Why do we play imitation games with young children? Of course it’s fun, but did you know that the ability to imitate actions and sounds is a crucial aspect of children’s literacy development? Let’s explore why encouraging children to imitate actions and sounds is an important part of their literacy journey. It Builds Cognitive… Read more »
Ask the Experts
Authentic Literacy Skills Assessment in the Early Years
Literacy skills form the foundation of a child’s academic journey, empowering them to explore the world through books, imagination, and knowledge. It is essential to assess children’s literacy skills accurately and meaningfully. Authentic assessment methods offer a window into a child’s true capabilities, so that learning experiences can be tailored and and targeted support can… Read more »
Unlocking Early Literacy with Universal Design for Learning
Early literacy skills lay the foundation for a child’s lifelong learning journey. Every child is unique, and they learn and develop at their own pace. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) aims to create inclusive learning environments by providing multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression. When applied to early literacy instruction, UDL can support and… Read more »
A (Not So) Simple View of Reading?
We know a lot about teaching reading well. I say this (too) frequently in my work as a literacy researcher and teacher educator. We know a lot about teaching reading well. I say it so much because I want the teachers I work with to know that there are scientific ways to help young children become… Read more »
Science of Reading? Yes!
Feeling confused about what to do in the early literacy classroom? Wondering about strategies and practices that are better for your students? Worried if you’re doing it “right”? There’s a lot of talk about the science of reading on the internet lately, and while much is scientifically accurate and useful, some is less supported by… Read more »
Literacy Rich Environments
Research affirms that a literacy rich environment promotes the development of literacy skills. You can create an accessible literacy rich environment by: Providing a wide variety of print, reading, writing, and electronic materials. Adapting literacy materials to meet children’s individual needs (e.g., pencil grips, page turning devices, Velcro, etc.) Balancing informational and narrative texts. Modeling… Read more »
Oral Language Development Beyond Building Vocabulary
Intentionally planning vocabulary instruction (see Words, words, words post) is an important part of developing children’s oral language skills, but what other research-based practices can you use? See below: 1) Ask children many open-ended (those without a specific answer) questions throughout the day. Make these interactions effective by providing scaffolding support that enables children to… Read more »
All About Dialogic Reading
Dialogic Reading Link is an evidence-based interactive shared-reading practice that teachers and families can use to enhance children’s oral language development. It involves using the same book multiple times to progress through three levels of questioning with small groups or individual children. Dialogic Reading introduces new vocabulary, supports comprehension, and develops creative and critical… Read more »
Translanguaging for Young Literacy Learners
We live in an increasingly complex, multilingual society where young children from a variety of ethnic, racial, and linguistic backgrounds work together to learn literacy in our classrooms. As we’ve written about before, there are many different Englishes (Fu et al., 2019). Our emergent bilingual students, in particular, will bring diverse English practices that include… Read more »
Early Literacy
Welcome to the Early Childhood Center’s blog on early literacy! We work to promote research-to-practice in early childhood and K-3 classrooms, focusing especially on encouraging inclusion and culturally responsive pedagogy. Teaching early literacy well, in keeping with the best evidence AND differentiated to meet all students’ needs, is hard work! We’d like to help. Use… Read more »