Book Orientation

Book orientation helps to make reading easier and helps with prediction and understanding.  The reader understands the text before reading it and has support for difficult ideas, phrases and words in the text.  This is a relatively short procedure.

The aims of book orientation are:

• to give children experience with stress free and more fluent reading
• to make it possible for children to have some success in reading despite uncertain and unknown letter/sound analysis skills
• to enable the children to use knowledge of the text’s meaning to assist their reading

Procedure

*  Before reading become familiar with the book yourself NOT ALOUD (read it, look at the pictures, search out difficult words and ideas).

*  Place the book between you and explain that you are going to look at the pictures first.  Allow your child to have control of the book e.g. to turn over the pages.  However you need to gauge the length of time and make sure you both stay on the topic/idea of the text.  Too much detail or extensive personal linking can cause confusion in early readers.

*  Starting with the front cover of the book ask your child what they think the book might be about.

*  Talk about the pictures in the book.  Before turning over some of the pages ask your child what they think will happen on the next page. You are asking your child to predict from the pictures and then confirm that prediction.

*  As you are both discussing the pictures try to feed in the difficult words and phrases by showing your child the words and repeating them as they come up in the text.

REMEMBER:  Always praise your child’s attempts and predictions.  Gently give them the correct information if they have been unsuccessful.

If there is an idea in the book that many present some difficulties for your child, you might explain it briefly.