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This is a just a picture of a book, representing books that children can read both in and outside of school. Reading does not just take place in the classroom anymore. Students should be reading at home with their parents and independently. This will help to broaden students' horizons on what they read because they will be reading so frequently.

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This article talks about children's literature helps students to develop emotionally and educationally because they learn what the story is trying to teach them, as well as how to relate to the characters and feel along with them. It also mentions how "children are never too old to be read to," and that parents and teachers should read to students every once in a while. The article also provides a list of the benefits students get from reading and listening to children's literature, such as, gaining new vocabulary, stretching their attention spans, and stimulating cognitive development.

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The Value of Children's Literature | Education.com

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The benefits of reading to children are discussed. Lists the specific benefits children can gain from reading and listening to books.

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This article discusses children's literature and gives some examples of what children's literature looks like. It talks about different forms of children's literature, such as, fables, folktales, rhymes, ballads, and small chapter books.

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children's literature, the body of written works and accompanying illustrations produced in order to entertain or instruct young people. The genre encompasses a wide range of works, including acknowledged classics of world literature, picture books and easy-to-read stories written exclusively for children, and fairy tales, lullabies, fables, folk songs, and other primarily orally transmitted materials.

Children's literature first clearly emerged as a distinct and independent form of literature in the second half of the 18th century, before which it had been at best only in an embryonic stage. During the 20th century, however, its growth has been so luxuriant as to make defensible its claim to be regarded with the respect-though perhaps not the solemnity-that is due any other recognized branch of literature.

Definition of terms

"Children"

All potential or actual young literates, from the instant they can with joy leaf through a picture book or listen to a story read aloud, to the age of perhaps 14 or 15, may be called children. Thus "children" includes "young people." Two considerations blur the definition. Today's young teenager is an anomaly: his environment pushes him toward a precocious maturity. Thus, though he may read children's books, he also, and increasingly, reads adult books. Second, the child survives in many adults. As a result, some children's books ( e.g., Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, and, at one time, Munro Leaf's Story of Ferdinand) are also read widely by adults.

"Literature"

In the term children's literature, the more important word is literature. For the most part, the adjective imaginative is to be felt as preceding it. It comprises that vast, expanding territory recognizably staked out for a junior audience, which does not mean that it is not also intended for seniors. Adults admittedly make up part of its population: children's books are written, selected for publication, sold, bought, reviewed, and often read aloud by grown-ups. Sometimes they seem also to be written with adults in mind, as for example the popular French Astérix series of comics parodying history. Nevertheless, by and large there is a sovereign republic of children's literature. To it may be added five colonies or dependencies: first, "appropriated" adult books satisfying two conditions-they must generally be read by children and they must have sharply affected the course of children's literature (Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, the collection of folktales by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the folk-verse anthology Des Knaben Wunderhorn ["The Boy's Magic Horn"], edited by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, and William Blake's Songs of Innocence); second, books the audiences of which seem not to have been clearly conceived by their creators (or their creators may have ignored, as irrelevant, such a consideration) but that are now fixed stars in the child's literary firmament (Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Charles Perrault's fairy tales; third, picture books and easy-to-read stories commonly subsumed under the label of literature but qualifying as such only by relaxed standards (though Beatrix Potter and several other writers do nonetheless qualify); fourth, first quality children's versions of adult classics ( Walter de la Mare's Stories from the Bible, perhaps Howard Pyle's retellings of the Robin Hood ballads and tales; finally, the domain of once oral "folk" material that children have kept alive- folktales and fairy tales; fables, sayings, riddles, charms, tongue twisters; folksongs, lullabies, hymns, carols, and other simple poetry; rhymes of the street, the playground, the nursery; and, supremely, Mother Goose and nonsense verse.

Five categories that are often considered children's literature are excluded from this section. The broadest of the excluded categories is that of unblushingly commercial and harmlessly transient writing, including comic books, much of which, though it may please young readers, and often for good reasons, is for the purposes of this article notable only for its sociohistorical, rather than literary, importance. Second, all books of systematic instruction are barred except those sparse examples ( e.g., the work of John Amos Comenius) that illuminate the history of the subject. Third, excluded from discussion is much high literature that was not originally intended for children: from the past, Jean de La Fontaine's Fables, James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking tales, Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers, Rudyard Kipling's Kim; from the modern period, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' Yearling, J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, The Diary of Anne Frank, Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki, Enid Bagnold's National Velvet. A fourth, rather minor, category comprises books about the young where the content but not the style or point of view is relevant (Sir James Barrie's Sentimental Tommy, William Golding's Lord of the Flies, F. Anstey's [Thomas Anstey Guthrie] Vice Versa). Finally, barred from central, though not all, consideration is the "nonfiction," or fact, book. Except for a handful of such books, the bright pages of which still rain influence or which possess artistic merit, this literature should be viewed from its socioeducational-commercial aspect.

The case for a children's literature

Many otherwise comprehensive histories of literature slight or omit the child's reading interests. Many observers have made explicit the suspicion that children's literature, like that of detection or suspense, is "inferior." They cannot detect a sufficiently long "tradition"; distinguish an adequate number of master works; or find, to use on thoughtful critic's words, "style, sensibility, vision."

Others, holding a contrary view, assert that a tradition of two centuries is not to be ignored.

Though the case for a children's literature must primarily rest on its major writers (including a half dozen literary geniuses), it is based as well on other supports that bolster its claim to artistic stature.

Children's literature, while a tributary of the literary mainstream, offers its own identifiable, semidetached history. In part it is the issue of certain traceable social movements, of which the "discovery" of the child (see below) is the most salient. It is independent to the degree that, while it must meet many of the standards of adult literature, it has also developed aesthetic criteria of its own by which it may be judged. According to some of its finest practitioners, it is independent, too, as the only existing literary medium enabling certain things to be said that would otherwise remain unsaid or unsayable. The nature of its audience sets it apart; it is often read, especially by children younger than 12, in a manner suggesting trance, distinct from that of adult reading. Universally diffused among literate peoples, it offers a rich array of genres, types, and themes, some resembling grown-up progenitors, many peculiar to itself. Its "style, sensibility, vision" range over a spectrum wide enough to span matter-of-fact realism and tenuous mysticism.

Other measures of its maturity include an extensive body (notably in Germany, Italy, Sweden, Japan, and the United States) of commentary, scholarship, criticism, history, biography, and bibliography, along with the beginnings of an aesthetic theory or philosophy of composition. Finally, one might note its power to engender its own institutions: publishing houses, theatres, libraries, itinerant storytellers, critics, periodicals, instruction in centres of higher learning, lectureships, associations and conferences, "book weeks," collections, exhibitions, and prizes. Indeed, the current institutionalizing of children's literature on an international scale has gone so far, some feel, as to cast a shadow on the spontaneity and lack of self-consciousness that should lie at its heart.

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Children's literature | History, Books, Types, Awards, & Facts

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Children's literature, the body of written works and accompanying illustrations produced in order to entertain or instruct young people. The genre encompasses a wide range of works, including acknowledged classics of world literature, picture books and easy-to-read stories written exclusively for

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Integrating Technology: New Literacies - Artifact 3

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Integrating Technology: New Literacies - Artifact 3

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This is a graphic organizer explaining some of the different aspects of new literacy. It shows the categories that fall under the topic of "new literacy" and it gives a small description for each one.

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Integrating Technology: New Literacies - Artifact 2

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Integrating Technology: New Literacies - Artifact 2

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This article discusses how children are moving into the technology age and how they are reading on multiple different platforms like blogs, emails, wikis, audio sites, and the standard print books. The article talks about trying to lessen the gap between offline and online reading, to allow students to experience literacy in as many different ways as possible.

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Students are immersed in 21st century "new literacy" technologies, but are schools preparing them for the future?

Are you familiar with the Pacific Northwest tree octopus? Most likely not. Good thing there is a website on the Internet to tell you all about it! According to the tree octopus site, this solitary cephalopod resides in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula on North America's west coast. It is amphibious but lives in trees, spending only its early life in water. It has eight arms, complete with sensitive suckers, and a soft body, just like a regular octopus. It is intelligent and inquisitive. And it does not exist.

Surprised? Again, most likely not. But 25 seventh-grade, high-performing online readers, when directed to the site in a recent study by the New Literacies Research Team at the University of Connecticut, all thought the Pacific Northwest tree octopus was real.

