Moore, M., & Hall, S. (2012). Listening and comprehension at story time: how to build habits of the mind. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 40, 2, 24-31.

Dr. Bradley's buzz:

This article makes the point that understanding is an active process and that storytime is a key time for building strong habits of mind. Key habits of mind are noted as: being able to attend to what is important in the story, being able to anticipate what comes next, and being able to build meaning from a collection of details. These habits of mind combine the dispostion to engage with the story with the skill of being able to make sense.

These authors describe comprehension as an act of meaning making, and point out that learning to listen and build understanding leads naturally to formal reading. The authors offer several strategies to teachers:

1. Teaching children about the structure of stories (cover, page numbers, beginning, middle, end, author etc.) is an important facet of early literacy.

2. Breaking down pictures by asking questions about setting, characters, activities helps children to make sense of scenes.

3. It is useful for teachers to introduce new vocabulary before the story and lead discussion on meaning and what it means to children. Then ask questions about pictures that allows children to use practice using that vocabulary.

4. Most stories revolve around the main character encountering some sort of problem and then solving the problem. Working with children on identifying the problems and brainstorming or recognising solutions is a good way of engaging them in the story.

5. Begin with the cover of the book and get children to make predictions about what they think the book will be about and what will happen.

6. Asking meaningful questions about the picture (e.g., what is going on here? or, do you have one of these at home?) can help unpack the symbols in the picture as well as link to prior knowledge and working theories.

7. Graphic organisers like T-charts (http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/tchart/) are useful to extend learning - it also provides a tool that links to numeracy. Venn diagrams and story timelines can also support understanding of characters and the way a story unfolds.

This is a very useful practitioner directed article that aims to give teachers practical skills for developing comprehension in group reading situations.