Early Childhood - Connecticut State Department of Education

Language And Literacy Development Chapter 5
COMPREHENSION AND
APPRECIATION OF STORIES
Performance Standards
Show independent interest in reading-related
activities.
Attend to a story.
Retell information from a story.
Demonstrate understanding of basic conversational
vocabulary.
Demonstrate understanding of messages in
conversation.
Reading to children is crucial to literacy development.
In this activity children learn about story structure and
the functions of print, and develop comprehension skills
(Morrow, 2001). Teachers should offer many choices of
text, and plan the daily schedule to include three to four
opportunities for reading to large and small groups and
individual children. Experiences with books should be
Teacher Strategies
Set the purpose for reading. Introduce stories by
providing background knowledge. Point out the
cover and several pictures within the story before
beginning. Provide an opportunity to wonder and
question first.
Take time during and after a story to assess
children’s understanding. Allow comments or
questions.
Re-read stories. Repeated opportunities with a story
allow children to practice remembering, organizing
information and sequencing. Each time they
become quicker in their responses, thus allowing for
more time to process and comprehend other story
elements.
Read stories using incorrect sequence, syntax or
vocabulary, encourage children to think about the
story.
Choose books according to developmental levels
and for intentional teaching.
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varied and include shared reading, one-on-one, quiet,
alone time, reading with a purpose and reading for sheer
pleasure. Teachers should find ways to draw children’s
attention to the characters in the story, the sequence of
events, new vocabulary, etc. This lays a foundation for
emergent reading development and comprehension.
Developing comprehension is an active process
of strengthening the ability to understand and remember
a story. Listening skills, knowledge of the topic and
vocabulary all contribute to successful comprehension.
Children’s questions and comments about a story reveal
their levels of comprehension. Skilled teachers create
opportunities for children to predict, question and retell
stories. This provides experiences that foster thinking in
a literal mode (who? what? where?), interpretive mode
(why? how do you know?), and in a critical mode (what
would you do? why?). The teacher must intentionally
create contexts for such questions that are meaningful
and provocative for the children.
Suggested Experiences
Elicit questions before beginning a story.
Read the story to do a dramatization.
Read to answer a question.
Read for fun, because it’s such a great story!
Collect and use a variety of books: alphabet, science,
informational, poetry, favorite stories.
Ask: “What might be happening? Why do you think
so? What would happen if?”
Take time while reading to discuss characters.
Encourage children to describe, evaluate and put
themselves in the place of the character.
Read several versions of the same folk story or fairy
tale. Encourage children to compare and contrast the
sequence, characters and ending.
Ask questions while reading a story, e.g., Does it make
sense? Is that how it should sound?
Rhyming books may also be useful in developing
phonological awareness.