Language Concept

• Active participation and experimentation (risk-taking) are central to language/literacy learning.
• Children learn the processes of literacy through authentic and personally meaningful use of those processes.
• Young language users, through attention to complex cues, form theories about how literacy works on a daily basis. As a result, all children come to school with knowledge about reading and writing.
• Readers draw upon prior knowledge of and experience with texts.

Materials

• Book Handling Task Selected Procedures
• Reading in Kindergarten form

Professional Reading

• Doake: Reading-like behavior: Its role in learning to read

Background Information

The Book Handling Knowledge Task enables teachers to understand what young children know about specific literacy materials. It is an adaptation of the work by Clay (1993) and Doake (1988). This form was created by Goodman, Altwerger, and Marek (1989) for research purposes, but also for teachers to use in their classrooms with a variety of picture storybooks rather than only with the specific books that Clay developed. Administering the task is relatively simple; teacher and child sit side by side with a picture book. The teacher asks the questions and allows ample time for the child to respond. If possible, it’s best to videotape the interview; otherwise, the interviewer should record in writing the child’s responses.

The Experience

• After studying Doake’s landmark article, “Reading-like behavior: Its role in learning to read,” conduct the “book handling knowledge task” outlined by Hood (1995) with a preschool or kindergarten-aged reader.  
• Alternatively, study group members may wish to use a similar form with a kindergarten child who has more sophisticated book handling knowledge and print awareness.

Book Handling Task Select Procedures

1. Select a picture storybook that is suitable for reading to a preschool child.
2. Make sure that the book has a title page that includes the title of the book and the author’s name.
3. Make sure that the pages have clear, bold print and fine illustrations. If possible, there should be a page with print on one side and a picture on the other.
4. Show the book and sweep your finger or hand under the title. Ask, “What’s this called?” If the child answers with the name of the book, ask, “What’s [repeat book title as child gave it]?”  
5. Present the book the wrong way up or backwards to the child. Say, “Show me the front of this book. Take the book and open it so that we can read it together.”
6. Ask the child to read the book.
7. If the child doesn’t read the book, or after s/he completes the reading, continue with, “I’m going to read you this story. You show me where to start reading. Where do I begin?”
8. Turn to the next page and say, “Show me the top of this page.”  Then, “Show me the bottom of this page.”
9. Read the page with the instruction, “You point to the story while I read it.”
10. Read to the middle of the story and say “Show me where I am.”
11. Read to the end of the story. Close the book and explore comprehension by saying, “Tell me something about the story."

The above copy was prepared by Wendy Hood (1995) for Primary Voices K-6, 3(4), p. 22
The document was originally created by Goodman, Altwerger, & Marek, (1989)

Children often understand the role of print in books as different than the role of print in other environmental settings such as billboards, stores, food cartons and packages, or newspapers. Evaluating how children respond to print differently in different settings suggests that multiple experiences with particular texts are necessary before teachers can expect children to be comfortable with the use of such materials. Teachers can study how older students respond to magazines, TV guides, newspapers, encyclopedias, and other text by adapting the book handling knowledge accordingly.  

To assess kindergarteners with more sophisticated knowledge, the following form (developed by Bird, Goodman & Goodman, 1994) may be more helpful.

Reading in Kindergarten (MSWord or PDF Format)