One of the most important parts of a child’s early literacy experience actually has nothing to do with books or print at all. Instead, it is all about their early language experiences centering around talk – both being talked to (not at!) and later, talking back. Researchers Betty M. Hart and Todd R. Risley focus on this idea in their book “Meaningful Differences in
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The following post is from Colleen Brunetti … our Early Literacy Expert. She will be doing a series of posts on early literacy for preschoolers. Since this ties in so nicely with our recent Book Study Blog party of the book “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell, 2011), I’ll interject a couple of quotes from the book along the way! –Laura Choosing high quality children’s literature is an important part
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We are wrapping up our review of how to assess literacy learning in young children as part of the Book Study Blog Party review of the book “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell). Today’s post is on chapter 25, which provides four simple systematic assessments you can use at the end of prekindergarten to help you record the growth of your students, and provide information
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We continue on with talking about how to assess literacy learning in young children as part of the Book Study Blog Party review of the book “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell). In chapter 22 we talked about ways teachers can observe reading behaviors. Chapter 23 discusses ways teachers can observe writing behaviors by watching children in shared, interactive and independent writing activities. We are
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As we continue to review “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell) as part of the Book Study Blog Party – we will now look at ways to assess writing behaviors in young children. Similar to observing reading behaviors, teachers can observe writing behaviors by watching children in shared, interactive and independent writing activities. Shared/Interactive Writing Shared and interactive writing is when teachers and children write
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We are participating in a “Book Study Blog Party” organized by Vanessa at Pre-K Pages. Several early childhood bloggers (including us) will be discussing chapters of the book “Literacy Beginnings” by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas. I read the first 4 chapters today and took some notes. Here are some of my thoughts on the first 2 chapters. Chapter 1: “Growing up
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As promised, today we have a guest post from Maggie Woodley of the Red Ted Art blog! Red Ted Art is a wonderful blog for all things crafty, and features kids crafts (suitable 18mths – 10yrs) and weekly tutorials (suitable for older children and adults). She has one son – known as “Red Ted”, and a little girl – “Pip Squeak”. 🙂 I’m excited that Maggy
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We are continuing to read “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell) for the Book Study Blog Party. Let’s dive into chapter 4 – An Organized, Engaging Environment! I loved this chapter because it gave some great examples of ways to setup your early learning classroom. It’s always nice to be able to see how other teachers setup their classroom, and this chapter had some photos
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I am a big fan of planning crafts, games and activities that tie in with children’s books. I think it’s a great way to extend learning for young children, and there are so many great children’s books out there that just lend themselves to some wonderful projects! Saturday 25 June is Eric Carle’s birthday – and Kate at “The Amazing Child” is having an
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