An effective way to begin the writing process is to focus on prewriting, which involves organizing ideas, setting goals, and exploring topics. Learn about technology-enhanced strategies to help students create a “road map” that can guide them through the writing process.
With the Common Core, literacy is intentionally taught within content areas. See what a CCSS mini-thematic unit in science might look like for children in the primary grades.
Whether from a fairy tale or a real-life royal family, princesses capture our imagination. Sometimes regal, sometimes funny, and often braver than the princes that surround them, the princesses in these recommended stories for kids ages 0-9 will amuse and enlighten the children in your life.
Research shows that effective school leaders focus on improving classroom instruction, not just managerial tasks. A natural way for school leaders to take on the role of instructional leader is to serve as a “chief” coach for teachers by designing and supporting strong classroom level instructional coaching. Here’s how to selecting a coaching approach that meets the particular needs of a school and how to implement and sustain the effort.
Print awareness is basic knowledge about print and how it is typically organized on a page. A young child with print awareness knows that print conveys meaning, print is read left to right, and words are separated by spaces.
Print awareness is understanding that print carries meaning, that books contain letters and words, and how a book “works” — such as identifying the front and back covers, knowing that pages are turned, and that print in English reads from left to right.
How can you help kids develop print awareness? Here are some sample questions and prompts you can use before, during, and after a read aloud activity to help children activate basic knowledge about print and books.
Print awareness is a child’s earliest understanding that written language carries meaning. The foundation of all other literacy learning builds upon this knowledge. The following are guidelines for teachers in how to promote print awareness and a sample activity for assessing print awareness in young children.
Children with print awareness can begin to understand that written language is related to oral language. Children who lack print awareness are unlikely to become successful readers. Indeed, children’s performance on print awareness tasks is a very reliable predictor of their future reading achievement.
Yes, teach print awareness. Let kids see the text you are reading (or writing) and bring their attention to it. Talk about those spaces between words, and don’t hesitate to point to the words that you are reading. But don’t spend a lot of time on fronts and backs of books or how to turn pages or whether numbers and letters are different.
Preschoolers who are getting ready to read expand their knowledge of the building blocks of oral and written language, and their use and appreciation of language. Learn activities parents can use at home to support children’s growth in each of these areas.
In this overview, learn how early literacy benefits from both print-to-speech and speech-to-print instruction, creating connections in the brain that link new knowledge about the alphabet to what children already know and are continuously learning about words.
