Dialogic Book Reading Activity With A 5-Year-Old Child: A Reflection

Need to find a girl/boy who is between 3-5 years old and read books with them I have to recorded while reading and taking conversation with the child remember that I didn't know the child before after I found the child the child is a girl she is 5 years old I choose a book called the very hungry caterpillar ( please have read on that book so you can have an idea of it ) during the book reading as we went along we the child asking many questions example like she talked and named the colours that are on the first page then she talked about the fruits that are on the pages she named then she continues to talk about her favourite fruits and vegetables so the conversation went so on I asked her questions like have you seen a caterpillar before ? Where have you seen it ?

The child I choose is a boy he is 5 years old I ask the child to draw and write it and observed him I'm sending a photo of his drawing on that drawing he is (there is a house in that house 2 girls are cleaning the house because they moved to a new house the clothes are hanging out side also in the house there is a kitchen he said but his writing is very well when he draw he was making sounds of the words.

The Dialogic Book Reading Activity

Discuss how effectively engaged in the dialogic reading approach:

During the activity of dialogic reading approach, I took the step to read aloud the book chosen with a 5 years old child. This activity was important to develop basic language skills of the child such as vocabulary, sentence structure and make her ready for schools. By reading aloud book called ‘Click, Clack and Moo Cows That Type’’, the aim was to make sure that the child first listens to what I was reading and then support her to become the teller of the story. Hence, I wanted the child to get actively involved in the activity. I sat beside the child at her home and started with showing the front of the book to child (Detailed conversation in appendix 2). The book was the ‘Click, Clack and Moo Cows That Type’. I asked the child to read aloud the title of the book. I read out the author’s name and then asked ‘Do you know what is an author?’. The child responded and told that author is the person who writes the story. I also inquired her about the pictures that were present in the front of the book. The approach taken was effective as by doing this, I wanted the child to develop interest in the book and have basic knowledge regarding what the book is all about. By asking the child to label the pictures on the book, I could get an idea regarding how much awareness children have about basic animals and birds (Ewing, Callow and Rushton 2016).

The next step was to start reading the story in each page. Each page had illustrative pictures and I used the pictures to make the child engrossed in the content. For example, the book had the picture of a farmer and I inquired the child about the expression of the man by asking whether he was looking happy or sad. The child were able to understand he was sad as his face was upside down. While reading aloud the chapters, I also encouraged the child to make prediction about the book by asking her what might happen after this. Hence, by taking aid of the illustrative pictures, the dialogical reading activity proved to be effective for the child. The effectiveness of the approach is also understood from the fact that it was an interactive strategy that engaged the child in the story and encouraged her to talk and express her own understanding while reading the story. It helped her to interact verbally with the text as well as the teacher (Vukelich, Christie and Enz 2002).

The Book Used for the Reading Activity

By reading the book, I engaged in both immediate and non-immediate talk with the child. Immediate talk is a type of conversation with preschoolers where the focus is on information that is directly present in the text or available from the illustrations. By asking questions related to direct information in the story, adequate information can be provided and the child can be supported to make inference. For example, while reading the story ‘Click, Clack and Moo Cows That Type’, I used pictures to ask the child what is the story about and what are cows doing. In this way, I received many types of explanation from children and connection between the book world and child’s real world could be established (Vukelich, Christie and Enz 2002).

I engaged in non-immediate talk during reading by engaging in conversation that goes beyond the information in the text or the picture illustration. For example, when cows used the typewriter to request electric blankets from the farmer in the story Click, Clack and Moo Cows That Type’, I paused in between and asked the child ‘What do you think the farmer will do now? or ‘What else would you do with a typewriter’. This question helped me to get an idea about the child’s experience with typewriter or her knowledge regarding typewriter and find out how their used words to make predictions. This was necessary to make connection to the child’s past experience with basic things or make connections to the real world.  In addition, while reading the story I engaged in non-immediate talk by pausing in between and asking question that helped children to learn counting. I asked ‘How many cows do you see,? Let’s count from the beginning.. One, two three’. Non-immediate talk takes place during pause in between reading or after closing the book. This approach can further help in story comprehension, understanding child’s vocabulary and evaluate child’s ability to make predictions. The non-immediate talks between reading was effective in actively engaging the child during shared book reading and developing their literacy (DeTemple 2001).

The book that I used for the dialogic book reading activity included the ‘Click, Clack and Moo Cows That Type’, written by Doreen Cronin. The main rational for selecting this story is to engage in shared reading with children was that it is an award winning book for children and it has many colourful illustrations that can generate excitement of young children. Books with large text and colourful illustration are necessary to develop children’s interest in reading. Children have short concentration span and colourful pictures are elements in the book that can maintain their interest in the story. Hence, illustrative pictures and graphics was the main reason behind selecting the book dialogic reading. The Book shows expression of the farmer very clearly by adding dramatic lines when the farmer is irritated and annoyed (Vukelich, Christie and Enz 2002). Furthermore, the colours used in the picture are also an important reason behind selecting the book. The colour portrayal has been done very well by the illustrator of the book. For this reason, the book has been selected to provide a vivid and rich experience to children.

