Recently a colleague reminded me of the importance of teaching before we prompt. Often when we’re working with developing readers we can be heard saying things like:
-“Does that make sense?”
-“Can the picture help you think about this part of the story?”
-“Are you thinking about the story?”
These are all prompts and though they can have an important role in assisting our developing readers, the question that begs to be answered is whether we’ve taught these skills first. Some teaching statements are as follows:
-“The picture will help you think about this part of the story.”
-“You can think about the story when you look at the pictures.”
-“You said ________. That doesn’t make sense in the story.”
-“You said ________. That doesn’t go with this part of the story.”