Ask Children to Predict What Will Happen

You can ask the children what they think will happen next or what the story is about before you read it with them by looking at the pictures. You can also ask them to tell you more about the story by looking at things that happen in the pictures that are not in the print. This helps children think about the story as a story, and not just pictures and pages. Sometimes the pictures show more of the story than the words do.

When they learn to do this, they can start to tell a story using the words as well as pictures to guess at the words they do not know yet.

Say things like:

• Let’s look at the front picture. What do you think they story will be about? (A dog)
• It says “He eats every bite”. Does it look like he eats every bite in the picture? What do you think really happens?
• It says “But he already knows how to fetch.” “Fetch” is when a dog brings back a stick. Uh oh, what did he bring back? (A hat) Was that a good thing to do? (No) Does the boy look happy? (No, he looks scared) Does the lady look happy? (No, she looks mad)
• What do you think the puppy will do next?

Suggested Book: Just me and my Puppy (Mercer Mayer)
Reason for Book Choice: This book has a nice story to it and many of the pictures tell the whole story, not just what is said in the print.

*Excerpted from Development of Emergent Literacy in English Language Learning Children Through Parent Shared Reading by Tanya L. Wren, Pathways Children Centre, Windsor, Ontario and Genese Warr-Leeper , University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.

*Warr-Leeper, G., Wren, T., & K. Washington (2006). Facilitating emergent literacy skills in English language learners: The value of team work and collaboration. OSLA Connection Journal, 2(2), 12-16.