Reading literacy and language ideas and activities in this guide brings families and educators together, embraces learners' natural curiosity and develops the love of reading. Promoting literacy-reading, thinking, writing, listening and speaking at home makes a difference. Reading for fun becomes a lifelong routine, schooling is easy and graduations are a given. Why read? Reading develops the imagination. Reading helps you write and speak correctly. Reading takes you places you have never visited. Reading takes you to a time you have never experienced. Reading introduces you to people you have not met. Reading introduces you to new ideas. Reading entertains you. Nancy Carter Ball, my grandmother, taught, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Early Literacy advocates agree the most favorable time to learn to read is Pre-K through Grade Three. The teaching and learning of reading includes: talking and being listened to, reading and being read to, singing and being sung to, and guiding learners through the sensible and researched plan in Reading is Thinking-Evelyn Williams English.
About the Author: Evelyn English holds a Masters Degree in Education, is a Reading Specialist, has created and published Reading is Thinking an App that is compatible with Apple and Android devices. She is the author of Reading is Thinking-Dynamic Tools for Literacy and Language Development-available in English and Spanish; and The Gift of Literacy for the Multiple Intelligences Classroom. She directs EWE Literacy Mentors, a reading, thinking, writing, listening, and speaking think tank. She is the anchor of literacy-reading work sessions about explicit teaching and effective learning for: Parents and Families-Literacy Blooms; The Essential Reading Components: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension; Differentiating Instruction-Multiple Intelligences; Reading for Meaning-Bloom's Revised Taxonomy; Educators-Administrators-Connect It. Evelyn is recognized nationally as an innovative coach and instructor in interactive reading strategies, processes, and techniques. Her work, in both the United States and Europe, has enhanced her ability to prepare all learners for the 21st century. Her students range from pre-K through college level. She has written and taught cognitive studies curricula, mentored teachers, coordinated literacy-reading instructional programs, and served on executive boards of public and charter schools.