Asking Questions While Reading

I feel the need to post some more detailed posts about how I read with Jacob. I have had some great questions about asking questions and where we take a story after.

Today we read, Rooster's Off to See the World, by Eric Carle. (One of our great children's authors) This is a terrific beginning counting book in addition to just being a fun book to read for toddlers. In the story, there is one rooster, 2 cats, 3 frogs, 4 turtles, and 5 fish. This is perfect for us because Jake is just counting 1-3 (starting this week). This works for him because I want to work with him just above his current mastery level. If he has mastered 1-3 I would not want to just focus on 1-3 but instead take him to the next level to continue growth.

Questions:

At this level (~2 year old) you do not want to ask too many questions while reading. Too many questions will confuse the child's comprehension and just make them lose interest.

*First set of pages- "The rooster is lonely, he wants friends. Do you like to have friends?"

Questions should relate directly to the child and/or the story. My relating the story to Jake will help him make connections which in turn aids in comprehension. Although open ended questions are the best, it is ok to ask yes or no questions to 'grab' the reader and to help them get-into the story.

*Next- "How many cats are there? Can you purr like a cat? Let me hear you."

*Then-"How many frogs do you see? The frogs jumped along, show me how they jumped."

Questions do not always have to be answered with words. By having him jump like the frogs he is staying active and connecting to the story.

*After that- "How many turtles are there? The turtles thought it would be fun to be with the others, how can they have fun?"

This question is open ended and allows room for many possible answers.

You can see the idea and the line of questioning that can happen with a very simple book and a very young child that has a limited vocabulary. We did continue reading the story and I asked questions although not on every page.

After reading I pulled out the Zoo Coloring Book I made for this month's coloring pages. I do not always do an activity after reading books but during our Structured Play time I do try to connect an activity to one of the stories. I pick up books biweekly at the library and we read and re-read those books for two weeks.

Comments

Play to Write- Week 3

We participating in a Wednesday Play Group called Play to Write over at Cherrios and Lattes . This is week 3- Write/Spell Your Name. We started this week's practice with some name tracing. Cherrios and Lattes provides the printable for some dotted letters. She suggested doing rainbow writing with this sheet. I showed Jacob but he was more interested in writing all the Jacobs. I started by modeling on the first name. Then I held his hand and we did it together. Finally I let him do the last three on his own with only my verbal prompts. He took this very seriously and was very proud of himself! I was surprised at how much he liked doing this activity. He has a long way to go but he did pretty well! One thing I had to repeat was not to go around the o and a more than once. He wanted to go around and around. This is an activity that I think he will want to do again! The next activity was Missing Letter Name Practice. We started by singing a little song I sing fo...

December Project-Based Learning: Sharing Through the Season

Every classroom teacher knows how crazy the classroom can be from Halloween to winter break. There are fun community activities, holidays, and a lot of excitement! I learned instead of trying to fight against the hype, to channel the excitement into projects! This time of year the necessary elementary classroom routines become dull and have a harder time keeping student interest. So what better time to introduce project-based learning! I feel strongly about learning about the culture and traditions of others. In my classroom, over the years I have learned traditions celebrated in holidays I was familiar with and traditions from holidays I was not aware of previously. This project was created to provide a way for students to share their personal family traditions during this exciting time being all-inclusive and without making religious statements. Project Objective: The students will each select and read a picture book to the class asking questio...

Name Writing Practice

Jacob did a little name writing practice today. He was asked to trace the dotted lines to write letters for his name. This is good practice with spelling as well. I had him say each letter as he wrote the letter. As you can see he is very choppy and not exactly on the dotted lines. His motor skills are not quite sharp enough yet to be able to hold the crayon and he especially loses control as he works on towards the end. We also did a Missing Letter Name Practice. Both of these ideas came from Cherrios and Lattes ' Play to Write, Write to Read. These are good ways to practice names and writing. He gets very angry if he thinks he made a mistake. See the scribbling. I have to reinforce that it is ok to make a mistake and that everyone makes mistakes but we just keep trying. Practice is the only way to get better. When this happens I cannot help but think of my former students that did the very same thing and proceeded to throw fits and give up. I hope to help Jacob ge...

Structured Play

Search This Blog