About the Book
Literacy learning begins at birth and continues throughout our
lives. From infants' curiosity for touching books to preschool children's
growing understanding that spoken words are represented by text on a page,
young children are little literacy
learners!
The goal of this book is to help educators support young
children's literacy learning in ways that make sense for their age and stage of
development through learning opportunities for young children that build the
foundation for reading and writing. It focuses specifically on the ways that
early childhood educators can help to foster young children's literacy
development. The authors explain the latest research on supporting early
literacy for infants, toddlers, and preschool children and how early childhood
educators can implement these practices with young children.
The authors
discuss five
important areas for young children's language and literacy development and
highlight
ten core practices of early childhood educators that support these five areas.
The practices represent important ways that early childhood educators can
ensure that they are supporting our little literacy learners.
Five Important Areas of Language and Literacy Development
1.
Language
and conceptual knowledge
2. Print concepts
3. Phonological awareness
4. Writing development
5. Listening comprehension and viewing
comprehension
Ten Core Practices for
Early Childhood Educators
1.
Knowing. The authors build professional knowledge, such
as why the letter
W is so tough for
young children or how children's writing develop over time.
2.
Designing.
Offers examples of how
early childhood educators can design learning opportunities to foster children's
literacy development.
3.
Inviting
& engaging. Suggested
strategies for inviting and engaging children, such as materials to include in
the classroom environment and techniques for maintaining children's attention
during read aloud.
4.
Including.
Discusses ways we can
include children, whether by selecting texts for read alouds that reflect
children's cultural backgrounds or building on children's interests when
designing literacy-enriched dramatic play centers.
5.
Explaining.
Provides guidance about
when and how to explain ideas to children, offering sample teacher language for
readers to consider.
6.
Showing. Illustrates how to model specific practices for
children, from modeling for infants and toddlers how to handle a book to
modeling for preschoolers how to compose text.
7.
Playing. Discussions on how to use the power of play to
support the aspect of literacy development featured in that chapter.
8.
Transitioning.
Discussions on how to use
literacy activities to support transitions and how to use transition times to
support literacy development.
9.
Observing. Suggested foci for observation as well as
informal assessment tools that can be used in that area.
10.
Responding.
Identifies specific ways to
respond to children's interactions with print, such as the extension and
elaboration of oral language and the scaffolded writing technique for
supporting children in rendering what they want to say in print.
About the Author:
Tanya
S. Wright: Dr. Wright's
research and teaching focus on curriculum and instruction in language and
literacy during the early childhood and elementary years. Wright is co-author
of several books for teachers and parents including
A Teacher's Guide to
Vocabulary Development Across the Day: Grades K-3 released in 2020.
Her work has been published in journals such as
American Educator, The
Elementary School Journal, The Reading Teacher, Reading and Writing, Reading
Research Quarterly, the Journal of Literacy Research and the Journal of Teacher
Education. Wright's research has been funded by the National Science
Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences, the W.
K. Kellogg Foundation, and the CREATE for STEM foundation at MSU.
Sonia
Q. Cabell: Dr.
Cabell's research focuses on the prevention of reading difficulties among young
children for who are at-risk, particularly those living in poverty. Dr.
Cabell's work spans pre-kindergarten through second grade and consists of how
to strengthen children's language and literacy skills that serve as precursors
to both successful reading comprehension and word recognition. She is the co-author of the book
Emergent
Literacy: Lessons for Success.
Nell
K. Duke: Dr. Duke's work focuses on early
literacy development, particularly among children living in poverty.
She has served
as Co-Principal Investigator of projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences,
the National Science Foundation, the Spencer
Foundation, and
the George Lucas
Educational Foundation, among other
organizations. Duke has been named one of the most influential education
scholars in the U.S. in EdWeek.
Duke is author
and co-author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. Her most recent
books are Inside Information: Developing Powerful Readers and Writers of
Informational Text through Project-based Instruction and Beyond Bedtime Stories: A Parent's Guide to Promoting Reading, Writing,
and Other Literacy Skills From Birth to 5, Second Edition.
Marianna
Souto-Maning: Dr. Souto-Manning is President
of the Erikson Institute. She holds
academic appointments abroad at the University of Iceland and King's College
London. Prior to her career in higher education, Souto-Manning was a
teacher in public preschools in Brazil and the United States.
Souto-Manning has published 10 books, co-authored
more than 75 peer-reviewed articles and received a number of distinguished
research awards.
