Teaching Reading With Stories

When a child first begins reading, I think it's important for them to find the connection between sounding out words and real books. Choices when they are only reading short-vowel words are limited, though. Early phonics readers tend to be contrived and, due to the limited vocabulary, not that well-written or interesting. Another option is to read a book to the child, stopping at the words he is capable of reading and having him read those words. However, this method disrupts the continuity of the story and can make a fun read-aloud book more of a chore.

Yesterday I happened upon a third option that Luke enjoyed. As I read Baboushka and the Three Kings by Ruth Robbins aloud to him, I quickly jotted down a list of words we encountered that he could read, words like hut, men, lost, gift, and rest. By the time we finished the book, I had 20 words on the paper. Then I told him, "Look Luke, these are words from the book that you can read. Let's hear the story again, and you can read them." I then retold the story in my own words, stopping to let him read. Because they were already in the same order as the book, it was a fun review of the plot and a way for him to tell the story again. I plan on trying it at storytime every day.