There is little more important to academic success than literacy. I ask teachers to encourage literacy skills by:

• Reading to children at least twice daily
• Offering opportunities for Dictation and Journaling daily
• Labeling furniture and belongings and calling attention to those labels
• Book/Word Placement in every Learning Center

Reading – Children should be read to individually or in group settings a minimum of two times each day.

It’s Not Just ME! – The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that parents and caregivers begin reading to children at the age of six months.

The University of Michigan Health System states that “reading aloud to young children develops each of the steps to literacy: phonemic awareness, the development of hearing and recognizing sounds in words; phonics, the making of the mental connection between sounds and letters; vocabulary, the building of a number of understood words; reading comprehension, the understanding of meaning in words; and fluency, the achievement of oral reading”.

Read & Write It Out Loud, by K. Polette (Pearson, Allyn, Bacon, Prentice Hall, 2014) concurs that being read to offers a child enjoyment of reading; information on expression; understanding of the speech-to-print connection; a building of vocabulary; knowledge of writing styles and genre; and opportunities to increase his attention span.

Reading Really is Fundamental – Review your program’s Strength Expectations (educational objectives) to see how many of the strengths listed can be enhanced by literacy.

Teachers can read to the whole learning community during Circle Times, Whole Group Time, Snack or Meal, or at a time when quiet activities are necessary. Children can be read to individually or may choose to read and pre-read on their own during Center Time, in the Safe Space, or during quiet or transition times that call for brief waits.

Express Yourself – Read (and Dance) Like Nobody’s Watching:

• Read with wonder and excitement and expression. Use your whole body.
• Read with humor and pathos and empathy. When the story is sad, look sad – look very sad.
• When an author or illustrator uses large text or a vivid picture, point this out to the children. “Look at this word RUN! Why is it written so big? Look at the little gorilla’s face. What do you think he is thinking?”
• Read a whole book all the way through the first time it’s read, then return to it and ask questions about what is happening – why the characters did what they did, what feelings did the words and pictures relate, what would the children do if they were that character, did they ever feel the way that character did – questions that bring the story to life, bring the information and facts into thought and action, and relate to the children in your learning community

Next Blog: Literacy Events 2 – Dictation and Journaling