Education Book Reviews

Sweeney, Alyse (2004). Teaching the Essentials of Reading with Picture Books: 15 Lessons that Use Favorite Picture Books to Teach Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Comprehension, and Vocabulary. New York: Scholastic Teaching Resources.

Overview

In Teaching the Essentials of Reading with Picture Books, the author asserts that empirically validated strategies for instruction in early reading skills are provided. This practice-oriented lesson book is for use in kindergarten through second grade classrooms. Concepts and strategies Sweeney presents could also easily be adapted for older learners in need of basic reading skills instruction. Situated within the context of “read-aloud” activities, Sweeney describes a variety of lessons to teach reading skills. The “five building blocks of reading”, as identified by the Reading First initiative and cited by the author provide an organizational framework for the compilation of lessons contributed by early elementary teachers with whom the author consulted.

Before presentation of lessons specific to phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension, several introductory ideas are provided. The author proposes using picture books for instructional purposes in addition to the more typical use focused on encouraging the “imagination of young readers” (p. 5). Other resources in the introduction include guidelines for choosing books, guidelines for using read aloud as an instructional format, and a bibliography including story books used in the lessons as well as other alternatives.

Also in introductory chapters, the author provides a useful overview of the five pillars of basic reading skills based on an adaptation of information from Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read. An easily referenced chart summarizes the descriptions of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. This guide includes an overall definition of the skill area, a description of why the skill area is important in reading development, and instructional concepts and activities related to the skill area. This chart appears particularly useful for the generation of additional instructional approaches for early reading instruction.

Five chapters follow the Introduction. Within these chapters, three detailed lessons are provided for each of the five areas. Specific skills and related areas are as follows:

Each lesson is presented in a standard format that includes a description of the particular reading skill, sequential instructions for lessons based on specific children’s books, possible instructional modifications, additional activities related to the skill, and a bibliography of suggested books for teaching the skill. Demonstrations of some of the lessons are provided via “lesson in action” scenarios in which specific dialogue between teacher and students is detailed. Another feature of some of the lessons is the inclusion of reproducible pages the teacher might employ while teaching the lesson. For example, a graphic organizer for story sequencing is presented for the teacher to use in guiding students to ask what happens first in a story, next, then, and how the story concludes.

Strengths/Weaknesses

The author’s intention of providing a practical tool for teachers to utilize for reading instruction is supported by several features. First, clearly outlining instructional objectives, needed materials, and accommodations for a diverse classroom of learners offers active early childhood teachers a quick, realistic tool to supplement other curricular activities. The author’s own experience teaching and additional training in reading instruction strengthen the credibility of the techniques. Ideas from someone who has “been there” are generally more readily accepted by others who are currently “there.” Further, presentation of lessons being used by a variety of early elementary teachers bolsters the validity of the techniques as well. Other strengths of this lesson book include:

While Teaching the Essentials of Reading with Picture Books represents a useful tool for educators, a few details distract from its overall purpose. The author acknowledges elementary teachers who have contributed lessons; however, very limited background information is provided regarding these teachers. Also, the extent to which the ideas in the book are the author’s own ideas or those of the contributing teachers is unclear. More importantly, the degree to which the lessons are successful in supplementing reading instruction in basic skills is not provided. While the author positions the lessons within an “empirically-validated” framework, it appears that the five building blocks are the validated concepts rather than the strategies themselves. Thus, an educator utilizing this book as a resource must do so only as a supplemental approach to reading instruction. Even so, Teaching the Essentials of Reading with Picture Books represents a unique, inherently enjoyable strategy for embedding reading instruction into a common activity in an early childhood classroom.

References

National Institute for Literacy. (2001). Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read. Washington, D.C.: Partnership for Reading.

Pages: 96     Price: $15.99     ISBN: 0-439-53990-0

Reviewed by Pam Guess, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

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