Building a large “word bank” is one of the best ways to help children with reading comprehension. Young readers use knowledge about words to help them make sense of what they’re reading. The more words a reader knows, the more they are able to comprehend what they’re reading or listening to.
April is National Poetry Month, 30 days of celebrating the joy, expressiveness, and pure delight of poetry. Learn more about the National Poetry Month, get to know some of our most well-loved children’s poets in our video interview series, browse the many online resources listed here, and visit your local library or bookstore to discover wonderful new books and anthologies.
First graders are learning to think actively as they read. They use their experiences and knowledge of the world, vocabulary, a growing understanding how language works, and reading strategies to make sense of what they’re reading.
Dialogic reading involves an adult and child having a dialogue around the text they are reading aloud together. Learn how to use this strategy effectively to help kids build vocabulary and verbal fluency skills and understand story structure and meaning. Downloadable handouts to help guide parents in using dialogic reading are available in English and 17 other languages.
Join third grade teacher Shana Sterkin to see how she incorporates purposeful writing into her classroom every day, and strives to create a joyful, confident community of writers.
Rachael Walker has more than 30 years of experience in bringing organizations together to promote children’s literacy, beginning her career at Reading Is Fundamental. Rachael leads content creation for NEA’s Read Across America program, serves on the Advisory Board of The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance, and hosts the Book Life blog on Reading Rockets. She has created educator materials for Random House Children’s Books, Disney, Algonquin Young Readers, and other publishers to help boost student engagement with books. Rachael was a literacy advisor for the CPB-PBS Ready To Learn initiative and also served as the Executive Director of Reach Out and Read of Metro DC.
In these three video presentations, teachers, administrators, and parents learn from the experts about how to identify students who are at risk for reading struggles in pre-k and early elementary school. You will also discover best practices for teaching all students to read, including those who need additional interventions.
Talking to your child’s teacher about dyslexia is the best way for her to understand your child’s challenges, strengths and needs. Here are eight tips to help you have productive conversations.
Teach your students to avoid the avoidance of writing. Learn how to lead them down the path of enthusiasm and self-confidence about writing through research-proven strategies.
Learn the basics about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS): how they will affect teaching, the benefits and key features of the standards, assessment, and what teachers can do now to prepare for CCSS implementation.
As children learn some letter-sound matches and start to read, they also begin to experiment with writing. These activities can be used with children to develop their writing and spelling abilities.
This study of first and second graders looked at teacher-led read alouds as a way to introduce science concepts. Results suggest that multiple exposures to a related concept across different stories gave students more time to build a mental representation of important ideas. This evidence suggests that moving beyond a single text as a source for building students’ understanding is an important instructional approach.
Even the youngest child is somewhere on the path to becoming a reader. Learn more about emergent readers, and a tips to ksupport their literacy growth.
