This study proposes a reflection on the methods on how elementary students are taught to read in a second language and consequently proposes the implementation of Genre-based approach (GBA) designed to teach students to write texts successfully (Martin, 2000) and the literacy program Learning to Read: Reading to Learn, which uses genre as a framework for training teachers in strategies for scaffolding reading and writing across curricula and education sectors (Rose 2004, 2005ab, 2006b). The aim of this intervention was to expose preschoolers to a scaffold step by step process where they were guided to develop their decoding skills, identify word formation, identify simple sentence and text structure, as well as to recognize the lexicon-grammatical aspects in short stories. At the end of the process, students were helped to start their process of writing basic words and sentences in English, by reproducing the type of sentences within the texts that they were guided to read. This study was carried out as a qualitative research, under the structure of an action research in which the teachers-researchers collected the data using various techniques, at different moments of the research (before, during and after the intervention). Before, interviews and observations, during, observations and a think aloud protocol and after, a reading test. The results showed that the implementation of the genre- based approach pedagogy was very effective to teach students to develop basic reading skills in elementary level. Besides, students learned to take control their process, participated actively, recognized some language patterns and showed engagement in the reading process
