Shared Book Approach: A Case Study

Shared Book Approach is a common practice in the early childhood education industry. Equipped with large books that educators literally and passionately call ‘Big Books’, stories and texts are introduced, discussed and read aloud to children who are still working towards independent reading. As Shared Reading is usually conducted as a whole class, different levels of literacy competency in children require educators to carefully plan the activity to ensure maximal beneficiaries (Machado, 2010, p. 560).

Based on the developmental milestone of the selected age group, children are generally have good-sized vocabulary and frequently encountered words that expands continuously. Most have developed the ability to predict, describe the links and relationships between separate events and objects in an illustration. Some may begin to read on their own but most aren’t ready to read or write independently. More often memorising songs and nursery rhymes becomes their expertise (Porter, 2014). Most are capable of matching one-to-one spoken words with prints

Participate in book introductions to activate prior knowledge.

Predict what will happen next in a story.

Relate stories to personal experiences.

Use pictures to help comprehend text.

 Setting – In a Farm (farmyard & garden)

The setting enables the children to draw and build on their prior knowledge and experiences, expanding their vocabulary and High Frequency words.

 Characters – ‘Lazy Duck’, farm animals & the farmers

The characterisation which centralises on the ‘Lazy Duck’, encourages critical thinking and making inferences of a character 's thoughts through observation of actions and dialogues.

 Plot – Ridicule  Problem  Positive Resolution

The plot presented begin with a sequence of events following the days of the week. It builds up to a suspenseful climax when a problem surfaced and was later resolved with a timely, satisfying conclusion. The plot enables the children to make connections to social problems that exist in reality and facilitate their future attempts at problem solving.

 Point of View – 3rd Person (objective)

The author described gestures and actions that indirectly show how a character feels, thinks and deals with internal conflict achieving a high degree of realism, since it mimics how people interact in real-life.

 Visual