Emerging Readers & Writers: Sharing Big Books

Author(s): Dorothy S. Strickland and Lesley Mandel Morrow

Source: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 43, No. 4 (Jan., 1990), pp. 342-343
Published by: International Literacy Association and Wiley
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20200382
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EMERGING READERS & WRITERS

Sharing Big Books

Dorothy S. Strickland, Teachers College/Columbia University
Lesley Mandel Morrow, Rutgers University

One of the most effective ways to get more developmental^ mature. For ex which are presented here:
young children involved with print is ample, a group of second graders dis Tracking print. After the first or
through the use of Big Books. En cussed how the author took a single, second reading, track the print with
larged texts allow groups of children to rather simple idea and produced many your hand or pointer during all or sig
interesting and creative examples: "A
see and react to the printed page as it is nificant parts of the story. You may
being read aloud, a factor considered glove is a house for a hand; a mirror's a wish to choose only the repetitive
key to the effectiveness of shared read house for reflections." Through brain words or phrases, encouraging chil
ing between parent and child. Many storming, their teacher skillfully dren to join in as they see and hear the
teachers regard Big Book experiences guided them to generate additional ex words. Students are helped to get a
as the closest approximation to family amples on their own: "A peel is a sense of the directionality of written
storybook reading one can offer in the house for a banana; a wallet is a house language and the match of speech to
classroom. Largely inspired by the for some money." As with any materi print.
work of Don Holdaway (1979), activi als, the choice of book and the use Think along. Occasionally use
ties with enlarged texts help young made of it will depend on the develop the first reading as a demonstration of
learners to understand and experience mental levels of the children in the how readers think with text. As you
what it means to be a reader. Funda group. read, think aloud about your own un
mental concepts about print are ac Patterned and predictable language derstanding of certain aspects of the
quired through active participation in a is a key feature of many Big Books. story. Model self queries such as: "I
nonthreatening, joyful manner. The predictability of the language and bet this is a story about_." "I won
Big Books are generally recom plot make them easy for young chil der what will happen next." "I'm a little
mended for use with small groups of 6 dren to understand and remember. Pat confused by_, but Fll keep read
to 8 children. There is no rule about terns may be found in the rhyme or ing to find out more." "I would really
this, however. We have seen effective rhythm of the language (e.g., Over in feel_if I were_." "This re
use of Big Books with as few as 2 chil the Meadow, HBJ); in the repetition of minds me of_." "Now I under
dren and with as many as 25. We have vocabulary or story structure (e.g., stand why_." As children observe
also seen them used well with children Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Bill Martin your thinking aloud in this way, they
as young as 2 and 3 years of age and Jr, Holt) and in the story line or shape are helped to see that readers are active
with older children through third of the story (e.g., The Little Red Hen, thinkers who bring what they already
grade. A simple book like Hairy Bear Scholastic). A combination of patterns know together with what they read to
(J. Cowley and J. Melser, Wright may exist within one story. Once stu construct their own personal mean
Group) can be memorized by most dents "catch on" to the patterns, the ings.
kindergarten children after the second book is theirs. Cloze activities. Involve children
or third reading. Kindergartners love Repeated readings make Big Books a in the meaningful prediction of words
to modulate their voices from high rich resource of language activities. At and phrases by pausing occasionally as
pitched tones for Mrs. Hairy Bear as times, different strategies may be used you read aloud to let them fill in the
she exclaims, "Hairy Bear, Hairy Bear, to strengthen and extend understand anticipated language. After several
I can hear robbers," to low pitched ings. At other times, a book may sim readings, select specific sentences
voices for Hairy Bear as he replies, "I ply be reread in unison, with children from the story to write on a chart or on
don't care, I don't care, I'll fim fam enjoying the pleasure of their own the chalkboard and delete one word
fight 'em." On the other hand, A House power over the language and the ac from each. Encourage them to think of
Is A House for Me (M.A. Hoberman, complishment of really knowing a as many contextually plausible words
Scholastic) with its longer and more book well. Strickland (1988) offers a as they can. For example, although
conceptually demanding text might number of suggestions for activities to children may readily guess that the
better be used with learners who are be used with Big Books, several of word day fits in the sentence Tommy

