In the article “Children’s Active Participation in Reading and Storytelling Can Enhance Early Literacy Learning” by Carol Trivette and Carl Dunst, the authors stress the importance of using interactive techniques during story time to engage children.
This only needs to be done 10-15 minutes at a time and is as easy as letting a child pick out the book to be read, asking the child to answer questions while reading the book, using what she says to further the discussion, and switching the roles of the reader and listener.
Active reading experiences help children develop the skills needed to learn how to read. These include listening comprehension, phonological awareness, an individual’s awareness of the sound structure of a spoken word, oral language, alphabet knowledge, print awareness, written language, and text comprehension.
So before you quietly groan “Ugh” when Sam climbs in your lap on day 7 with Horton Hears a Who, think to yourself what a good reader he will become!
Read more about what is called “dialogic reading.”
