Health Stories for language development

Skills of speaking, listening and reading analysed

Here are some ways that you can use your health stories to develop language skills.

Listening
When stories are read aloud and followed by questions we develop skills of listening.
When questioning children it is vital to find out whether everyone has understood and not just a few children who stick their hands up and shout for attention.
There are two ways to check this:
i. Don't allow "hands". Ask anyone at random
ii. Get children to write down answers and get their neighbours to check them.

Reading aloud
This develops skills of clear and effective speaking and pronunciation.
Emphasise children using their voices and the way they pause and inflect them to get maximum meaning from the passage.
Organise your class so that as many people get to read as possible. If you have more than one book use group work and get the best readers to help others.
NEVER "read round the class" in turn as some old fashioned teachers used to do. In this way when "fifth child" is reading others know that "sixth child" will be next and most of the class can turn their attention somewhere else.

Reading for information
Often you want to develop skills of detailed and accurate reading. This is also connected with the skill of identifying the main points such as correct medical information and not worrying too much about the less important ones like the names of the characters.

Take for instance in the story Old Chicken Eyes about the Hyena who could not see in the dark. In this the hyena goes to consult 'doctor guinea fowl' and the doctor tells him why he cannot see. (No fruit, vegetables or liver, therefore no vitamin A). For the children the fact that the doctor is a guinea fowl may seem important but what you want them to remember is what the doctor says.

One way of developing this skill is to discuss with children what you want to them to find out and why before they are given the story to read. You may even wish to give them questions to find answers for before rather than after reading the story.
When stories are illustrated by pictures and diagrams which contain important information always emphasise that children look carefully at these.

Reading fast
Children need to learn this skill through practice. There are three ways of developing it.

 Give them as much to read as possible. This will always be helped by choosing and writing stories which are simply written and interesting. Encourage them to read each others' work.
 Give children passages to read, a time limit and questions in advance to answer. This will help them learn to follow the story line without bothering too much about the detail
 You may also be able to make your own class library with books you have collected or have made yourself. When children have finished a task they should be encouraged to get up, go to the class library and pick a little book to read.

As soon as possible discourage children from following the text with their finger and moving their lips when they read silently. This will help them look at sentences rather than individual words.

Reading 'between the lines'.
Later you will wish to develop skills of understanding what is not written down in the story, about characters, (how would you describe...?)
about motives (why do think he did this...?)
about how the story relates to the children's own realities. (does this remind you..?)
This is often the most important side of reading especially as children grow older.
You can develop this skill with oral and written questions; also through group work.