I have finally compiled a list of the literature I plan to read aloud to my first grader this coming school year. I carefully chose these books because one of my goals this upcoming school year is to help my son’s auditory skills. My goal is for him to be able to comprehend books read aloud to him without the aid of pictures. I went through each picture book on this list and most of the choices have a good amount of text on each page. I will be utilizing narration and conversation to determine my son’s comprehension.
The plan is to read approximately 3 picture books a week for the first half of the school year. At the same time I will read a chapter book, but at a much slower pace. The second half of the school year will be only chapter books. I will use narration for the chapter books. Narration is the process of having a child repeat back what was read to him, but in his own words. I will start off by having him repeat back a sentence before moving on to having him retell a paragraph or a chapter. This will also help improve his auditory memory skills as well.
Because my son is so visual, I am incorporating lots of DVDs into our study this school year. If there is a movie or a short video available on one of the books we have read we will watch the DVD after we have completed the book.
Here are the picture books I plan to use. I’ve listed them in the approximate order I plan to read them. I’ve included lots of fairy tales into the mix.
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash
Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina
Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears
Jumanji
Here is the list of chapter books I plan to use in the order I plan to read them. The first ones on the list have some pictures and the last ones on the list have no pictures or very long chapters with few pictures.
Tomi Ungerer’s Heidi: The Classic Novel
A Collection of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories
The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story
I’m looking forward to snuggling on the couch with my little boy and discovering the world of literature.
Bookmarking this … thanks! 🙂
What a wonderful list! Just bookmarked this page so I can go back and refer to it! Thanks!
Julie
Thanks for the advice Jennybell. I’ll remember that when I pick up those books.
We have read many of those books and it sounds like a great list. I would just say that language-wise the Just-so stories and Wind in the Willows is very hard to get through, We actually stopped reading “Wind” and I plan to pick it back up next year to see if he’s ready. Also, if you try to read the whole Runny Babbit book, you will go crazy (from my experience). Maybe you should shoot for 1 poem a day while you are also reading something else?
That’s a lovely list of books. Some of them look like ones I’d like to hunt down and borrow too. Thanks for finding and sharing them!
I have a lovely problem when I read chapter books to my children … “just one more chapter Mum, pleeease!” Both my kids are like me in that way. It’s hard to put down a good book.
Regarding comprehension, I stop reading whenever needed to explain a tricky word or ask if the kids know what something means. They interject with plenty of comments and questions, so their level of understanding is usually apparent without consciously using narrations.
I used narration once though, after an advanced science and history documentary. My son is always keen to watch these, and I was curious to know what he actual retained from them … quite a lot it turns out, but with enough mixups to make it a very amusing exercise!
Best wishes and enjoy all those reading snuggles!
🙂 Vanessa