About This Book: Joyful Literacy Interventions describes a research-based, comprehensive classroom intervention approach that promises over 90% literacy success for all children by the end of third grade when implemented in its entirety. The stage is set in a playful primary classroom learning environment. While play is critical in early learning classrooms where child development theories must prevail, vulnerable children need more than play. Play is simply not enough! This book is also about explicit skill instruction in preschool, kindergarten and first and second grade-as a top priority. What makes this book unique is that Janet describes how to implement a skill-mastery model invisibly in a play-based environment through games, play, inquiry and targeted small group instruction. Janet's passion and determination to make a difference for disadvantaged children shines through in Joyful Literacy Interventions. Her book is based on the most recent literacy research such as the NELP (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008) report, which is a meta-analysis of 500 exemplary literacy studies conducted in the last decade. This compelling research highlights the factors that have the most lasting effect on future reading success if implemented in the early years. Alphabetic principles, phonological awareness, shared reading and shared writing, rapid automatized naming, and use of children's names as a key instructional strategy are featured prominently. In Joyful Literacy Interventions Janet has merged the recommendations of the NELP Report with her 40 years of experiences as a primary teacher and administrator; her recent PhD in Language, Literacy and Early Learning and the experiences of 200 classroom sites where her approach was field-tested. She has designed a unique assessment and tracking system that facilitates skill development and differentiated instruction in the midst of a playful and inquiry-based learning center classroom. It elegantly provides the teacher with detailed data to inform daily instruction for small "like-need" groups. Vulnerable children get the "catch-up" instruction they require while feeling safe and happy. Janet describes how to joyfully implement play and the essential literacy skills so that vulnerable children will thrive in classroom-based interventions. The book weaves nine essential research-based components into practical classroom applications. Each chapter describes essential skills, concepts and experiences needed for literacy success for all children. Implemented together the result is a holistic classroom experience that promises literacy success for many disadvantaged children. The first seven chapters provide the reader with: Janet's wisdom that evolved over 40 years in her experiences as teacher, principal, superintendent and professor; a synopsis of the latest, persuasive research; key references to other popular authors; teacher implementation stories from Janet's pilot sites; hundreds of practical ideas for the reader to implement; and colored photos throughout the book that illustrate possibilities and results. The chapters' topics address: a dynamic classroom environment; assessment and tracking; the essential literacy skills; learning center design; word recognition; shared reading and writing; and involving families in practice literacy activities at home. Chapter 8 provides a checklist that describes the ideal classroom by listing the research-based criteria and observable indicators in a classroom when full implementation is achieved. Chapter 9 describes a district and a classroom case study from Janet's 200 pilot sites. Joyful Literacy Interventions weaves the essential components together into practical classroom applications that are already proving to be highly effective for disadvantaged children. This book is a "must-read" for advocates of vulnerable children.
About the Author: Janet N. Mort PhD Janet's 2014 book Joyful Literacy Interventions is based on recent compelling research, a lifetime of experience with innovations that work. Her book describes a new classroom implementation method for ensuring that over 90% of primary children are reading at grade level by the end of grade 3. Who is Janet and what are her credentials? Janet has a doctoral degree in Language and Literacy (Early Learning) from the University of Victoria (2005). She is an award-winning primary teacher, principal, superintendent and university professor. She retired to university to study why up to 40% of the school population has consistently not achieved success in school over the past 30 years; little progress has been made, especially for vulnerable readers who need experiential gaps in literacy closed by the end of grade three. Janet has developed an early intervention literacy approach that promises, and is proving in over 200 pilot sites, to provide more than 90% literacy success by the end of grade three regardless of poverty issues, ethnicity, and previous literacy experience. In preparation for this work she collaborated with Dr. Clyde Hertzman of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) at the University of British Columbia, where she participated in a research program focused on thousands of vulnerable children; her challenge was to analyze the differences in school programs where vulnerable children experienced greater success than classrooms without the same treatment. Based on 35 years in the school system, PhD studies, and school-based research Janet developed and piloted her intervention theories in over 200 pilot classrooms with high vulnerability rates in several school districts in k-2 classrooms with significant results using several measures including pre- and post-testing. In addition, in the past two years Janet has organized eight national Summits called When Vulnerable Children Thrive: Dreams Come True for over 3000 administrators and teachers. The Summits feature North American researchers and authors who typically present at the IRA (International Reading Association): Janet collaborates with these experts whose work is also quoted in her book. Further Summits are planned for Washington State, Alberta and potentially Florida in 2015. For more information about the Summits contact vulnerablereaders@shaw.ca.