Reading big books is a good opportunity to model reading behaviours and to encourage students to discuss texts using the language of written texts.

Activity: Sharing big books

When reading a big book to the class follow this pattern.

1. Before reading discuss the topic and ask students about their experiences which relate to the topic to ensure students are familiar with the concepts.
2. Discuss the cover and have students guess or predict what it will be about, record predictions so the class can check to see later if they were correct.
3. Read the book aloud and while reading 'think aloud' about what is happening, for example, 'I wonder where/how/why ...' Let students answer your thoughts as they become engaged in the story and you model your thinking process while reading.
4. Encourage students to comment and to ask and answer questions about the book.
5. On subsequent readings you can use post-it notes to cover words and ask students to predict the missing word – discuss each suggestion to see if it could make sense before revealing the missing word.

Reference

Australian curriculum

ACELY1650: Interpreting, analysing, evaluating: Use comprehension strategies to understand and discuss texts listened to, viewed or read independently.