SELECTION OF STORIES FOR

YOUNG LEARNERSAPPROPRIATE LANGUAGE LEVEL

It is essential for a teacher to evaluate stories from story books, especially for a beginning reader than fluent readers.This also deals with the reading level of vocabulary and sentence structure of young learners. Young learners might feel bored if the story selected is not to their reading level.

The language in the story needs to be mostly known or understood by the children. It’s quite alright for there to be some new words – these can be introduced during the pre-reading or pre-telling part of the lesson.

It is also important to remember that children can (hear and) understand much more than they can say. So, for example, while they may only be able to say sentences in the present simple tense, they should be able to handle a story told in the past tense. Some (educational) story books or readers come with information about the vocabulary count and the ability level the story was written for.

There are several matters that should be taken into consideration when selecting stories for example, the level of difficulty which refers to the reading level, listening level and conceptual level of a work of literature (Brown & Tomlinson, 1993)

MATTERS THAT HAS TO BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION.are written and illustrated by independent, creative professionals

are leveled for shared, guided and independent reading, as well as by Reading Recovery, 

includes fiction and non-fiction,illustrations and photographs, multi-cultural themes, and a variety of trim sizes and formats across many genres of writing.

are 8,12 or 16 pages in length.

are appropriate for dual language instruction and assessment.

IMPORTANCE OF USING APPROPRIATE LANGUAGE LEVEL

HOW TO SELECT STORIES WITH APPROPRIATE

LANGUAGE LEVEL

Notice the commas and full stops – pay attention to the types of sentences. Are the sentences mostly simple and/or compound, or are there a lot of complex sentences which can be hard to follow (and even hard to read aloud).

What tenses are they? Are they mostly simple present and simple past? Present perfect is not too hard but past perfect can start being difficult. Passive / Active verbs. Passive verb can be a problem if there are a lot of them. Generally complex types of verbs tend to go along with complex sentences.

Are there a lot of different noun that you are going to have to explain the meanings of?

Are there some words that you have been teaching them?