342 The Reading Tfeacher January 1990

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wore a yellow shirt all_long,
they will enjoy thinking of other words Concepts about books and print
that might fit in that slot. Words such Book handling & knowledge Concepts about print
as night, month, and winter are good Holds book right side up Print evokes meaning
possibilities. Each time a new word is Turns pages front to back Pictures enhance meaning
offered it can be written into the blank Front cover Directionality
and tested, through reading, to deter Back cover Word
mine whether or not it fits. Because a Title Letter
Title page Sentence
word must be both semantically and Author Period
syntactically appropriate, children Illustrator Question mark
learn a great deal about how their lan
guage works and their own ability to Interest in books & reading
Shows awareness of environmental print
exercise language power.
Demonstrates interest in listening to stories
Examining text features. An Participates in reading patterned & predictable language
other activity that is appropriate after Uses classroom library (self-initiated)
several readings is to focus children's Shows pleasure in "reading" independently
attention on distinctive features in the Engages in talk about books & stories
text: repeated words and word begin Requests favorite books to be read aloud
nings (letters, consonant clusters), Views self as reader
punctuation marks, and so on. By tak Comprehension
ing a closer look at the text, students Discusses meaning of stories
are helped to get a sense of the smaller Demonstrates predicting and confirming
units of language in relationship to the Infers words in cloze-type activities
whole. By informally using letter Remembers sequence of events in a familiar story
names and other linguistic terminol Compares/contrasts books
Understands main idea of a book (this book is about...)
ogy (e.g., sentence, word, period, ti
Understands cause and effect in a familiar story
tle, etc.) in this context, children learn
Recalls details from a familiar story
the language they need to talk about
reading and writing so important to
language instruction.
Small editions are available for
many Big Books. These minisized ver dies, jump rope rhymes). Informa gram for emergent readers. Use the
sions allow children to extend the tional books may be based on themes chart Concepts about Books and Print
shared book experience in a personal under study: What We Learned About as a guide for observing young chil
and independent manner. They enjoy Dinosaurs or All About Our Neigh dren's reading development as you
recreating the shared group reading borhood. Books modeled after existing share Big Books and other literature.
alone, in pairs, or at home with par predictable texts are also popular. A There is no strict hierarchy to the lists
ents. When a limited number of little book of opposites might be modeled in the chart above. Simply keep these
books are available for an entire class, after P.D. Eastman's Big Dog, Little concepts in mind and embed them
many teachers place half in the reading Dog (Random House). Publishing Big within the daily reading activities.
corner for independent activities and Books in the classroom allows children Most importantly, continuously ob
the other half in a classroom lending to work collaboratively to create text serve to see how well children are pro
library for use at home. After children and pictures. Some may use this expe gressing with them.
have had extensive experience with a rience as motivation to create their
book at school, they enjoy showing off own individual books. References
what they know to siblings and par By moderately structuring the intro Holdaway, D. (1979). Foundations of liter
ents. duction of various print concepts acy. Sydney, Australia: Ashton Scholas
tic.
Publishing your own Big Books for throughout the year and observing Strickland, D.S. (1988). Some tips for using
classroom use is an excellent group their development, the use of Big big books. The Reading Teacher, 41, 966
writing project. Heavy brown butcher Books can be the foundation of a pro 968.
paper, doubled for durability, makes
sturdy pages. Popular topics include
alphabet and number books, calendar
books, reaction books (the scariest Emerging Readers & Writers is a column addressing how preschool and primary
thing I ever saw), category books grade teachers and parents might promote the development of young children's lit
eracy abilities. Send questions, comments, or suggestions about the column to
(round things, red things), word col
Dorothy S. Strickland, Teachers College Box 135, Columbia University, New
lections (compound words, alliterative
York, NY 10027, USA.
words), and literary anthologies (rid

EMERGING READERS & WRITERS 343

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