The Character of Characters
– Developing Greater Understanding
Our emergent readers are working with simple predictable
texts to develop appropriate reading behaviors, extend word recognition, and
increase decoding skills. These texts
are perfect for our young ones as they develop fluency, but are limited in how
they can be used to increase comprehension skills. This is where we as parents and teachers can
help build the higher level thinking skills of our young readers. Reading
to children is one of the most important things we can do to increase literacy
skills, broaden vocabulary, and help children acquire strategies for greater
understanding of a text. A great place
to start is to examine the characters in a story.
As you meet characters in books discuss who they are. Use rich language that describes physical
traits and personality. Reading researcher
Steven Stahl states, “A richer vocabulary
does not just mean that you know more words, but that we have more complex and
exact ways of talking about the world, and of understanding ways that more
complex thinkers see the world.”
Examine the roles of the characters. The protagonist is the
“good guy,” the main character. The
antagonist, the bad guy, usually provides some type of challenge for the
hero. Discuss how the characters develop
through the story and how problems are solved.
How do the characters change over time and through experiences? Make connections between the text and
familiar real world events. Encourage
children to use their background knowledge – what they know about the world
around them – and the information in the text to make predictions about what
will happen in the story. When we have
meaningful discussions about the characters we model strategies for our
children to use and help them develop tools to gain greater understanding.
Check out the link below to find some wonderful stories read
by members of the Screen Actors’ Guild.
Watch, read together, and discuss the story elements. Sharing quality time and insights about good
books will strengthen our children’s desire to read and develop their depth of
understanding.
