite. These steps can help you incorporate story time throughout the day for children.