Reading together
How to read this book
Not reading to a child but talking with them. The method, questions that grow harder with each reading, and the tale’s glossary.
Yerassyl the Batyr
About the method
Dialogic reading is a way of talking with a child through a book. It was described in the 1980s by the American psychologist Grover Whitehurst and colleagues, and has been studied in the preschool years ever since.
The core idea is to swap roles. In ordinary reading the adult reads and the child listens. In dialogic reading the child becomes the storyteller and the adult becomes the listener who asks questions.
The questions are not picked at random. They go from easy to hard: first finish the sentence, then name a thing in the picture, then “why”, and finally a question beyond the book, about the child’s own life.
Reading one book many times is part of the method, not a flaw in it. A familiar text leaves the child room to speak: knowing what comes next, they spend their effort on telling rather than on following.
Four steps
The weight is in the last three. Asking is only the start.
- AskAsk the question on the page, then stop. Wait without hurrying.
- Accept the answerWhatever the child says, accept it first: “yes”, “good catch”. Correcting comes later.
- Expand by a word or twoRepeat the answer and add to it. “Scared” → “Yes, scared. But he did not stop.”
- Ask again laterAsk the same question a few pages on, or at the next reading.
The method works by taking the child’s answer and giving it back larger. The question alone does not do that.
It changes from reading to reading
One book is read several times, and the questions differ each time.
You go through the story together. The questions are simple: what do you see, who is this, what happened. The child’s task is to follow the plot.
Questions for this reading are still being prepared.
Questions in this book
Finish a spread, find its number here, ask the question. They are deliberately not printed in the book so the story reads straight through.
- p. 1Мына суретте не көріп тұрсың?openyounger · older
- p. 2Ата не деп кеңес берді?who, what, whyyounger
- p. 2Атты неге көзінен таңдау керек деп ойлайсың?who, what, whyolder
- p. 3Yerassyl неге осы құлынды таңдады?who, what, whyyounger · older
- p. 4Құлын неге ақсап жүрді?who, what, whyyounger · older
- p. 5Сабыр түбі — сары ...finish the phraseyounger · older
- p. 6Байшұбар қалай өзгерді?openyounger · older
- p. 7Сабыр түбі — сары ...finish the phraseyounger
- p. 7Есіңде ме, атасы қандай кеңес берді?recallolder
- p. 8Сен де біреуге көмектесу үшін тоқтаған кезің болды ма?connect to lifeyounger · older
- p. 9Байшұбар неге соншалық жүйрік болды?who, what, whyyounger · older
- p. 10Сабыр түбі — сары ...finish the phraseyounger
- p. 10Сен де бір нәрсені сабырмен үйренгенің бар ма?connect to lifeolder
If the child does not answer
- Do not rush. Five seconds of silence is thinking, not refusal.
- Make it easier: instead of «what?» ask «this one or that one?».
- Answer yourself and read on. Next time they will answer.
- Do not insist. A book is something loved, not homework.
Words from the tale
Kazakh words from the book and how to use them in conversation.
The glossary for this tale is still being prepared.