What Do Children Learn From Being Read To?

One of the distinctive marks of reading programmes in New Zealand schools is the extent to which story-reading is used in the classroom. Recent surveys show that most primary school children expect, and usually get, 15 to 30 minutes a day sharing a story with their teacher, as a recreational or an instructional activity. Indeed the Shared Book Experience technique of teaching reading with its bedside story atmosphere, its 'Blown-Up' (enlarged) books and its follow-up activities is a peculiarly Kiwi invention. It was developed in its present form and popularised by Don Holdaway in Auckland schools. Many other reading specialists helped him spread the method throughout the country, and it is now capturing the imagination of teachers and children in Australia, Canada, U.S.A. and U.K.