Evidence-based and Child-friendly: Shared Book Reading with Chants Support Young Children's Language and Literacy Development

Studies indicate thoughtfully planned chants integrated with shared book reading help young children remember concepts and vocabulary they hear in literature, capture children's imagination, develop their rhyming acuity, and background knowledge, and increase their sense of story structure, understanding of story sequence, phonological awareness, auditory memory, and expressive language. In this article the author describes her participation with young children in a shared book reading session integrated with a chant she created to highlight the main story character. The author also explains how teachers can choose books appropriate for chant accompaniments. In addition, she shows how easy it is for teachers to create chants, and offers ideas to extend shared book reading with chants to include music, movement, visual art, and print text.