Sultan Qaboos University

College of Education
Early childhood Department




Observe a kindergarten teacher reading to his or her class.
Identify the ways in which the teacher focuses on vocabulary
to enhance comprehension




Done by: Meizoon Suhail Ahmed Tabook
ID:88976
Submitted to: Dr. Ali Tekin
Course name: Development of Language and Literacy ECED 2100
Fall 2012




Introduction:-

Stories are loved by kindergarteners. Story-time is a favorite time for most children.
story telling is a wonderful time and kindergarten stories have an important role to
play. Story time with simple stories for kindergarten and other kids is a great time to
bond with your children and kindergarten stories can be a very useful part of
kindergarten. Im strong believe that fostering a love for reading is the most
important part of kindergarten teaching. Also, kindergarten teachers must develop
strategiesand keep reading practice interesting, to ensure students stay motivated. .
In my paper I identify the ways that teacher use during reading story after I
observed story time in child care center in SQU. Moreover , I provide other ways that
teacher should follow to enhance the comprehension of story for children from
deferent sources.
My observations:-
The first observation:
Around 10:00 the teacher brought the story and a chair. Before she stats she said
'thank you for who sitting nicely". Then said " today we will read together three bears
story". And start read the story , some children read with her and some not , and
others make some noise they were talk to each other. The teacher closed the book and
looks at them who make noise by look angry and said "please do not talk" and retain
to complete reading the story. She change her tone of her voice related to the story
and point to the pictures in each page. Also she had different expressions in her face.
When she finished the story she asked children question related to the story like "how
many bears in the story?" After that, she called their names to line by to move to the
other class.
The second observation:
During reading a story one child make a noise, so the teacher ask him to stop out
which means he sit out the circle for a few time .then after a couple of time another
child make a noise which disrupt the story time, so the teacher sent him too to stop out
and let the other to join the circle again . the teacher made expressions and
movements with her hands and face which depend on the story for example cry or
sleep .Also she change her voice sometime its high and sometimes its a low .when
she finish reading she ask children question that related to the story for example
"should I box when I get angry?" children shacked their heads with no . Then the
teacher said we should take a deep breath to remove the anger. Then she asked what
else we can do to remove the anger ? some children said we paint or sing, others said
we run. After that she asked time another question three times but in different ways
when do you get anger? when do you feel anger? and what make you get
anger? one child answered when I didnt get stars .
My analysis of the observations, I noticed that the way that the teacher used to make
children understand the story easily are:
- The change tone of teacher's voice during reading the story is a wonderful thing
makes the child involved more in story's events and operate his imagination with the
story.
-Make facial expression to convey the meaning for children to facilitate
understanding of the story .
- Ask question at the end to be sure that children get the meaning of the story.
Different and open ended question which encourage children to think deeply.
-Also, to maintain the whole class during story when other students made noise things
in order to keep other children to understand the story , she used punishment to stop
that chaos. In my opinion it's a good strategy to prevent break the story time.
Other ways to focuses on vocabulary to enhance comprehension:-
- Teacher should walk students through the book one page at a time. Point out each
picture and ask students what they see. Implant the language of the story and
introduce the vocabulary by pausing at each page to review what you have read. Elicit
the correct word to describe what is shown in the picture.
- Reading storybooks aloud to kindergarteners helps build their vocabularies,
appreciation and interest in reading and background knowledge. Repetitive reading
allows a child to process a text multiple times.
- Comprehend the meaning in the text just by the energetic and enthusiastic way you
read the story.
- Reading books aloud to your class makes the story accessible to every level of
reader and encourages well-written, fluent writing. Also, through reading aloud, a
teacher exposes children to print conventions and extends vocabulary and inference
skills. Moreover ,it builds up the child's ability to sit quietly and listen for longer
lengths of time.
As Homann & Weikart (2002) mentioned in their book reading to children in an
early childhood setting is different from reading to children at home, simply because
there are more children involved. Nevertheless, there are particular strategies adults
can adopt to make reading in preschool as intimate and homelike as possible:
As a general practice, read with small groups of children rather than one
large group.
Sit on the floor when you read so children can cluster around you as close to
you as possible. Sitting on a couch also work well with a small number of a
children.
Maintain a balance between introducing new stories and enable children to
select familiar stories they wish to hear.
Re-read childrens favorite stories at their request or at your own initiative, as
parents understand, children love to hear their favorite stories again and
again, both during the same sitting and over a period of weeks and months.
Read interactively and with pleasure. Pause for childrens comments and
questions. Enjoy the story yourself as well as the childrens responses to it.
Make story-reading a regular part of your daily routine so children can count
on being read to at least once or twice a day. For example, you might read
every day at greeting circle, during snack time, at the end of small-group
time, or just before nap time.
Read at work time and other times of the day at the childrens request.


References:-
- Homan. M & Weikart. D.P (2002). Education Young Children. Michigan:
High/Scope Press.
- Guided Reading in Kindergarten (n.d) Retrieved December 11, 2012, from
learninglinks.com/gdrdgkdg.html http://www.lindas
- Kindergarten Reading (n.d) Retrieved December 11, 2012, from
http://www.ehow.com/kindergarten-reading/

- Kindergarten Stories | Short stories for kindergarten (n.d) Retrieved December 11,
Stories - http://wwriter.hubpages.com/hub/Kindergarten 2012, from
-Teaching Kindergarten Reading Comprehension (n.d) Retrieved December 11, 2012,
from http://www.k12reader.com/teaching-reading-comprehension-in-kindergarten/