INTRODUCTION

 Books contribute to language and vocabulary

development of children.
 INTRODUCTION

• The books that teachers choose for their

children will have a deep impact on them.
• The books confirm for the children that their
lives are normal and that they belong to a
part of the culture.
• If they see cats and rabbits in the books, they
can accept these animals as suitable to have
as pets.
• Children expect the world they live in to be
represented in the books they read.
Big Books

• A big book is an enlarged version of an

authentic piece of children’s literature that
makes both illustrations and text highly
visible to the child during a read-aloud event
(Hancock, p. 192).
• The big book reading by teachers in the
classroom is like the lap reading time that
many children have never experienced at
home.
Big Books

• When the teacher reads the stories from the

big book to children, the warmth and
closeness created encourages the children to
see the connection between the teacher’s
voice and the printed word as the teacher
points to the text during the read-aloud.
• Reading aloud to children and getting
response from children is an early milestone
to early literacy.
Big Books

• Many of the popular children stories in the

market today are available in big book
formats.
• However, for beginning teachers, you have to
be very careful as not all big books contain
authentic literature.
• This is because the popularity of big books
has encouraged publishers to create many
types of stories using the big book format.
Big Books

• Many of the popular children stories in the

market today are available in big book
formats.
• However, for beginning teachers, you have to
be very careful as not all big books contain
authentic literature.
• This is because the popularity of big books
has encouraged publishers to create many
types of stories using the big book format.
Big Books

 Thus to be sure, always check the library to

find out if the stories in the big book format
are taken from real literature.
 The authenticity factor is important so that
the children can always refer to the real book
version later for independent reading.
Big Books

• Using big books for read-aloud leads to early

oral response and this can take place whether
the children are simply joining in on repetitive
phrases or actually making sound/symbol
relationships.
• The big book continues to play a meaningful
role in both the development of the
emergent reader and lays the foundation for
early reader response.
Oral response using big
books.
 Teachers can use the big book to draw out
responses from children.
 This can be done by introducing a more
structured, yet open-ended approach to
encourage thought and expand responses
from children.
 A read- aloud session followed by open-
ended reader response prompts allow the
reader to focus, feel, connect and relate
literature.
Oral response using big
books.
• A reader response prompt is an open ended
question created to encourage the listener to
respond at the end of the read- aloud session.
• There is no right or wrong answer as the response
lies within each child and that makes the
responses given by the children unique.
Oral response using big
books.
David Bleich (1978) cited in Hancock (2000) devised
three prompts which provide the basis for
responding orally to any piece of literature at any
level:
 What did you notice in story?
 How did the story make you feel?
 What does the story remind you of from your
own life?
Oral response using big
books.
  A study done by Kelly (1990) who used these
prompts with third graders found a
remarkable growth in quality, quantity and
depth of oral response.
 At the beginning, teachers needed to prompt
the students after the read-aloud session but
after some time, the prompts automatically
become the framework for oral response.
Oral response using big
books.
  Later, the teachers may choose to pose other
open-ended prompts to their students to
encourage independent thought from the
children.
 These could include questions about the
character, the message of the story, why they
like or dislike the story etc.
Oral response using big
books.
 However, it does not necessarily mean that
teachers should make it a routine to prompt
questions following each read-aloud.
 They should choose prompts wisely and
effectively and in a non-threatening format.
 Teachers can improve oral response among the
children by providing an environment in which
book talk is valued.
Oral response using big
books.
 This means that the children should not only be
given ample time to talk during formal oral
sharing and but they must also be given enough
time for informal responses as well.
 Informal responses could be when they arrive in
the morning, when they are about to go home, or
during times that are suitable to talk about the
books. 
2. Pattern books

 Pattern books are picture books that contain

repetitive words, phrases, questions or some
other structures that make them predictable.
 The repeated element helps listeners
remember what comes next so they can join
in as teachers read aloud.
2. Pattern books

 These simple books are easily committed to memory,

making them useful in initial reading instruction. For
example, the pattern book, “The Wheels on the bus”:
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
Round and round, round and round.
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
All around the town.
2. Pattern books

And each subsequent verse

follows the pattern:
The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish.
The people on the bus hop on and off.
The horn on the bus goes toot, toot, toot.
2. Pattern books

 Pattern books make great lap reading. When

a child sits on an adult’s lap, the adult can talk
about and point to things in the text and
illustrations.
 Children should be encouraged to focus on
the printed words and join in on parts that
they recognize or are familiar with.
2. Pattern books

 When a teacher points to the words as she

reads it and then get the child to read the
words as the teachers points to them, soon
the child will learn the concept of word.
 Once the child can match spoken words to
their written part, they have actually made an
important discovery called speech-to-print
match.
 This will then lead the children to learn some
of the words by sight ( Anderson, 2002).
2. Pattern books

 Pattern books are wonderful or initial reading

instruction because they are predictable, the
vocabulary is limited, and the illustrations
reinforce the text.
 Although pattern books contain characters,
setting, and a few events, most of them do
not have full plots.
 Thus, they can rarely be used to teach story
structure.
2. Pattern books

 However, children who have listened to a

book several times can usually recite it by
looking at the illustrations.
 This is an important and useful practice as
later when the children begin reading
independently, they can look to the
illustrations for clues on unknown words.
2. Pattern books

 Adults can help the children by focusing on

the printed words by pointing each word as
they say it.
 Through this process, children can add new
words to their sight vocabulary (Anderson,
2002).
3. Other kinds of books

 There are many other types of children’s

books that could also be used with children.
 Many good books were not discussed
because they did not fit into the categories
mentioned.
 An example is the book “Look Alike” which
challenges children to find assorted everyday
objects in the three-dimensional dioramas
that were photographed to illustrate the
book.  
 3. Other kinds of books
 Although the book is not a story book but it will
provide the children with many hours of reading
thoroughly the beautiful and clever illustrations
while sharpening their visual perception.
 Some books provide wonderful reading
experiences for the children.  
SUMMARY
 Many thousands of good children’s books are
available in libraries, stores and bookshops.
 It is up to the teachers to choose those which
are appropriate to their students’ level of
proficiency and interests.
SUMMARY
 Books for very young children are primarily
illustrations with little or no text.
 As children develop, books suitable for them
would be those that have illustrations that
convey part of a message but the text is
needed to complete the story.
SUMMARY
 Whatever the set of children that we have,
there are always a type of book suited for
them.
 Reading aloud to the children would help
enhance their literacy and develop their
language.
 Read – aloud also help elicit oral responses
from children which mean that the teachers
engage the children in the event.
 
ACTIVITY/ DISCUSSION

 Pair work(30 minutes). Select a simple story

that you know, for example, Goldilocks and
the Three Bears or Cinderella.
 With your partner, prepare prompt
questions that you would ask children when
you read-aloud the story to them.
 Present your questions to the class.