Teaching Literacy

Literacy is so important in any classroom but let's really focus on literacy in the early education classroom to help children start on a solid foundation and develop a love of reading! I recently attended a training on emergent literacy which I found to be so helpful. Research shows that the two best predictors of reading success are phonemic awareness and letter knowledge. Preschool children should develop phonological awareness, print awareness and have oral language and vocabulary. In early literacy children will pretend to write, pretend to read, name letters, "read" print in their environment, write their name and ask questions about print. As teachers we should choose print-rich books to share with or students and then have explicit discussions about that print. When looking for print-rich books, look for big bold letters and unique features. Every book we read to our students should have a purpose. I took all of the books that I have in my classroom for read alouds and I divided them into the following four areas so I can better determine my purpose when I read to the class.
Phonological Awareness-(example:Dr. Seuss books), Print Awareness-(example:"Thesaurus Rex"),

Vocabulary- (example:"House for Hermit Crab"), Oral Language-(example:"Brown Bear, Brown Bear")

Sometimes I choose the book first and then the purpose but other times I choose the purpose first and then the book. "Repeated readings create a sense of familiarity for children and increase confidence in prereading skills. (Justice & Pence, 2005)
The first read should be to give an understanding of the book and try not to interrupt much. The second read is to further the understanding and provide opportunities to use language for thinking and learning. The third read is for story comprehension and to allow the children to pull it all together. So you don't need to read a different book every day, but DO read every day!

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