"Knowing truth from fiction on the Internet is a huge problem," says Kenneth Eastwood, superintendent of Middletown City (N.Y.) School District. "Students might be good researchers, but they tend not to scrutinize the information."

Apparently high-performing online readers are not so high performing after all. And those 25 students were the same top students who, when first surveyed from a larger pool of 800 students in urban Connecticut school districts, said, "You can't trust everything you see online." But you can always trust a tree octopus. (Or maybe that's a mountain walrus. Check the site.)

It might seem that evaluating information online-just one form of "new literacy"-and reading a book-more of a foundational literacy-are pretty much the same thing. After all, you can't trust everything you read, either. But there are differences. And those differences, when brought into the classroom and incorporated into curricula, are enriching the educational experiences of many K12 students. Unfortunately, many administrators, although they are beginning to recognize the need to revise their districts' media skills instruction, lack the resources, and more importantly the vision, to bring the new literacies into the classroom.

21st Century Skills

Foundational or traditional literacy is about print on a page, or decoding and making sense of words, images and other content that a reader can string together and then begin to comprehend. They are the words and pictures students read and pore over that are contained in textbooks, in novels, on standardized tests, and even in comic books.

The new literacies encompass much more. Their utility lies in online reading comprehension and learning skills, or 21st century skills, required by the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs), including content found on wikis, blogs, video sites, audio sites, and in e-mail. They require the ability not just to "read" but also to navigate the World Wide Web, locate information, evaluate it critically, synthesize it and communicate it-all skills that are becoming vital to success in this century's economy and workforce.

What complicates the situation is that there is a growing gap between what today's students do in school and what they do at home. According to a recent Pew Internet and American Life Project study, "The Digital Disconnect: The Widening Gap between Internet-Savvy Students and Their Schools," students are spending 27 hours a week online at home, compared to an average of 15 minutes per week at school. "It's hard to develop online skills in traditional classrooms when so little instructional time is online," says Susan Patrick, president of the North American Council for Online Learning. "Online learning is not this separate silo that we might need to use as a tool." Administrators should have such learning weaved into classrooms, she adds.

Today's students, the "digital natives" as they are sometimes called, are practically inseparable from their computers, video games and the Internet. Moreover, a recent study by the National School Boards Association found that 96 percent of students who have online access use the technologies for social networking such as blogging, sharing music, instant messaging, and posting their own movies. Not exactly the first thing you think of when you imagine a classroom.

And although digital natives may be tech savvy, they don't use a lot of information, or at least they don't know how to think critically about the information they use. They need guidance on how to find the best information most efficiently and determine fact from fiction.

"Technology and knowledge in general are growing at an exponential rate," says Mary Colombo, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Hopkinton (Mass.) Public Schools. "Where do you find it? How do you gather it? How should you use it?"

New Literacies Research Lab

At the New Literacies Research Lab at the University of Connecticut, tucked amid the rolling hills of northern Connecticut, researchers are conducting studies on the state of new literacies in schools and encouraging district leaders to realize the importance of such technologies, particularly in middle school. The six-year-old research lab, with $8 million in private and federal funds for research, professional development, assessment and curriculum development, is the most widely recognized center worldwide for doing such research. And the 14-member team develops research-based evidence to prepare students in these new skills.

The lab's co-directors, Donald Leu, Douglas Hartman and Julie Coiro, maintain that it's high time for school districts to focus on this new form of literacy. "It's a huge challenge because we've never been in a position where every month or every year there are new reading and writing skills that you have to acquire because there are new technologies," Leu says. "We've had the same technology for 500 years. We have basically been reading books. Who knew about wikis or blogs" just five years ago?

But few, if any, of the new literacies have found their way into the American classroom. "Indeed, many seem to be resisted overtly by deliberate educational policies or covertly by educators who sometimes are not nearly as literate with the Internet as the students they teach," according to Leu and others at UConn, who wrote a research paper, "What Is New about the New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension?"

Economically challenged districts have little incentive to include online reading skills in the instructional program because they face pressure to raise reading test scores on assessments that have nothing to do with online comprehension. As a result, many students are not taught these online skills, especially those students who require the most support-and who have the least access to the Internet at home.

"And think about the wealthy districts," Leu says. "The kids have the Internet at home. When they come to school, the teachers, the superintendents and the administrators feel less pressure for AYP, and so they're integrating the Internet more into the classroom. They're getting the skills. And the kids who are the lowest- performing students on state reading assessments are being denied them just because of the pressure of these tests."

Among the UConn lab's various studies, one with the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory/Learning Point Associates created an online reading comprehension assessment. It asked seventh-graders from a Connecticut district first to download a document from a blog post, requiring them to search the web, and to post a new blog message to communicate what they found. The results showed no statistically significant correlation between scores on state reading assessments and students' performance on online reading assessments. It suggests that there's "something different going on here," Leu says. "That's highly unusual in the reading world-all reading comprehension assessments correlate with one another."

New Instructional Models

Under the lab's experimental study with Clemson University in South Carolina, Teaching Internet Reading Comprehension to Adolescents, the research team is now developing a three-phase instructional model for teachers, called Internet Reciprocal Teaching (IRT). This year the team will randomly choose seventh-grade classroom teachers in Connecticut and South Carolina to receive instruction in the new literacies using the model.

Another study underway in California is ascertaining the contexts in which students learn new literacies best. "It's a qualitative study where one of the doctoral students is watching new literacies being introduced to the classroom, and the kids are the informants to the researcher," Leu says. The doctoral student learns the context in which the students' new skills are acquired, such as from a teacher or another student, or from something the student decided to do on the Internet or from something that was assigned. "That information is really going to be important to understand what contexts facilitate the acquisition of new literacies," Leu says. "Is it when the teacher tells you directly, or is it when students explore something and figure something out? And those contexts are important as we think about integrating these things into school classrooms."

Testing Mandates

Ironically, the federal No Child Left Behind law includes an Enhancing Education Through Technology section mandating that every student become technologically literate by the end of eighth grade. But there are few, if any, federal funds going to schools under this mandate, and the law doesn't clearly define the mandate, Leu and Hartman say. Every state has technology standards, but they go untested, which makes real change difficult to achieve.

Joseph Cirasuolo, chief operating officer of the American Association of School Administrators, agrees that these new skills are about the present, not just the future. "Until we change assessment laws or NCLB starts to test for these skills, I think we'll have a major time problem" where the school day and year is limited, he says. "This will be a bigger problem in school districts that serve children who don't test as well."

"Technology literacy is endangered by well-intentioned educators trying to create checklists and tests," says Dennis Harper of Generation YES, which provides programs for youths to improve their education through technology, such as TechYES, which is a technology literacy certification program for sixth- through ninth-graders. "And they artificially put an end to the process. Technology should open new doors to students, not limit them." Leu adds, "This is really critical - it's not only that there are new reading skills and strategies involved, but our public policies, because they're not in tune with what's going on, are actually preventing the kids we care about the most from acquiring these skills."

Learning from Other Nations

As news reports proclaim that the world is getting "flatter" as a result of a rise in economic and workforce competition from foreign countries, there are signs that the U.S. educational system is not taking the new literacies seriously enough, Leu and Hartman say. The National Assessment of Educational Progress-the nation's report card-has no plans to test such skills at least for another 10 years. And the United States is not participating in the 2009 PISA reading assessment, which is a worldwide assessment for 15-year-olds conducted every decade by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The 2009 assessment will include online reading literacy skills for the first time. "Assessment needs to be part of it," says Colombo. "We must know how what we're doing is helping students and what new skills they're leaving with when they're out of school."

By contrast, other nations around the globe, particularly developed nations, are taking the new skills quite seriously. Finland, for example, has a national training model for teachers to integrate the Internet and other ICTs into the classroom. The government gives five weeks of paid release time for professional development to all teachers, Leu says. "They know their kids are going to have to compete with other kids," Leu adds. "And they also have a priority for an information technology economy. They're very focused on that."

Ireland is following a similar path. "It's a boom economy right now," Leu says. "It's being called a 'Celtic Tiger.' More software is manufactured in Ireland than in the United States today, and it's because they have a trained workforce. They've invested in integrating technology into their schools so that kids know how to work in an information age, and major companies have been setting up their headquarters in Ireland because they have a trained workforce. Ireland is importing workers now because their economy is so strong. It used to be that they sent their sons and daughters away when they didn't have enough jobs."

