meaning. She reads slowly, encourages
the kids to make connections, and most
important, chooses a text that has
universal themes and an authentic
storyline that fosters comprehension
beyond the literal. Toward the end of
The Teddy Bear, the man in the green
coat loses the teddy and begins to wail.
Kelly uses the word wail to help the
children connect to another book they
have read together, Baby Rattlesnake.
“Do you know what wailing is? Do
you remember baby rattlesnake in the
book we read last week? Yes, wailing
means crying.”
Besides checking on understanding
and reinforcing vocabulary, Kelly is
helping her students make text-to-text
connections (Keene & Zimmerman,
2007). She seamlessly weaves instruc-
tion into the enjoyment of the
readaloud.
© STEFANIE FELIX
Early educators should help children step
Encouraging Reflection
Authentic literature evokes authentic
responses. It’s good practice to
encourage young students to reflect on
the reading and to make space for spon-
taneous sharing and extending of the
ideas in the story. The day I observed
Kelly read The Teddy Bear, she encour-
aged her students to reflect. After she
read the conclusion, when the boy gives
the homeless man the bear to keep, the
students seemed to welcome a pause to
think. Kelly then said, “A lot of you
have been making books and drawings
based on the books you’ve heard me
read. You are welcome to go and do that
if you wish.”
Already intrigued at the class’s reac-
tion to this book, I sat with students as
they began writing and drawing. Seeing
Nori get out writing materials, I asked
her, “Are you going to write about the
book Teacher Kelly read?”
Nori looked at me with that half
smile of hers. “I only draw stuff I think
about.”
“And what are you thinking about?”
into a story and make it their own.
She sighed as she drew a sun. “I was
happy that he gave the bear back to the
old man.”
Sierra shook her head. “It made me
sad, ’cause the little boy didn’t know
where his teddy bear was. I lost my
Cinderella doll. I can’t sleep without
her. But she was hiding under my bed!”
“How about the rest of the story?” I
asked.
Sierra then agreed with Nori: “It was
happy at the end.”
Hanna chimed in: “I feel sad about
the book. He be nice to the boy and the
little boy was nice to the man. . . . The
boy had the elephant to sleep with, or
the lion. The man was crying, and he
have no other animals.”
What an inference! Hanna had
remembered the picture of the boy on
his bed surrounded by stuffed animals.
She used the pictures, her knowledge,
her emotions, and her empathy to get to
a deeper understanding of the story.
Notice the sophisticated comprehension skills these preschoolers were
learning. They empathized with
different characters, made inferences,
found many text-to-self connections,
and changed their thinking, as when
Sierra revised her opinion of the story’s
mood. They also shared their reactions
to the text and their own stories with
one another, building a community of
readers. Rippling conversations like
these can continue to widen as students
and teachers explore new ways to
comprehend the books they read or
hear others read.
Using Familiar Books
to Teach Text Features
An important part of strengthening
comprehension is making sure emerging
readers understand distinctive text
features of books they will read and
hear. Rereading familiar books out loud
as a whole class is a wonderful strategy.
