Before Reading

Before reading, preview the book together. You may wish to do a picture walk or a word walk.

Picture Walk

Look at the cover and the pictures in the book together. Use this as an opportunity to discuss:

• What do you think the book is about? (prediction)
• What connections do you have with the pictures? (activating prior knowledge)

Word Walk

Look through the book together. Have your child say “hello!” to letters, sounds or words that they know.

You can use this word walk to help guide your reading together. Earlier on, the adult will do most of the reading. Gradually, the child can start reading the letters, sounds or words they recognize. Eventually, you can move towards having the child read more of, or all of, the text on their own out loud.

During and After Reading

As you read, take breaks to talk about what is happening in the book. This might be:

• making predictions
• asking and answering questions
• making connections with the book
• sharing reactions

After reading, you can discuss these as well.

Tips

• Keep reading fun! It isn’t necessary to finish a book (read cover to cover) in one sitting.
• Give children the choice of topic and type of text.
• If you don’t know French, it’s okay! Read as best as you can with your best French accent. It is better to read with some mistakes than to not read at all.
• If you want to know how to pronounce a word, there are lots of web-based dictionaries, such as WordReference, that will have pronunciation audio that you can listen to. Search for the French word, select the options you want (France or Canada pronunciation and playback rate) and click on “ÉCOUTER” (listen).