Literature Review:  Introduction

Reading is much more than decoding print, it is a meaning making process with the targeted goal of comprehension. The act of reading begins with decoding print but emerges into individual interpretations stemming from culture, social class, past experiences, prior knowledge, adult role models, frequency and quality of scaffold experiences, learning environments, and collaboration with others. Literacy embraces individuality and honors unique viewpoints (Schickedanz, 2000; Ruddell & Unrau, 1994).

Goodman (1994) states that meaning is in the reader and the writer, not in the text. Therefore, in order to effectively comprehend, readers must go beyond decoding and construct an understanding of the text drawing upon their own prior knowledge and experiences along with what they know about author intent, the writing process, story grammar and general text structure and organization.

      Children display a deep understanding of central story meanings before they are able to decode the words themselves (Machado, 1999) and have already discovered much about print prior to formal language instruction. They enter school with a great deal of language competence and have already acquired literate behaviors such as book awareness and reasons to read and write. Children play an active role in their own literacy development, have favorite stories and authors and eagerly share their books and experiences with one another. They have developed this awareness through everyday natural encounters with print. A child's very presence in a natural language encounter provides all of the perceptual information needed for the control and development of language (Cunningham, 2001; Harste, Burke, & Woodward, 1994; Ruddell & Ruddell 1994 ).  

     Educators must be able to understand and build upon what their students already know and are able to do before they can actually “decode” print.  One way is through reading aloud. Research has shown that reading aloud to children plays an essential role in learning. Although these experiences can facilitate language and literacy development, investigations have found that simply reading to children does not necessarily bring about positive results. The enhancement stems from what happens before, during and after the reading. Activities that take place after reading foster students comprehension and retention by clarifying ideas presented in text (Matthew, 1997). Cunningham (2001) states, “Shared reading is just the most powerful opportunity possible”.  Shared reading activities that can facilitate involvement include: familiar stories and poems, reading aloud, storytelling, poetry, songs and puppetry (Danielson & LaBonty, 1994). For the entire read-aloud process, the role of the teacher is to model and engage students in reading strategies that will enable them to monitor and enhance their own comprehension. Appropriate strategies include: activating prior knowledge, predicting, clarifying, hypothesizing, questioning, and self-monitoring (Morrow, 1996).