As children embark on their educational journey, feeling welcomed and supported in their early childhood settings lays a strong foundation for their literacy development. Let’s explore the importance of creating a nurturing and inclusive environment for children in their early years and how it directly impacts their literacy skills. Fostering a Sense of Belonging: When… Read more »
Instructional Strategies
Equitable Literacy: Foundational Principle II: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in Early Childhood Environments
If you haven’t yet, be sure to visit this original blog post https://blogs.iu.edu/earlyliteracy/ which shared 6 evidence-based foundational equitable principles for supporting diverse learners. Implementing these principles into your classroom provides all children equitable educational opportunities. UDL and You! Every teacher knows and appreciates how complicated and diverse our young learners are. It can be overwhelming… Read more »
Delivering Data-Driven Instruction
We know, we know, teachers collect a lot of formal and informal data! They use a variety of assessment tools and are constantly assessing as they observe and collect anecdotal notes, pictures, videos, and the list goes on. While formal assessments provide a broad view of student (performance) knowledge, informal data provides more detailed information…. Read more »
Independent Reading in Preschool: More than Just words
Independent reading can be defined as “reading children choose to do on their own. It reflects the reader’s personal choice of the material read as well as the time and place to read it. It is done for information and pleasure” (Cullinan, 2000). While you likely understand the value of independent reading once children are… Read more »
What’s In A Name? Teaching Letter Sight and Sound Recognition Using Children’s Names
Let’s face it, young children are egocentric beings. What better way to support their recognition of letters and letter sounds than to begin with something very important to them- their name! Children possess a wide range of letter-sight and letter-sound identification proficiency, therefore, be sure to differentiate for ability and accommodate individual needs when planning… Read more »
Pretending Can Build Literacy Skills
One of the many joys of being an early childhood educator is watching and developing children’s growing imaginations. Symbolic behavior play is related to the understanding of a representational system like written language and language behavior in dramatic play is related to literate language (Mielonen, Paterson, 2009). Children are also developing their oral language skills… Read more »