by Val Diggle

Created on: November 19, 2009   Last Updated: November 21, 2009

Reading comprehension in young learners can be accelerated by preparing for the task of reading the book, as though the novice reader and the teacher were about to go on a journey together. In planning for this adventure, pre-reading techniques, such as assessing what the student already knows, in terms of relevant vocabulary, introducing the subject area that the book will describe and then explaining anything that might be unfamiliar, are all strategies that will help to de-mystify the book and its contents and accelerate reading comprehension in students.

For young students, more specific essential pre-reading skills involve tasks that re-enforce the following key areas

Extending vocabulary,

A love and knowledge of the book and its various functions

Visual recognition of letter forms

An understanding of narrative

Aural (sound-based) discrimination between the smaller sounds that make up words.

The youngest child, as they enter school, has a vocabulary of between 2,000 and 5,000 words. New students may conceal their personal word-hoard behind a veil of shyness or anxiety, allowing their more confident or verbally agile peers to take centre stage, but a typical five year old knows the names of hundreds and hundreds of things. This prior learning is an invaluable resource when it comes to accelerating reading comprehension, because it is the extent of this vocabulary that will determine whether or not the book, and the world it describes, will be intelligible to the student. It is only logical then, that the first task of any teacher focused on promoting literacy skills is to make the classroom environment a place where students feel welcome, valued and safe enough to enrich their word-hoard by exchanging it appropriately with others.

A student's vocabulary is stimulated and extended if the environment is also visually exciting. The young pre-reader has a mind developing at lightning speed and the classroom environment should aim to reflect this kind of dynamic and satisfy the most intellectually curious.

Above all, the classroom for pre-readers needs to be a place to promote a love affair with books an affair that will hopefully become a life-long commitment. For young learners, special Come Dressed as Your Favourite Book Character days and regular story-times, where the book's refrain is chorused gleefully by the entire class, help to inspire this kind of devotion to the printed word. Encourage activities where the book as a physical object can be

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