Page 93 - Reading Nest - The Supportive Literacy Environment Handbook

Laste arvamustega mõistekaart lemmikloomade kohta Tartu Lasteaed Tripsik. Foto õpetaja Maili Magerramov.

When the teacher reads in spare time (e.g. during children’s afternoon bedtime, between
classes or while children are engaged in a longer independent task), it creates interest. The
children may ask, “What are you reading? What is this book about?” Sometimes the teacher
might deliberately choose a book arousing interest in children and then read it out. Reading
out catchy stories may ‘infect’ them with reading interest, children are keen to find out what

happened next and begin reading the story independently.

For instance in Israel some first-year pupils (in Estonian context 6-7-year olds, about to
start school) were read a story about monkey’s adventures during the last 20 minutes of
the school day. It was a series of thin yet gripping books, targeted at a slightly older age
group. To begin with, teachers were not particularly happy finding them too light-
hearted. However, children liked them immensely and at the end of the experiment, the

children who had been listening to monkey stories daily, had better vocabulary and
retelling skills than the control group. In addition, many children had obtained the books
of the series or read those of older siblings, which also improved their reading skill and
increased their motivation to read ((Feitelson et al.).