Zzzz - The Book of Sleep for Early Elementary Readers

Pre-reading strategies are important for helping students who are learning how to read to understand about the mechanics of reading. A student who has mastered pre-reading strategies is well on the way to becoming an independent reader. Pre-reading strategies include:

• being interested in books and reading
• knowing which way up a book goes
• knowing which direction to turn the pages
• understanding that there are words and pictures which 'go together' to tell the story
• knowing that the text printed on a page says the same thing each time it is read

Learning how to read starts with pre-reading strategies, and children who have not mastered these will struggle sometimes in learning more advanced skills such as decoding and using picture cues to help them in learning how to read.

Picture cues are one of the first steps in learning how to read, once basic pre-reading strategies have been mastered. Picture cues are simply the link between the text on a page and the picture provided. Picture cues help children in decoding words that are unfamiliar to them. Picture cues are helpful as children are building a sight vocabulary as they can use the picture cue to give them hints about a word, and then decode it by using logical thinking.

For example, 'Zzzz- The Book of Sleep' contains a page with a picture of an owl with its eyes open, and a full moon in the background. Children who are learning how to read can use the picture cues of the owl and the moon to work out that the word starting with 'o' on the page is 'owl' and the word starting with 'm' is moon. This same page also provides a dark background and some stars in the sky, which gives children who are learning how to read further clues about the words on the page. They can deduce that the word starting with 'd' is 'dark' and that this is a describing word giving more information about the key noun in the first line 'sky'.

A teacher or assistant reading this book with a child who is learning how to read could give suitable prompts to guide their reading, and provide words for them as needed to keep the reading speed fast enough that meaning is not lost. Once a page has been 'solved' the teacher could then read the page again to ensure the child is able to comprehend the storyline and is therefore ready to continue.

'Zzzz- A Book of Sleep' (Il Sung Na, published by Meadowside Children's Books) is a beautifully presented book which combines subtle but clear pictures using a soft and appealing blend of colours with simple, well thought out text. Children who are learning how to read will not be overwhelmed by text in this book as the word count on each page is around 5-15 words. There is a good use of basic sight vocabulary words as well as some interesting words that can work well for some children with dyslexia, who often use the shape of a word to help them recall it (eg. peacefully, huddled).

To extend skills, teachers could follow this book with activities such as:

• matching words into rhyming pairs using words from the book (eg. night, bright)
• learning more facts about animals (and so building on facts learnt in the book such as that penguins sleep huddled together)
• talking about why different animals behave in different ways
• making a display board for the classroom of animals shown in the story (penguin, elephant, giraffe, whale, fish, owl)
• building on phonics knowledge by making beginning sound links with animals shown eg. 'f' for fish
• encouraging students to use their finger to trace around the shape of words
• talking about strategies that are helpful when solving words (particularly for struggling readers) such as learning what sort of page background and text type and size is helpful for individual learners
• consolidating phonics knowledge using focus words from the book and an online language learning resource

'Zzz-A Book of Sleep' is recommended for children in early elementary grades, and for children with dyslexia or other reading difficulties, or older readers (mid to upper elementary) who are struggling to read or are involved in a reading recovery or support program.