Chapter 5: Using "Real Books" in Your Program

      from Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books

       
       

      Books: The core of a good reading program

      The statement that books should be the central, most important element in any reading program may, at first, seem self-evident. But, as I've already mentioned, my review of tutoring and home education resources has revealed that most reading curricula do not introduce real books into the program right at the beginning. Letter cards, memorization drills, and the like are the primary modes of instruction in the first months of these programs. Any stories that are used are ones that are usually contrived to meet some phonetic purpose.

      To say that these stories tend to be uninteresting, even boring, would be an understatement. Most of them reflect language that is unfamiliar to young students. The following example, taken from the intensive phonics-based manual How to Tutor by Samuel Blumenfeld (1973, p. 49), will serve to illustrate this point:

      Dan has an ax.
      Has Dan an ax?
      Sam has ham.
      Has Sam ham?
      Dan has land and sand.
      Has Dan sand?
      Sam sat.
      Dan sat.

       Obviously, the above example was contrived by Blumenfeld to help the student practice the short a sound. But where in any normal person's experience would this kind of language be found, except in this type of reading program? One has to wonder what a child thinks about the enjoyment factor in reading if he is constantly faced with this kind of literature. Proponents of skill-based programs would be quick to point out that these drills are not intended for entertainment or enjoyment. They have a specific purpose, and that is to provide practice in a particular element of their reading skills sequence.

      I'm not sure that many children are able to separate practice from the real thing, nor should they be expected to. They should not have to be told to "Just suffer through these meaningless practices and some day you will be able to enjoy real reading." Learning to read, like learning to talk, can and ought to be meaningful and enjoyable from the start.

      The writers of many phonics programs instinctively realize that the process should be enjoyable and not boring. This is why they introduce all sorts of artificial elements into their programs to make them fun--elements like puppets, songs, letter people, rewards, and colorful progress charts. Since repetitive drill and contrived stories are things that most children would soon learn to dislike, they must be supplemented with rewards, games, and songs to keep the students interested. Therefore, the focus is taken away from reading for real purposes. When the child thinks "reading," he thinks "games" or "songs" or "toys" or "drills" or "boring."

       A reading program that uses real children's literature as the primary instructional tool has purposefulness and enjoyment built right into it. After all, children's books are meant to be enjoyed. Otherwise they would not have been written and published. Learning to read with real books delivers its own rewards as a part of the process. Contrast the selection from How to Tutor with the following selection from Brown Bear, Brown Bear (1984) by Bill Martin:

      Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?
      I see a redbird looking at me.

       Redbird, redbird, what do you see?
      I see a yellow duck looking at me.

      With the book in hand, most five year-olds can "read" this selection during the earliest formal reading lessons. This is not to say that they would have mastered all of the words in isolation, or even all of the letter sounds. But in the student's mind, he is reading a real book, and that is exciting! All of the other elements of reading will come in time, with lots of practice and good instruction.

      Predictable books

      The key to using real literature at the very beginning of formal reading instruction is in using books that are predictable. In an article by Lynn K. Rhodes (1981) titled "I can read! Predictable books as resources for reading and writing instruction," she discusses the characteristics of predictable books. They are as follows:
      • Predictable books have a repetitive pattern.

        • Children can quickly follow and read along with the book after the first few pages.
      • They are about concepts that are very familiar to most early readers. The children can easily identify with the story line and the characters.
      • There is a good match between the text and its illustrations. This is an important key in a book's readability. In the selection from Brown Bear, Brown Bear above, the pictures that accompany the text essentially tell the story for the child after he has become familiar with the pattern.

        •  

         

      • Many predictable books use elements of rhyme and rhythm to increase the overall predictability of the book. Once the child catches the rhythm or the rhyming pattern, it enhances his ability to predict what will come next.
      • Many also use a cumulative pattern as the story progresses. A familiar example of a story that has a cumulative pattern is The Gingerbread Man where each of the fugitive cookie's pursuers is added to the narrative as the story reaches the climax.
      • Stories that are familiar to a child also enhance their predictability. It is easy for most children to predict what the wolf will say in The Three Little Pigs because of their prior experiences with the story.
      • Familiar sequences are often characteristic of predictable books. Eric Carle, in his book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, uses two sequences that are familiar to most young children: numbers and the days of the week:


        • On Monday he ate through one apple.
        But he was still hungry.

         On Tuesday he ate through two pears,
        but he was still hungry.
         
         

      Why use predictable books?

      The primary reason for using these books in the earliest instructional sessions has to do with motivation. In traditional phonics-based programs, the child has to wait until he has mastered some basic elements of reading before he is able to venture into the world of "real" books. Because of this delay, he may become confused about the purposes or value of reading. The rewards of learning to read may be perceived as being so far off into the future that the child gives up hope. It is not unlike having to wait until one is sixteen years old before being allowed to drive. With most six-year-olds, delayed gratification equals no gratification!

