Promoting Print Awareness

A learner should be made aware of the following

• The front of the book
• The title of the book
• The Title Page
• Where you should begin reading
• A letter
• A word
• The first word of a sentence
• The last word of a sentence
• Tracing the words in a sentence
• The first and last word on a page
• Punctuation marks
• A capital letter
• A lowercase letter
• The back of the book

They should be taught

• to read from left to right and
• to top to bottom,
• that print may be accompanied by pictures or graphics,
• that the pages are numbered, and
• that the purpose of reading is to gain meaning from the text and understand ideas that words convey.

Read to children from books with easy-to-read large print. Use stories that have predictable words in the text.

Use “big books” and draw attention to words and letters

Help children notice and learn to recognize words that occur frequently, such as 

a, the, is, was, and you. 

Draw attention to letters and punctuation marks within the story.

Label objects and centres in your classroom – in your home

Introduce index card to label objects within the home and classroom. One the card write words and draw pictures.

Use an index card with the word “house” for the house center and draw a picture of a house.

Draw learner’s attention to these words when showing them the different centres.

Encourage preschool children to play with print

They can pretend to write

• a shopping list,
• construct a stop sign,
• write a letter,
• make a birthday card, etc.

Help children understand the relationship between spoken and written language by

• finding letters on a page that are in their names.
• “Look at this word, ‘big.’ It begins with the same letter as the name of someone in this room, ‘Ben.’

Reinforce the forms and functions of print

Point them out in classroom / home / environment – signs, labels, posters, calendars, and so forth.

Teach and reinforce print conventions

Discuss print directionality

• read from left to right), word boundaries, capital letters, and end punctuation.
• book handling

Also try using a wordless picture book

Telling a story /Story telling

Go through each page asking the children to tell the story from the pictures.

Write their narration on a large piece of paper.

Celebrate the story they authored by rewarding them

Provide many opportunities for children to hear good books and to participate in read-aloud activities

A sample activity for assessing print awareness

Give a learner a storybook and ask him or her to show you:

• The front of the book
• The title of the book
• Where you should begin reading
• A letter
• A word
• The first word of a sentence
• The last word of a sentence
• The first and last word on a page
• Punctuation marks
• A capital letter
• A lowercase letter
• The back of the book