Many families are under the mistaken impression that holding their child out of kindergarten for an additional year will be beneficial, that it will give the child the gift of time. But families need to be aware of the possibility of too little challenge and the potential negative effects of holding children out.
Oral history is a method to learn about past events from the spoken stories of people who lived through them. When students conduct oral history research with members of their families or community they are participating in active learning rooted in the student’s own experience. Students are actively engaged in collecting data when they do oral histories. Not only are they learning history, they are learning to be historians.
Pre-K children are actively absorbing spoken language and experiences to make sense of the world around them. Engaging in rich conversations about everyday things and reading lots of stories are two terrific ways to help young children strengthen oral language skills and comprehension.
Talking to your child helps expand vocabulary, develop background knowledge, and inspire a curiosity about the world – all of which help with learning to read! Here are some simple activities you can do at home to get your child ready to read.
Many pressures pull schools away from a coherent set of organizational practices that enable high achievement. The most significant one is the traditional way schools have been organized around isolated, individual, and autonomous practice. To organize schools around learning requires a deep belief that all students are capable of achievement and that it is the responsibility of the school to ensure that they do.
Many children with learning disabilities have a hard time staying organized. As your child begins a new school year, find out more about the concept of organizational skills and learn some strategies to help your child.
Orton–Gillingham was the first teaching approach specifically designed to help struggling readers by explicitly teaching the connections between letters and sounds. Many reading programs include Orton–Gillingham ideas, including a “multisensory” approach, which is considered highly effective for teaching students with dyslexia.
In 2013, the Caldecott Medal celebrated its 75th anniversary. We’ve gathered a collection of other wonderful books by Caldecott-winning artists. Perhaps you can name (without looking it up!) the medal-winning book by each artist.
We’ve gathered up dozens of terrific audiobooks, perfect for car trips, lazy summer afternoons, or any time a good story is in order. You’ll connect with some familiar friends — Ramona, Alvin Ho, and Nate the Great — plus some new characters with adventures to share. Poetry, folktales, classics, and more in this carefully selected list.
Sharing wordless books is a terrific way to build important literacy skills, including listening skills, vocabulary, comprehension and an increased awareness of how stories are structured. And children love them — they can really pore over the pictures and create their own story in their own words. Wordless books can also be used in ELL classrooms and with struggling readers. Explore these books with the young kids you know — and get ready for some creative storytelling! See Book Finder for more wordless books ›