The United Kingdom has just developed a national ICT literacies assessment that's being piloted in schools, and in Japan the government subsidizes Internet access in 98 percent of all households because it knows that kids spend more time reading outside of school than they do inside, Leu and Hartman say. In Mexico, there is a national policy to make Internet access available to all schools in all classrooms and all homes in the next 15 years. And all of Singapore's high schools are using online learning, Patrick adds.

State Initiatives

Fortunately, there are pockets of hope in the United States, as various states and districts have taken steps to alter the educational technology landscape. The International Society for Technology in Education encourages administrators across the nation to use the new literacies in classrooms. And the Partnership for the 21st Century Skills, a national advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education, recently started joint partnerships with Maine, South Dakota and Massachusetts to bring 21st century teaching and learning skills to students. Other states are also getting involved, including Michigan, North Carolina and West Virginia. Gov. Michael Easley of North Carolina and Gov. Joseph Manchin III of West Virginia realize that students must move beyond mastering instant messaging and MP3s and cope with the bigger demands of the new literacies.

For example, North Carolina has been losing jobs in the textile and clothing industries over the past few years, so Easley's development strategy is designed to introduce more high-skilled jobs. The North Carolina Center for 21st Century Skills is working with business leaders, educators and policy-makers to ensure that all high school students will graduate with new literacy skills that are relevant to jobs today. Among its plans, the center has a program to create smaller learning communities that make class work relevant to contemporary workplaces. It also created Learn and Earn, a one-year high school extension program that allows students to earn two years of college credit or an associate's degree.

West Virginia has also lost jobs in the coal and mining industries, so Manchin implemented the West Virginia 21st Century Skills Initiative, a 30-member board of key leaders, including teacher union and higher education representatives, which is working to restructure the state's education system to integrate 21st century learning and implement online professional development tools.

Wisconsin has a book full of ICT standards, but the difficulty is weaving them into core subject standards that were implemented before the ICT standards were born, according to Barry M. Golden, educational consultant at the Wisconsin Department of Education. "I believe we are ahead of the game with the standards but are far from having them fully implemented, in great part because we don't have the resources at the state level, nor do the districts have the resources at the local level to deliver the training necessary for full implementation," Golden says. "I think it's imperative that the nation look at the challenges facing us in most content areas, 21st century skills, problem and project-based learning, and technology integration in general and conclude that the K12 enterprise must go on a massive retooling effort."

Reaching Out to Districts

In districts where the UConn lab is working, administrators are starting to think about the digital disconnect-the gap between how often students use the Internet at home compared to how often they use the Internet in school. But Leu reiterates that administrators are at different levels of awareness.

Tim Lauer, the principal of Meriwether Lewis Elementary School in Portland, Ore., not only is aware of the technological gulf between what students do in school and at home, but he also points out that the way students conceptualize information is so radically different now from when he was a student four decades ago. "Students are more connected now than ever. They don't even look in books. It's actually really funny as far as where they go to get information. They don't even know what yellow pages are," he says.

School change must start from the top, Leu and Hartman stress. Early on, the research team prepared dozens of Connecticut high-level administrators to work with new literacies over a three-year period, under a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant with the Connecticut Department of Educational Leadership. "We had a series of workshops around the state and we had groups of 40 or 50 people in them to show them what new literacies were, trying to get them to understand these things," Leu says. "If you don't have leadership it's not going to happen. If you're going to change schools, you have to have a vision for it."

While the research lab can offer no primer or "how-to" list that administrators can follow, Leu says, it's key for administrators and teachers to spend time every day online. "If they don't live online, how are they going to communicate to kids how to do these things that they themselves don't do?" Leu asks.

Beyond leadership, Leu says that revamped curricula and preservice teacher education will support teaching new literacies to students. "We've got to coach current teachers to become newly literate, understand how to use the Internet, so they can pass along a lot of those skills, and then we have to implement effective instructional models," he says.

At the Middletown district-where administrators are working to enhance its curriculum with new technologies through a federal Enhancing Education through Technology grant-Eastwood agrees that to address the most important issues one must first properly train the teachers in instructional technology. "New teachers do not do very well with technology integration skills in the classroom," he says.

Hartman's grant with preservice teacher education, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and called the Adolescent Literacy Preservice Initiative, is designed to develop and implement an innovative program of teacher preparation for candidates in secondary math and science education that focuses on foundational print literacy as well as the new literacies. "All of this is gradually receiving greater attention, but the change is huge," Leu says.

Hartman plans to work with a school in the Manchester (Conn.) School District this year, focusing on how teachers already use online reading and writing every day, and then have administrators think about how such technologies can be integrated more fully across grade levels. As teachers develop the skills and language for building a professional school culture, then educators can think about "logical and natural ways to fold" online reading into what the students could and should be learning about using the Internet and other communication technologies, Hartman says.

Patrick believes that school leaders also need to be clearer about their mission, which should be to prepare students for the Information Age and to ensure teachers have online teaching credentials. "I'm going to push our teacher education schools to include these skills" and get certificates, she says. Boise State University is one such example, she explains. It is working with Connections Academy, a free K11 public school distance-learning program, to encourage standard classroom teachers to receive online training skills.

Districts Ahead of the Curve

The lab researchers have worked with more than 500 K12 education leaders in states such as Connecticut, New York and South Carolina who are "starting to get it" and understand "the enormity of the challenge," Leu says.

Portland, Oregon

At Meriwether Lewis Elementary, Lauer oversees classes in digital arts for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. Held in a computer lab outfitted with 30 Apple MacBook computers, students delve into every subject from filmmaking to music composition to digital photography, but some of the most interesting lessons merge Internet-based programs like Google Earth with 3D modeling and city building programs like SimCity Societies and Google SketchUp. "Students capture real earth images from Google Earth and then expand on them with the other software," explains Lauer. "Each kid gets his or her own property lot to build on."

Lauer says students use web-based search engines like Google to "research zoning and construction issues" and through the software learn the importance of planning and sticking to a budget. Students also share their ideas with classmates and respond to each other's work through a "construction diary" blog.

Scarsdale, New York

This fall, Scarsdale (N.Y.) Public Schools will begin offering a yearlong course through its Teachers Institute on the new literacies so district teachers can collectively examine the pedagogical nature of the technologies and incorporate them into classroom teaching models. The course is inviting national experts in the field to investigate the research that's being done and make recommendations on how participating educators can use the technologies to improve student learning.

"One of our goals is for students to read better online," says district technology director Gerald Crisci. "Becoming more critical, knowing the importance of the source, knowing how to navigate... are all examples of what we're trying to do."

But Scarsdale computer teacher Jodie Giroux stresses that the phrase "new literacies" is almost a misnomer, because what should be achieved is "balanced literacy," or a comprehensive literacy that incorporates traditional print media, electronic media and everything in-between that makes connections among various forms of content. "This is nothing 'new,'" says Giroux. "It's much more like taking what we already know and applying these new technologies to it. It's a good commonsense approach to teaching literacy, in every sense of the word."

The Scarsdale district also has an intensive Capstone Project for fifth-graders in which they choose and research a topic of their own and make a presentation at the end of the year. Giroux says that "inquiry research" is central to the project's ideals. Students are taught the value of framing good questions, how to make connections, and how to research both in print and online. Teaching students how to read web pages and how to find sources on the Internet is paramount, she adds.

Additionally, Paul Folkemer, assistant superintendent of instruction, not only "gets" the importance of new literacies and web 2.0, but he runs and maintains a current events blog for all the district's students. He often reads news articles from various online sources, chooses one he believes will be interesting for young people, rewrites the story himself, posts it to the blog, and poses questions that he thinks will be debated or considered.

"Critical reading is one of the new literacy skills, and the current events blog is an effective strategy for teaching critical reading because students connect the content to their lives and then accurately respond to what they have read," says Folkemer. "The blog gives students an opportunity to read, think and respond in writing to events and issues that are important for them to understand as citizens of democracy."

Folkemer says that whenever he adds a new story to the blog, an e-mail is sent to more than 80 teachers in the district who incorporate the blog articles and questions students raise into their own lessons.

