Every teacher has a group of children entrusted to her each year. During their year together, the teacher
takes the children’s existing knowledge and builds upon it. The teacher gives valuable information and a variety of
academic skills to help students be successful in their school careers and lives. The preschool teacher does these
same things and more.
Preschool teachers have the responsibility of taking a group of young children who have had little to no
school experience and teach them. These children will be exposed to academics, as well as a variety of other skills.
For example, preschool teachers must teach social skills such as turn taking, fine motor skills such as holding a
crayon, and introducing basic academic skills. Even in the midst of all that teaching, the simple act of reading a book
to a preschool class can be an opportunity to teach literacy skills.
Parents support and extend the school experience by sharing books at home. A favorite book can be shared
while cuddling before bedtime. New books can be selected with a family trip to the library. Preschoolers can select
one or two books, while the parent selects rhyming books, predictable books, concept or picture books. A few
suggestions from Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Early Childhood Section (2002) are:
Rhyming Books – Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young by Jack Prelutsky
The Sky is Not so Far Away by Margaret Hillert
Predicatable Books – Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr.
Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
Concept Books – Mojo Means One: Swahili by Muriel Feelings
The Z That Was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg (pp. 21-22)
According to Walther and Fuhler (2008), “…it is critical that we continue to set time aside to read aloud to
our students” (p. 8). The activity of reading aloud to students is a way to slow down the pace of a hectic day at
school or at home. It is an opportunity to share a book as a group. This is also an invaluable time to teach. The
following is a list of possible teaching ideas from Walther and Fuhler (2008):
introduce reader’s to the writers’ craft
teach students how to “read” illustrations
fine-tune visualization skills
create a list or log of your class’ favorite read-aloud titles
compare and contrast favorite folktales
integrate math into your read aloud fare
dip into content areas with fiction, informational books, and poetry
provide talk time
connect one story to another
choose stories with children can make a connection
predict, revise, and predict again
build reading fluency. (pp. 8-9)
One activity that can be done with a read aloud is predicting. Predicting is defined by Vacca and Vacca (2008)
as students “rely on what they know through previous study and experience to make educated guesses about the
material to be read” (p. 196). In this activity, the teacher shows the class the cover of the book. After reading the
title, author, and illustrator, the teacher has students look at the picture on the cover. The class discusses what is
happening in the picture. Then the teacher has students predict what they think the story may be about based on
the picture. After giving time for student responses, the teacher begins to read the story. As the teacher reads the
story, she stops at crucial points in the story to discuss with the students if their predictions were correct. So that the
students can make the difference between the teacher statements and the text, the teacher puts the book down or
moves it to the side (Routman, 2003).
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