ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on one particular response to literature, both as a classroom teacher and as an advisory teacher — that of book-based games. However, this needs to be set in the context of the wide-ranging nature of children's response which is both characteristic and to be encouraged at Key Stage 1. Games which are based on familiar books are a focused context for reading development which is dependent not only on the sorts of response to literature described, but also on the variety of experiences that teachers offer in relation to stories in the classroom. The proposals identify three main aspects of reading: development of the ability to read print, developing understanding and developing response to text. These three aspects demonstrate the recursive nature of learning. For a number of reasons, reading games which have traditionally been offered to children in school tended to concentrate on grapho-phonemic elements and word recognition for practice and diagnosis, to remedy decoding difficulties.