Baltimore, Maryland

Online and technology literacy is part of the success of Connections Academy, a virtual public school based in Baltimore, according to Patricia Hoge, senior director of curriculum and instruction. The academy offers a course, Educational Technology and Online Learning, every year in which students learn Internet safety skills, how to navigate search engines and how to distinguish bogus from authentic sites. Middle school students also learn about intellectual property rights and plagiarism. Assignments are directly related to class work. "We certainly have them well-positioned to move out into the world and use technology skills on a daily basis," Hoge says, "and not just sit in a computer lab once a week."

Monroe, Connecticut

Monroe (Conn.) Public Schools is part of a group of districts turning to organizations such as the Partnership for 21st Century Skills to explore the educational potential of new literacies. The district held a retreat this past summer for school administrators at which they reflected on what 21st century skills are and what it means to have those skills. Assistant Superintendent Richard Canfield, who is also concerned about teaching life skills and lessons in personal finance, says, "Improving these literacies is an enormous task. It is important in every single subject."

Engagement and Motivation

Despite the fact that many students struggle with traditional reading, they're still engaged when they're online. And engagement means they are more excited in school and less likely to drop out. "We think we get spillover into traditional reading," Leu says. "We think we'll get engagement and motivation even with these kids because we'll be integrating reading where they get to control where they're going. We give them a problem to solve and they get to decide where to go."

Leu feels that the much-needed technology shift in American schools might just boil down to patience. "But other nations are doing this stuff," Leu reiterates. "Meanwhile we're still struggling here with the best technology in the world, the most access in the schools, and one might argue the least use."

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It might seem that evaluating information online (just one form of "new literacy") and reading a book (more of a foundational literacy) are pretty much the same thing. But there are differences that, when brought into the classroom and incorporated into curricula, are enriching the educational experiences of many K-12 students.

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Integrating Technology: New Literacies - Artifact 1

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Integrating Technology: New Literacies - Artifact 1

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The topic of "new literacies" was first brought up by Donald Leu. He says that "this term suggests that literacy is rapidly changing and transforming as new information and communication technologies emerge." This article discusses the achievement gap that shows the difference between students who read and write solely offline versus students who read and write offline as well as use online resources provided for them.

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Writing as a Process and Writing Workshop - Artifact 3

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Writing as a Process and Writing Workshop - Artifact 3

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This is a poster that shows students the different steps regarding a typical writing workshop. It gives students the term and a short description of what to do when on that step. For example, brainstorming means to find your idea for what you would your piece of writing to be about.

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Writing as a Process and Writing Workshop - Artifact 2

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Writing as a Process and Writing Workshop - Artifact 2

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This article lists and describes the different steps that go into the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising and editing, rewriting, and publishing. The article also provides different sources and reading prompts that can be used at varying age levels.

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Prompting Revision through Modeling and Written Conversations
Students create a checklist outlining what effective writers do, revise his or her own writing, and engage in a written conversation to help peers with the revision process.
Cut up, Cover up, and Come Away with Ideas for Writing!
Students rework their forgotten/abandoned drafts by cutting and covering up selected words. By creatively manipulating text, they explore portal writing, a strategy for envisioning a new story or story direction.
Writing for Audience: The Revision Process in The Diary of Anne Frank
After reading or viewing The Diary of Anne Frank, students will make connections between audience and purpose and revise a journal entry with an outside audience in mind.
The Houdini Box: What Did Houdini Hide? Writing Creative Endings
Students are encouraged to understand a book that the teacher reads aloud to create a new ending for it using the writing process.
Teaching Audience Through Interactive Writing
Through interactive writing, students work together and then independently to create invitation letters for a group of their peers and their families.
A Picture IS Worth a Thousand Words: Using Infographics to Illustrate How-to Writing
Students write step-by-step instructions on topics of their own choosing. Then using Piktochart, students create their own infographics to illustrate their instructions.
Writing Workshop: Helping Writers Choose and Focus on a Topic
Students engage in writing workshop, using a timeline to focus in on and write about a specific event.
And in Conclusion: Inquiring into Strategies for Writing Effective Conclusions
While drafting a literary analysis essay (or another type of argument) of their own, students work in pairs to investigate advice for writing conclusions and to analyze conclusions of sample essays. They then draft two conclusions for their essay, select one, and reflect on what they have learned through the process.
Peer Edit With Perfection: Effective Strategies
Students take a fresh look at the revision process and help one another polish their written work through a peer-editing strategy that is simple, systematic, and constructive.
Weekend News! A Weekly Writing Activity
On Monday mornings, you're likely to be asked, "What did you do this weekend?" In this lesson, students respond to this question in a self-assessed writing assignment about their weekend adventures.
How-To Writing: Motivating Students to Write for a Real Purpose
It's not easy surviving fourth grade (or third or fifth)! In this lesson, students brainstorm survival tips for future fourth graders and incorporate those tips into an essay.
Reading and Writing About Whales Using Fiction and Nonfiction Texts
Students will have a whale of a good time in this lesson in which they use fiction and nonfiction texts to write a letter to an online scientist.

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Implementing the Writing Process - ReadWriteThink

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Prompting Revision through Modeling and Written Conversations Students create a checklist outlining what effective writers do, revise his or her own writing, and engage in a written conversation to help peers with the revision process. Cut up, Cover up, and Come Away with Ideas for Writing!

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Writing as a Process and Writing Workshop - Artifact 1

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Writing as a Process and Writing Workshop - Artifact 1

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This is an interview with Lucy Calkins, an education theorist who works with the writing process and Writer's Workshop. She talks about how it takes "clear strategy instruction to lift the level of students' writing," and how writing instruction should continue from elementary school through high school. She also discusses how writing and reading go hand in hand and how "there isn't a single writing unit in which the kids are not also reading."

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Interview

Lucy Calkins, founding director of the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College, Columbia University, is one of the most influential literacy educators in the country. She is the author of the popular Units of Study curriculum guide books and one of the originators of the "workshop" method for reading and writing instruction, which centers on independent student work in combination with teacher modeling and one-on-one and small-group guidance.
While Calkins' methods have been widely adopted, however, they've also come under recent criticism, with some arguing that they don't put enough emphasis on direct instruction and give students too much choice to be compatible with rigorous academic frameworks like the Common Core State Standards.
In a recent interview, we asked Calkins about the role of the workshop model today, particularly in connection with writing instruction. She was joined for conversation by Mary Ehrenworth, the deputy director of the Reading and Writing Project and co-author, with Calkins and Christopher Lehman, of Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement (Heinemann). The interview has been edited for space and clarity.

What are the biggest challenges teachers are facing in writing instruction today?

Lucy Calkins: The biggest challenge for teachers is the need for more professional development, the need for more knowledge about the teaching of writing. Expectations for what students should be able to do-and what teachers should be able to do-have skyrocketed. What used to be considered great instruction is no longer enough. In particular, there's a tremendous emphasis now on teaching a wider variety of writing types-including argument writing and informational writing-and on supporting those kinds of writing even in kindergarten and 1st and 2nd grade. And then there's a tremendous emphasis on transference, so that what kids learn in a writing workshop can to be brought into the writing they do in every discipline.

Mary Ehrenworth: One more really big challenge, especially at the secondary level, is the need for more time for students to write. As teachers gain knowledge of the teaching of writing, many find that they don't have enough control over their schedules to actually teach writing. In some schools, the schedules are out of the Sputnik era. It's a problem if there is no protected time for kids to actually work on their writing.

What is the best way for teachers to gain the expertise they need to teach writing effectively? Where would you start?

LC: In general, I'd start by putting a higher valuing on high-quality preservice education because teachers are increasingly coming into the profession without strong preservice training, particularly in teaching writing. But there needs to be a greater focus on improving in-service professional development, too. The key is for teachers to be in study groups in their own schools, so that they're planning curriculum together and teaching a shared curriculum and are able to visit each others' classrooms and study student work together. Schools need to become sites for learning to teach writing. It's similar to the way doctors go on rounds and talk about a patient together and discuss what approaches to take. Teachers need to go on rounds together, looking together at a particular child's writing across a few weeks of time, and figuring out the feedback that could help that youngster move forward.

