Based on the social interactionist theory and the approach to reading instruction from the perspective of literacy, this article analyzes children talking about written texts in two first grade classes. The situations were extracted from a didactic sequence planned for teaching the news report genre. Text reading and discussion activities conducted by each teacher were audio taped and later transcribed. For the analysis of the data, the types of questions formulated by the teachers (before, during and after the reading activity) and the comprehension skills stimulated in the children were identified. The analysis clearly shows the essential role played by the teacher in the development of written text comprehension during the process of learning to read.
Teaching comprehension; Talking about texts; Reading; Reading instruction