      This may be a good time to digress and discuss the issue of reading readiness, or the belief that there comes a point in each child's life when he is ready to become a reader. Classifying a child as either a reader or a nonreader does not reflect the latest thinking on literacy development. Recall the earlier discussions in Chapters 2 and 3 about language acquisition and early readers. Given this information, it is more appropriate to consider the literacy development of children as being on a continuum of increasing competence. To categorize a child as either a reader or a nonreader is misleading, and it implies that he is somehow deficient until someone comes along and tells him how to read. It does not take into account the God-given ability to learn language, both spoken and written, that he has been demonstrating since his birth. Marie Clay (1966) coined the term emergent literacy to describe this process of a child becoming increasingly literate. In becoming a fluent reader, a person goes through many stages that are similar to a child who is learning a spoken language. Even a baby who has learned to control the intensity of his crying or cooing has demonstrated his control over certain elements of speech. We would be mistaken to classify him as a "noncommunicator" because he is not speaking the language fluently.

      Predictable books provide a means for an emergent reader to practice the many behaviors that make up the act of reading. Concepts about the printed word and book handling skills are learned through experience during read-aloud times and during the child's initial experiences with predictable books. Some of these concepts and skills include:
       
       

      • the idea that print contains an exact message
      • the difference between letters and words
      • some individual letter sounds and words
      • the one-to-one correspondence between spoken and printed words
      • the left-to-right progression of print
      • the top-to-bottom progression of lines on a page
      • the return sweep at the end of each line
      • the front and back of a book
      • the page-by-page progression of a book
      • expressive and fluent reading
      • the practice of correcting one's self when mistakes (miscues) occur, to maintain meaning


      Perhaps you have never considered the importance of these conventions in reading or what is the best, most effective way to teach them. An emergent reader who has participated in many read-aloud sessions has learned most of these conventions by the time he begins practicing them on his own as he reads predictable books. Rarely does the adult/teacher need to provide direct instruction on any of these concepts. Concepts about print and book handling skills are more thoroughly and efficiently learned through experience and practice.

      Stanovich has indicated that the sheer amount of print that is processed by a person has a positive effect on his reading vocabulary/word recognition skills and on his knowledge in general (1994). This is true no matter how skilled the reader is or how low his ability. Using predictable books provides the best way for a child to be exposed to much print even though the child has had little formal instruction or experience. These books use many of the high-frequency words that are so important in our language. Many opportunities to overlearn these words will arise, thereby helping the child to become a fluent reader.

      Using predictable books in the initial stages of a formal reading program allows the emergent reader to utilize everything he has learned about reading up to that point. They are like a lightning rod where all knowledge about reading processes can be discharged. The enthusiasm that is released in the child as a result of this discharge will provide valuable energy as the texts become more difficult, and the instruction grows more focused and intense.

      My soapbox . . .

      Reading is comprehension. We read for one reason--to get the author's message. Reading is not just sounding out letters one after another, it is not simply saying one word after another, nor is it being perfectly accurate: it is making sense of print. This should be the first and primary idea taught, demonstrated, and established in the child's formal reading program. A good read-aloud background will have already laid this foundation in the child's experience. Using predictable books will build upon that foundation.

      "Prediction is the core of reading." Frank Smith, the author of Understanding Reading (1988), repeatedly drives this idea home. Prediction and comprehension are intricately tied together. Smith goes on to explain, "Prediction means asking questions, and comprehension means being able to get some of the questions answered." Effective readers engage in a wide range of prediction strategies while they read. These strategies span the range from metacognitive ideas ("Knowing this author and his style, he will probably introduce some bizarre element next"), to predicting events in a story ("I bet the butler did it"), to confirming expected word or phonic elements ("The Pony Express rider jumped on his h_______"). Their prior experiences with stories, print, and life in general are what enable them to process the text so efficiently in this manner. A good reading teacher can help students learn prediction skills, but once again, they are better learned through interaction with stories" lots of them. Reading predictable books helps a young reader to flow fluently through text because his expectations about what comes next are repeatedly confirmed. It's just good practice, and practice makes perfect!

      A bibliography of predictable books for young readers

      In Appendix A at the back of this book I've included a bibliography of books that you can use. The books are divided into levels of increasing difficulty. At the beginning of each level is a description of the features of the books on that level. You can add your own favorites by comparing yours to books with similar features.

      Theory into practice

      I've discussed the theory related to using predictable books in the early stages of a reading program. By now, you are probably wondering how an effective program should progress. With all this theory in mind, we are now ready to begin looking at the specific methods you should use as you move into a more formal reading program with your child.

      Back to Teach a Child to Read