MH: Especially in grades 6 to 12 level, I think it's also important to give teachers time in PD to work on their own writing. The level of writing that kids are being asked to do today is really high. It's beautiful but really challenging. And not every teacher has done that level of writing.

LC: And not just in grades 6 to 12. The skill levels that are being required of all kids-being able to weigh multiple sources and integrate them into an argument, for example-are demanding. For kids to be able to get there, teachers need to have had important experiences doing that kind of work themselves so they develop a sense for what's involved. And that ultimately means teachers having opportunities to work on their own writing. They need these experiences and skills in order to be able to give detailed explicit instruction. Teaching kids to write isn't just something where you can turn down the lights, turn on some music, and say, "Write!" It takes really clear strategy instruction to lift the level of students' writing. That requires knowledge-and also an understanding that teaching writing is a lot like teaching tennis or soccer, where you demonstrate, and then the kids go about their work, and then you coach.

When you refer to changing expectations, I assume you're talking about the common core. Has your workshop model been modified to adapt these changes? How have you changed your training in the past few years?

LC: First of all, the common core emphasizes an equal division between narrative, informative, and argument writing, and we have really embraced that, and that has led us to some deep thinking particularly about argument, which was new for us. So we partnered with a group at ETS [Educational Testing Service] that has been studying argumentative writing for decades. Ultimately, we've developed a trajectory of work on argument writing starting in kindergarten and continuing through secondary school-with students in early grades writing persuasive speeches about how they could make their school a better place, or writing reviews about their favorite pizza shop or ice cream flavor, and then moving on to writing about their reading. By 5th grade, students are writing some very sophisticated research-based position papers that involve critical reading and the use of sources. We've also give similar attention to a trajectory of development in information writing, and of course help students to do that writing not just in ELA but also in other subjects.

People have often associated the writing-workshop model with more of an emphasis on the personal narrative style. Is that inaccurate?

MH: That's one of the things that personally makes us crazy. People who say that about the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project are looking at our work from 20 years ago. Yes, 20 years ago many of us were more focused on personal narrative and poetry in classrooms, and the reason for that is that at the time, there was almost no writing in schools happening at all. So the first emphasis was to teach kids to tell their own stories. But in the last decade, narrative writing has become maybe a quarter of our curriculum.

LC: It is true that we have reputation for having a sort of "Kumbaya" approach. But keep in mind, I've been doing this work for 30 years. I was part of the first National Institute of Education study ever done on young kids as writers. And yes, it's true that that study prioritized kids writing their own stories. And we still think that's important. But the work has evolved over the 30 years. In the Units of Study curriculum that we are especially known for, there is an equal divisions between information, narrative, and argument writing.

So philosophically, as educators, do you support the shifts in writing instruction that the common core poses?

LC: Yes, sure. But remember, the common core says that a third of kids' writing should be narrative. That's still a lot of time focused on narrative writing. So it's a mistake to represent the common core as saying that kids need to work only on argument and information writing. We think narrative gives kids experiences with deliberately crafting stories in ways that create specific effects, and we think that work is not only important for their writing development but also transforms how they read. The question, "Why did the author start the story this way?" makes sense if kids themselves are accustomed to deliberately crafting their own narratives so as to accomplish particular goals-to advance a theme, to create a mood. The common core expects kids to read with an awareness of why might the author have done this or that-with a consciousness that literature is written on purpose, to create an effect. So, the other thing that people sometimes get wrong about us is thinking that our work in narrative is somehow less than rigorous. It is important to teach kids to pay attention to deliberately crafting a text in ways that create particular effects, and to help them use techniques to accomplish specific goals. We want our writers to be able to read literature with a consciousness of craft and then to be able emulate some of what they notice the writer has done.

So how is reading integrated into writing instruction in the workshop model that you're encouraging?

LC: A variety of ways. One of the most important ways to get better at writing is to study exemplar texts. So in our writing curriculum, there isn't a single writing unit in which the kids are not also reading, closely reading, mentor texts. Every unit has a couple of texts that kids read and reread and turn inside-out, returning to those texts many times. Kids work to figure out how the author made those texts and what can we learn from them.

The second connection between reading and writing is that it is also important for kids to learn to write literary essays about specific texts. In our framework, there is a unit on writing about reading in 2nd grade and after that, for pretty much every grade, there is a unit on teaching kids to write literary essays-interpretive essays, compare-and-contrast essays, thematic essays. Kids need to learn to advance an idea about a text, to select passages that support the idea, and rank which passages provide the best support. They also need to study literature to notice not only what the author has said but also how, in the use of figurative language, literary devices, symbolism. Of course, writing about texts crosses over to other content areas, too-kids also need to learn to write about nonfiction texts in social studies, for example.

In your book Pathways to the Common Core, you warn teachers against going back to traditional instructional strategies, especially in the context of teaching argumentative writing. What do you mean by that?

MH: It makes us anxious when you have a teacher who has 35 kids in a class-multiplied by five sections across the day so 125 kids in all-and who has all the kids writing the same essay. We're talking about the old approach where the teacher gives students a theme and expects them all to collect evidence for that theme. In this sort of assignment, kids are supposed to be compliant writers, and all they're doing is flipping through the pages of a text looking for evidence of the teacher's idea. The common core can be misunderstood in ways that lead teachers to feel like they have to go back to that.

LC: We prefer to think of a writing classroom-a writing workshop-as resembling a painter's studio or a potter's workshop. So the teacher, who's a potter him- or herself, gathers the students together to show them how to add a new glaze, say, and then the kids go to their stations and work on their pots, while the teacher walks among them, teaching one-to-one and in small groups. The old-fashioned way of teaching writing was where the teacher-who was not a writer-would just sort of say, "At home tonight write an essay and make sure it does these eight things. Bring it in tomorrow and I'll correct it." In a writing workshop, a lot of actual writing happens in the classroom and right then and there, teachers give feedback and kids give each other feedback, too. Revision often begins before a draft is completed. There's more of an emphasis on teaching in the midst of writing.

In the case of students who are lacking basic literacy skills, who are below grade level or new to English, where can teachers start in teaching writing skills?

LC: One of the important things to understand is that if teaches are knowledgeable about how kids develop as writers, they can adjust their strategies to support students' development, starting wherever kids are in that trajectory. That includes by working with or consulting with teachers of younger grades. For example, when kids are younger, they often sketch for a minute before writing, and they often say aloud the words they intend to write, drafting and revising the text orally before writing anything. That's something that works beautifully with older English-language learners, too. If, say, a 5th grader who is new to English draws what he intends to write on a page and labels many items in that drawing, this gives him a little personal dictionary to draw upon when writing. So that's a technique that 2nd grade teachers use all the time, and that actually can be useful to 5th grade teachers who are working with students in the early stages of language acquisition. These are the kinds of connections can happen when writing instruction is shared by a whole school.

In Pathways to the Common Core, you mention being involved in a previous standards-development effort that included poetry as one of the recommended types of writing for students. Are you disappointed that there's not much of a focus on poetry writing in the common core?

LC: I don't think that in practice, the common core has marginalized poetry as much as you might think. With the spotlight on close reading, there's still a lot of focus on reading poetry. Because poems are short and complex, they invite close reading and interpretation.

But I think you're absolutely right that there is probably less of a focus on writing poetry in some schools-though that's not true for the schools in which our project is involved because most of the teachers with whom we work do teach a unit of study on poetry writing. It's such a beautiful thing to teach. Because of its condensed nature, poetry provides a perfect forum for teaching revision.

MH: And when you think about English-language learners, there's something about poetry that makes it the most rewarding unit for them because a student can use fewer words and yet use words in interesting ways to do important work. Sometimes our more endangered writers, our more reluctant writers, come out the woods with poetry. And so teachers have held on to that. It's important to remember that there's the common core and then there's what teachers know about effective practice, and hopefully those coincide in most ways but sometimes they don't. It's important for teachers to hold onto what they know matters. I think most of us know that this country needs more Langston Hugheses.

LC: Poetry is also the genre that we turn to at life's most important moments-it's what we use at a wedding or a funeral. And classrooms are communities. The writing workshop asks teachers to think about their class as a community. So poetry is alive and well because it's how many classroom communities begin their week, it's how they end their week. It's how the death of a class pet is marked, or the ending of a book is noted. It's how teachers make moments memorable.

