T.Gaudy Montero Rodríguez shares her experience in her Elementary 2 English Class with the reading techniques from the book “Each Kid is a Reader”.
Promoting reading in class
Based on the discussion and analysis of the ideas in the book “Each Kid is a Reader” we have decided to integrate some of these ideas in the English class, to promote, mainly, reading comprehension with Elementary 2 students.
Initially, the children had to read a short text containing four high frequency words and underline each word in the text; however, instead of understanding the story, the students simply put their brains into finding the four words in the text without understanding the story.
Currently, we project the story on a screen, and I read the story melodically and out loud while the children follow along. I read the story one more time, this time I ask the children to close their eyes and try to imagine everything around the story.
Once we finish, the children share their own vision about the story, including the weather, the colors, the places, the characters, etcetera. We read one more time and identify the high-frequency words. Finally, each student must rewrite the story in their notebooks, add a title to the story and their own ending. The kids share their stories with each other and get feedback from their peers and me.
By Gaudy Montero Rodríguez
Photographs by Leandro Natale