Observations on the Child's Role-Play Writing

The content of the book is also one vital aspect that attracts attention as it has lines that are relevant to the interest of children. In some places, rhyming words has been used and in some places it also provides opportunity to learn about new concepts like typewriters. The book provides good opportunity for increasing intrinsic motivation of children and increasing their curiosity level while reading the book. The language skills can increase and encouraging children to talk during the story can support children to express their thoughts in words

To complete the writing role-play, I asked a 5 year old boy to draw a house and write something about the drawing. His drawing was collected and observed to understand his writing skills. While observing the child’s role-play writing, it has been found that the child has used both writing and drawing to express his ideas (Refer to appendix 1). At the top of the picture, the child has written one or two sentences about his pictures and he was also labelled his picture. The child wrote in the picture ‘I drawed a house and I draw people in the my house. I added room bath’. By giving a title or writing few sentences about his picture, it is clear that the child understand the difference between pictures and writing. The child’s writing also shows his good understanding about spatial arrangement as he has used space between single words and started from left to right direction. This is similar to the linearity principle. The child has good spatial sense is understood from the fact that while maintaining the linearity principle (Hill 2006). He has not messed up with his arrangement of words. He has good understanding regarding where word ends and where another begins.

In the word ‘room’, the letter ‘o’ has been added by adding an arrow. This indicates that the child took the step to review his writing and found out mistakes in spellings too. The child’s writing is congruent with the flexibility principle and this is understood from the fact that child has used Capital letters where required and use small letters in the rest part. This implies that the children has the understanding that same letter can be written in different ways. There are many stages in children’s writing (Beginning writing, early-emergent writing, emergent writing,  early writing, transitional writing and extending writing) and the features that has been found in the child’s role play writing is similar to that of the emergent writing phase (Hill 2006). This can be said because the notes mentioned above the drawing reveals that the child is able to create more letters like shapes. Spaces are present between the letters and he is using sequences of letter to further explain his drawing. Beginning of the early writing phase is also seen as has used certain words that he has acquired repeatedly. For example, the word ‘house’ and ‘drawed’ has been used twice.

Developing Phonological Awareness and Emergent Writing Skills

Another important observation is that through the writing in the drawing, the child shows understanding about the concepts of words and shows awareness of his surroundings. The drawing is also a vital element to assess spatial awareness and make connections with the real world. In the drawing, the child has added elements like chair, door, kitchen, TV, bathroom, makeup, windows, tables, flowers, people and trees. This gives the idea that while drawing the picture, the child may be relating to his own world and the basic things that are presented in a house A chimney with smoke going out was also drawn by the child depicting that the child has good observation skills. Hence, on the whole it can be said that the child’s drawing provides good insight into the social and intellectual development of the child. Children explore the world through different methods and pencil and paper gives them the best means to convey their ideas to people. By adding elements in the house, the child has used his own style to show what they know and understand about home and its environment. Spatial awareness is also indicated by giving appropriate space between elements in the drawing and assigning things to their right position (Hill 2006).

A child’s drawing can also give good insight regarding their knowledge and understanding about spatial awareness and layout. They start by scribbling letters first, writing strings of letters or few words. When their written language develops further, they can write few sentences too (Schickedanz and Casbergue 2004). While engaging in the activity of child’s role-play writing, it was found that his writing skill has developed well as he wrote few sentences about his drawing. Phonemic awareness was not explored as it was mainly a writing activity and phonemic awareness is explored through reading and listening.

Learning activities for the child’s development:

To further develop the child’s phonological awareness and emergent writing skills, the following two activities has been planned for the child.

1. This will be done by inquiring the child more about his drawings. For example, through the pictures that the child has included in his drawing, he can be taught about syllables in word. For example, he can be taught to clap once if the label in the picture is single syllable word and he can be asked to clap twice if it is multi-syllable.
2. Secondly, as his writing is in the emergent stage, his emergent writing style can be developed further by asking the child to write about the people in his house. This would help to gain understanding regarding social relations and the child’s understanding regarding different people in their house. It would be interesting to see how the child would use his writing style to convey about the different members of his family.

During the drawing, the child commented that house should always have a bathroom, dining table and make up room. He also made the comment that there should be fruits in the dining table and flowers in the garden area. This suggests that while doing the drawing, he is recalling his own home environment and incorporating those elements in the drawing. His writing in the drawing is observed to be of the emergent writing style evidenced by the fact that he is able to describe his drawing and write clear letters. All his letters are well recognizable and no letters are reversed. However, some spelling errors have been detected.

References:

DeTemple, J.M., 2001. Parents and children reading books together. Beginning literacy with language, pp.31-51.

Ewing, R., Callow, J. and Rushton, K., 2016. Language and literacy development in early childhood. Cambridge University Press.

Hill, S., 2006. Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching. Retrieved from: https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/3958117

Schickedanz, J.A. and Casbergue, R.M., 2004. ‘The Development of Writing’ (Chapter-13), Writing in preschool: Learning to orchestrate meaning and marks. International Reading Association (NJ3).

Vukelich, C., Christie, J.F. and Enz, B., 2002. Helping young children learn language and literacy. Allyn & Bacon.