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Remodeling the Workshop: Lucy Calkins on Writing Instruction Today

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Interview Lucy Calkins, founding director of the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College, Columbia University, is one of the most influential literacy educators in the country. She is the author of the popular Units of Study curriculum guide books and one of the originators of the "workshop" method for reading and writing instruction, which centers on independent student work in combination with teacher modeling and one-on-one and small-group guidance.

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Reader's Workshop and Centers - Artifact 3

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Reader's Workshop and Centers - Artifact 3

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This is an example of a Reader's Workshop schedule. Reader's Worshop can be broken up into centers that involve time to work with the teacher, independent work centers, and fun work centers.

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Reader's Workshop and Centers - Artifact 2

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Reader's Workshop and Centers - Artifact 2

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This articles talks more about centers, or stations, and how students move from area to area in order to complete different tasks. All of the tasks involve reading, whether they are instruction based, like answering questions about a story, or more fun, like reading with a partner. Literacy centers teach students how to self manage their work and motivate themselves to do well and complete all of the activities.

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References

Click the "References" link above to hide these references.

Daniels, H., & Bizar, M. (1998). Methods that matter: Six structures for best practice classrooms. York, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (1996). Guided reading: Good first teaching for all children (grades K-2). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (2000). Guiding readers and writers grades 3-6: Teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Morrow, L. (1997). Literacy center: Context for reading and writing. York, ME: Stenhouse

Morrow, L. (2003). Organizing and managing the language arts block: A professional development guide. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Prevatte, L. (2007). Middle school literacy centers. Gainesville, FL: Maupin House.

Stone, S. J., (1996). Promoting literacy through centers {Electronic version}. Childhood Education, 72, 240-242.

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Click the "References" link above to hide these references. Daniels, H., & Bizar, M. (1998). Methods that matter: Six structures for best practice classrooms. York, ME: Stenhouse Publishers. Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (1996). Guided reading: Good first teaching for all children (grades K-2). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G.

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Reader's Workshop and Centers - Artifact 1

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Reader's Workshop and Centers - Artifact 1

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This is an article about a man named Richard Allington and his reading workshop method of "the six t's." He believes that timing, texts, teaching, talking, tasks, and testing are what help students to master reader's workshop. Reader's workshop involves a mini lesson is which a small group of students work with the teacher to read a short leveled book. Then, the students rotate through centers that involve individual reading activities to help students comprehend what they are reading.

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Reading Workshop: What It Looks Like in My Classroom | Scholastic

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View a video of Beth Newingham's reading workshop, get tips for workshop management, printables and more.

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This is a poster that shows some of the different strategies that students can use when trying to comprehend what they are reading. Questioning what you read and trying to make connections and predicting what will happen next are all great ways to make Shreveport you are understanding and interpreting what is happening in a story.

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This is a video of a teacher conducting a type of Reader'a workshop with her students. The strategies that she uses help her students to comprehend what they are reading.

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Reading Comprehension Strategies: Monitor and Clarify

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"Monitor and Clarify! If you don't understand, give it another try! " Front-load your students with this short video clip, which introduces monitoring and clarifying as a possible strategy to help readers to comprehend any text they might encounter.

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The article talks about 7 different comprehension strategies that can be used in a classroom. It discusses metacognition which is thinking about your thinking, teaching students to self monitor, using graphic organizers, asking and answering their own questions, summarizing, and recognizing story structure. M. Pressley, who studies comprehension strategies,  "pointed out that comprehension instruction involves a complex and long-term commitment to teach students the necessary strategies and to provide them with sufficient practice to use the strategies easily and the habits to use them frequently."
(http://s3.amazonaws.com/cmi-teaching-ld/alerts/7/uploaded_files/original_readingcompalert.PDF?1315240441)

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Adapted from Adler, C.R. (Ed). 2001. Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, pp. 49-54. National Institute for Literacy. Retrieved Nov. 1, 2007, from http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/reading_first1text.html.

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Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension

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Comprehension strategies are conscious plans - sets of steps that good readers use to make sense of text. Comprehension strategy instruction helps students become purposeful, active readers who are in control of their own reading comprehension. These seven strategies have research-based evidence for improving text comprehension.

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This is a poster that shows the different types of vocabulary words. Tier 1 vocabulary are everyday words that students use. Tier 2 vocabulary words are the more advanced synonyms of the everyday words. Tier 3 vocabulary words are words that specifically relate to a certain story or topic or unit. These words are necessary for the student to know so that they can comprehend what is being taught.

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This article talks about how people are never done learning vocabulary. People learn new words all the time so vocabulary development occurs throughout your entire life. It discusses different methods and strategies for teaching vocabulary to both English speaking students and ELL students.

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Consider some excellent lesson models for teaching vocabulary, explaining idioms, fostering word consciousness, instruction for English Language Learners, and mnemonic strategies.

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This article discusses how vocabulary development can occur during read alouds. Reading aloud to students helps to build their vocabulary because they are exposed to all of the descriptive language and new words that they do not know. It also talks about "incidental learning" which is when students learn new words without being explicitly taught what they mean.

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Reading storybooks aloud to children is recommended by professional organizations as a vehicle for building oral language and early literacy skills (International Reading Association & National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1998). Reading aloud is widely accepted as a means of developing vocabulary (Newton, Padak, & Rasinski, 2008), particularly in young children (Biemiller & Boote, 2006). Wide reading is a powerful vehicle for vocabulary acquisition for older and more proficient readers (Stanovich, 1986), but since beginning readers are limited in their independent reading to simple decodable or familiar texts, exposure to novel vocabulary is unlikely to come from this source (Beck & McKeown, 2007). Read alouds fill the gap by exposing children to book language, which is rich in unusual words and descriptive language.

Much is known about how children acquire new vocabulary and the conditions that facilitate vocabulary growth. Less is known about how teachers go about the business of teaching new words as they read aloud. The effortless manner in which skilled teachers conduct read alouds masks the complexity of the pedagogical decisions that occur. Teachers must select appropriate texts, identify words for instruction, and choose strategies that facilitate word learning. This study sheds light on the process by examining the strategies that teachers use to develop vocabulary as they read aloud to their primary classes.

What we know about vocabulary and read alouds

Reading aloud to children provides a powerful context for word learning (Biemiller & Boote, 2006; Bravo, Hiebert, & Pearson, 2007). Books chosen for readalouds are typically engaging, thus increasing both children's motivation and attention (Fisher, Flood, Lapp, & Frey, 2004) and the likelihood that novel words will be learned (Bloom, 2000). As teachers read, they draw students' attention to Tier 2 words-the "high frequency words of mature language users" (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002, p. 8). These words, which "can have a powerful effect on verbal functioning" (Beck et al., 2002, p. 8), are less common in everyday conversation, but appear with high frequency in written language, making them ideal for instruction during read alouds. Tier 1 words, such as car and house, are acquired in everyday language experiences, seldom requiring instruction. Tier 3's academic language is typically taught within content area instruction.

During read aloud interactions, word learning occurs both incidentally (Carey, 1978) and as the teacher stops and elaborates on particular words to provide an explanation, demonstration, or example (Bravo et al., 2007). Even brief explanations of one or two sentences, when presented in the context of a supportive text, can be sufficient for children to make initial connections between novel words and their meanings (Biemiller & Boote, 2006). Word learning is enhanced through repeated readings of text, which provide opportunities to revise and refine word meanings (Carey, 1978). These repetitions help students move to deeper levels of word knowledge from never heard it, to sounds familiar, to it has something to do with, to well known (Dale, 1965).

Incidental word learning through read alouds

Carey (1978) proposed a two-stage model for word learning that involves fast and extended mapping. Fast mapping is a mechanism for incidental word learning, consisting of the connection made between a novel word and a tentative meaning. Initial understandings typically represent only a general sense of the word (Justice, Meier, & Walpole, 2005) and are dependent on students' ability to infer meaning from context (Sternberg, 1987).

Extended mapping is required to achieve complete word knowledge, because "initial learning of word meanings tends to be useful but incomplete" (Baumann, Kame'enui, & Ash, 2003, p. 755). Through additional exposures, the definition is revised and refined to reflect new information (Carey, 1978; Justice et al., 2005).

Adult mediation in read alouds

The style of read aloud interaction is significant to vocabulary growth (Dickinson & Smith, 1994; Green Brabham & Lynch-Brown, 2002) with reading styles that encourage child participation outperforming verbatim readings. Simply put, "the way books are shared with children matters" (McGee & Schickedanz, 2007, p. 742).

High-quality read alouds are characterized by adult mediation. Effective teachers weave in questions and comments as they read, creating a conversation between the children, the text, and the teacher. To facilitate word learning, teachers employ a variety of strategies such as elaboration of student responses, naming, questioning, and labeling (Roberts, 2008).

Analysis of the literature on vocabulary learning through read alouds leads to two conclusions. First, adult mediation facilitates word learning (i.e., Justice, 2002; Walsh & Blewitt, 2006). Biemiller and Boote (2006) concluded that "there are repeated findings that encouraging vocabulary acquisition in the primary grades using repeated reading combined with word meaning explanations works" (p. 46).

Second, the relative effectiveness of different types of mediation remains less clear. Adult explanations are clearly linked to greater word learning, but it is not evident which aspects of the explanations are the critical components: the context, a paraphrased sentence, or even the child's interest in the story (Brett, Rothlein, & Hurley, 1996; Justice et al., 2005). It is also possible that active involvement in discussions is more salient than the type of questions posed (Walsh & Blewitt, 2006).

Setting for the study

This study was conducted at a small private school in the south central United States. Westpark School (pseudonym) is located in an ethnically diverse, middle class neighborhood in a suburb of a large metropolitan area. Four of the six primary teachers at Westpark agreed to participate in the study: one kindergarten, one first-grade, and two second-grade teachers. Cindy, Debby, Patricia, and Barbara (all pseudonyms) varied in their years of experience. Debby, who had previously retired from public school teaching, was the most experienced with more than 20 years in the classroom. Barbara was also a veteran with 10 years of experience. At the other end of the spectrum, Patricia was in her third year of teaching, and Cindy was in her internship year of an alternative licensure program.

Observations and interviews

To determine the teachers' practices for developing vocabulary within read alouds, the teachers' "own written and spoken words and observable behavior" (Bliss, Monk, & Ogborn, 1983, p. 4) provided the best sources of data. By constructing detailed, extensive descriptions of teacher practice within a single site, patterns of interaction and recurring themes can be identified (Merriam, 2001).

Carspecken's (1996) critical ethnography methodology was adapted and used to collect and analyze data. Observations were conducted to identify patterns of teacher-student interactions within readalouds. Following preliminary coding, individual interviews were conducted. The combined data provide a rich description of the pedagogical context of vocabulary development during read alouds.

Each teacher was observed four times over a sixweek period. The teachers were asked to include a readaloud during each observation and were informed that vocabulary development was the focus of this study. They were encouraged to "just do what they normally would do" when reading to their classes. The hour-long observations, scheduled at the teachers' convenience, were audiotaped and transcribed. Additional data, such as gestures, actions, and descriptions of student work, were recorded in field notes. Transcriptions and field notes were compiled in a thick record for analysis.

Following the observations and preliminary data coding, semistructured individual interviews were conducted. An interview protocol was developed and peer-reviewed. Topics for discussion included teaching experience, understanding of vocabulary development, use of read alouds, and instructional strategies. Lead-off questions and possible followup questions were generated to ensure that key areas were adequately addressed in the interview. Transcripts of the interviews were coded and the observation data were re-analyzed and peer-reviewed.

Vocabulary instruction during read alouds

The determination that a particular word in a readaloud is unfamiliar to students triggers a series of decisions. The teacher must decide both the extent and intent of instruction. How much time should be spent? What do students need to know about this word? Also, the teacher must select an appropriate instructional strategy from a wide range of possibilities. Which strategy will be most effective? What is the most efficient way to build word knowledge without detracting from the story? The teachers at Westpark used a variety of instructional strategies and levels of instructional foci in their read alouds.

Instructional focus

Categories of instructional focus emerged during data coding. Interactions centered on vocabulary differed in both extent and intent. The extent, or length, of interactions varied greatly. Typically, more instructional time was spent on words that were deemed critical to story comprehension or that students would be using in a subsequent activity. Pragmatic issues of time seemed to impact the extent of the interactions as well. The frequency and length of interactions tended to decrease through the course of the read aloud as the time allotted came to an end or children's attention began to wane.

Levels of Instruction

Level of instruction

Example

Explanation

Incidental exposure

I don't know what I would have done. Curiosity might have gotten the better of me.

Teacher infuses a Tier 2 word into a discussion during the read aloud.

Embedded instruction

And he's using a stick-an oar-to help move the raft [pointing to illustration].

Teacher provides a synonym before the target term oar, pointing to the illustration.

Focused instruction

Let's get set means let's get ready [elicit examples of things students get ready for].

Teacher leads a discussion on what it means to get set, including getting set for school and Christmas.

As seen in the table, three different levels of instruction were identified in the data: incidental exposure, embedded instruction, and focused instruction. Incidental exposure occurred during the course of discussions before, during, and after reading and resulted from teachers' efforts to infuse rich vocabulary into class discourse. For example, during one discussion, Cindy commented that the character was humble; in another that she came bearing gifts. Even though no direct instruction was provided for these terms, the intent is instructional since Cindy deliberately infused less common words to build vocabulary knowledge through context clues.

Embedded instruction is defined as attention to word meaning, consisting of fewer than four teacher-student exchanges. The teachers used embedded instruction when the target word represented a familiar concept for the students or when it was peripheral to the story. Information was provided about word meaning with minimal disruption to the flow of the reading. Typically, teachers gave a synonym or a brief definition and quickly returned to the text.

Focused instruction occurred when target words were considered important to story comprehension or when difficulties arose communicating word meaning. These interactions varied greatly in length from 4 to 25 teacher-student exchanges. Focused instruction often took place before or after reading. In most cases, the teachers had identified keywords that they felt were important for students to learn, warranting additional time and attention. Other times, focused instruction appeared to be spontaneous, triggered by students' questions or "puzzled looks" during the reading.

Instruction also varied in its intent. Teachers sought to develop definitional, contextual, or conceptual word knowledge (Herman & Dole, 1988) based on the specific situation. The learning goal shaped the nature of the interactions.The definitional approach was used when the underlying concept was familiar to the students or when the goal of instruction was to simply provide exposure to a word. Teachers either provided or elicited a synonym or phrase that approximated the meaning of the target word. This approach can be quite efficient, requiring little investment of time (Herman & Dole, 1988), thus allowing attention to be given to many words during the course of the read aloud.Teachers developed contextual knowledge when they referred students back to the text to determine word meaning. In such cases, the teacher might refer students back to the text or reread the sentence in which the target term occurred, helping students to confirm or disconfirm their thinking as in this example from Sarah, Plain and Tall (MacLachlan, 1985):

Cindy: Wooly ragwort. Where is that? [looks through text] What was wooly ragwort? Do you remember? It was part of Caleb's song.

Student: Yeah.

Cindy: It said-or Sarah said [reads from the text], "We don't have these by the sea. We have seaside goldenrod and wild asters and wooly ragwort."

Cindy's intent was for students to gain contextual knowledge using the information in the text to draw a tentative conclusion about word meaning. This example highlights one of the problems inherent with contextual strategies. Students, perhaps misled by the word sea in the text, suggested that wooly ragwort might be a seal, a bird, or a stone. Since they were unfamiliar with goldenrod and asters, they were unable to use these clues effectively to conclude that wooly ragwort was a plant. In this case, reminding students that the characters were picking wildflowers might have helped.

Learning a definition is seldom enough for children to develop deep word knowledge. Students need conceptual knowledge to make connections between new words, their prior experiences, and previously learned words and concepts (Newton et al., 2008). Cindy relayed an incident that taught her the importance of building conceptual knowledge when working with unfamiliar words. She had instructed her students to look up the word pollinate in the dictionary, write two or three sentences using the word, and then draw a picture illustrating its meaning. Unfortunately, the definition contained many words that the children did not know such as pistil and stamen. It was obvious when she reviewed their work that her students "didn't get it." Cindy realized that the definition was not sufficient for them to understand the concept of pollination.

Instructional strategies

Within the constructs described above, teachers employed a variety of instructional strategies. Nine categories of instructional strategies were identified during the observations:

1. Questioning

2. Providing a definition

3. Providing a synonym

4. Providing examples

5. Clarifying or correcting students' responses

6. Extending a student-generated definition

7. Labeling

8. Imagery

9. Morphemic analysis

Each of these strategies is described along with examples from the observation data.

Questioning. The most commonly used strategy was questioning. As the teachers read and encountered a word that they thought might be unfamiliar, they would simply stop and ask about it. This strategy usually occurred at the beginning of an instructional exchange. For example, after reading a section of Sarah, Plain and Tall (MacLachlan, 1985), Debby paused to ask her students about the word bonnet.

Debby: What's a bonnet? Do you all know what a bonnet is? What's a bonnet?

It is interesting to note that most of the teachers repeated the question several times in their initial utterance. This practice gives students time to formulate a response and also helps to establish a phonological representation of the new word, which is linked to word learning (Beck & McKeown, 2001).Questioning was also used to assess the students' existing word knowledge and to determine if students had effectively used context clues. Once a correct response was given, the exchange ended and the teacher resumed reading, as seen in the following sequence.

Debby: [reads from The BFG, Dahl, 1982] "So I keep staring at her and in the end her head drops on to her desk and she goes fast to sleep and snorkels loudly." What is that?

Student: Snores.

Debby: [resumes reading] "Then in marches the head teacher."

Alternatively, the teacher might provide the definition and ask students to supply the term. For example, in an after-reading discussion, Patricia asked students to recall the meaning of research to review or assess word learning.

Patricia: And what was it called when they look in the encyclopedia for information? What was that word, John?

This strategy can prove difficult. John and several of his classmates made incorrect responses before the correct answer was given.Providing the Definition. At times, teachers chose to provide a definition of a word. Word learning is enhanced when the explanation is made in simple, child-friendly language and the typical use of the word is discussed (Beck et al., 2002). This strategy was more commonly used in embedded instruction, as seen in the following example.

Barbara: [reading Duck for President (Cronin, 2008)] "On election day, each of the animals filled out a ballot and placed it in a box." Filled out a piece of paper. Wrote down who they wanted to vote-or who they wanted to win the election.

Barbara thought it unlikely that her students would be familiar with the word ballot, so she simply provided the definition in terms that kindergartners could understand.Providing Synonyms. An expedient means of providing word meaning is to state a synonym for the word. This method was used often in conjunction with recasting. That is, the teacher repeated a sentence, replacing the target word with a synonym, as seen in this example.

Barbara: Let's get ready. Let's get set.

This strategy was used extensively by Barbara to reinforce word meanings. For example, in a postreading discussion, she went back and reviewed key events in the story, simultaneously reinforcing the meaning of the phrase a bit. Although her focus was comprehension, the students heard the target word alongside a recasting with a synonym many times.

Barbara: So remember, a bit of blue means-how much is she going to add?

Student: Um-a little bit?

Barbara: A little bit, right. Just a small amount.

Barbara: So what happened here? They mixed red, they mixed blue-but it's still red. But why? Why is that Sarah?

Student: Because Sal adds a bit of blue.

Barbara: Right, just a little bit of blue. Just a tiny small amount. But that wasn't enough to change the color, was it?

Student: No.

Barbara: Just a little bit, right.

Providing Examples. Word knowledge can be extended and clarified through examples that may be provided by the teacher or elicited from the students. Students learn how the target word is related to other known words and concepts and are given opportunities to use the target words, further strengthening word learning (Beck et al., 2002). Teachers help students make their own connections when they ask for examples of how or where students have heard the word used, or remind them of situations in which they might have encountered a specific word.

As Patricia introduced a folk tale, she wanted her students to be prepared for the regional language they would hear. Although she did not use the word dialect, she explained that the language in the story would sound different to them and asked them for examples from their own experiences.

Patricia: This is a story from Appalachia and they use a different kind of language. Uh, they speak in English, but they kind of talk - what do you call it - country. Have you ever heard people talk like that?

Student 1: Yeah.

Student 2: My grandma.

Patricia: They use different little sayings and maybe have a different accent to their voice.

Student 3: But they're still speaking English.

Student 4: Like New York?

Student 5: England, England!

Student 6: Kind of like cowboys

Two students demonstrated their understanding of the concept as they generated their examples of New York and English accents. Another student made the connection between dialect and the cowboy lingo the class had learned during a recent unit of study.

Clarification and Correction. Teacher guidance is an important part of the instructional process (Beck et al., 2002). At times, students suggest definitions for target words that reflect misconceptions or partial understandings. The teacher must then either correct or clarify students' responses. When Patricia asked her students for the meaning of the word glared, a student gave a response that was partially correct, but missed the essence of the meaning. Patricia's additional question helped the students to refine their understandings.

Patricia: What does it mean to glare at somebody?

Student: Stare at them?

Patricia: Yeah. Is it a friendly stare?

Student: No-like [makes an angry face].

Extension. Due to the gradual nature of word learning, students may provide definitions that are correct but simplistic. The teacher may elect to extend the definition, providing additional information that builds on the student's response. For example, when a student stated that a bonnet was something you wear on your head, Debby extended the definition by providing some historical information and describing its function or use.

Debby: They wore it a lot on in the prairie days because they traveled a lot and they got a lot of you-those wagon trains and the stagecoaches and all were kind of windy. And so they would keep their bonnets on-to keep their head-their hair from blowing all over the place. Very, very common to use-to wear bonnets back then.

Labeling. Labeling was most often used with picture book read alouds. As the teacher named the unfamiliar item, she pointed to the illustration, connecting the word with the picture. Debby used this strategy while reading Leonardo and the Flying Boy (Anholt, 2007) to her second graders, pointing to the depictions of various inventions mentioned in the text. Thus, without interrupting the flow of the reading, word meaning was enhanced as children related novel terms with the visual images.

Barbara used the strategy extensively with her kindergartners. While reading Duck for President(Cronin, 2008), she pointed to the picture of the lawnmower as she described how a push mower is different from the more familiar power mowers. In another text, she reversed the process, providing the unfamiliar word raft for the boat pictured in the illustration.

Imagery. At times, teachers used facial expressions, sounds, or physical movements to demonstrate word meaning during the course of read alouds. Gestures of this type occurred more frequently when the teachers were reading aloud from chapter books, perhaps due to the lack of illustrations to provide such visual support. In some cases, imagery appeared to be intrinsic to expressive reading, rather than a deliberate effort to enhance word meaning. For example, Debby lowered her head and looked sad as she read about a character hanging his head in shame. Although her intent was to create a dramatic reading, the addition of the simple actions would also serve to facilitate word learning if that particular expression was unknown to students. In the following example, Debby provided two imagery clues as she read the text.

Debby: [reads text] "There was a hiss of wind." [extends /s/ to create a hissing sound] "A sudden pungent smell." [holds her hand up to her nose].

The use of imagery was more common with embedded instruction than with the longer focused instructional exchanges. Typically, imagery was used to enhance students' understanding of the text without impeding the flow of the story, although in some instances, imagery was used after discussion as a means of reinforcing the stated definition. At times, however, the use of imagery was a more integral part of instruction and was even used by the children when they could demonstrate a word meaning more easily than put it in words. When Patricia asked her students about the meaning of the word pout, several responded nonverbally, sticking out their lower lips and looking sad. Cindy used the strategy to help her students understand the meaning of the word rustle. Although a student provided a synonym, Cindy used imagery to extend word learning.

Cindy: What does rustle mean?

Student: Moves?

Cindy: Movement. OK. What's a rustle sound like? Somebody rustle for me. [students begin moving their feet under their desks] Maybe like [shuffles her feet], like really soft sounds. Like a movement. They're not meaning to make a noise, but they are just kind of moving around in the grass and stuff.

Morphemic Analysis. Even young children need to become aware of how word parts are combined to make longer, more complex words. Children can be taught to "look for roots and/or familiar words when trying to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word" (Newton et al., 2008, p. 26). Instructional strategies that draw children's attention to structural analysis are an appropriate choice when the meaning of the root word is familiar. In the exchange that follows, Barbara drew attention to the prefix re-, affixed to the familiar word count.

Barbara: [reads text] "Farmer Brown demanded a recount." A recount is-do you know what a recount is, Jeremy?

Jeremy: Uh, no.

Barbara: A recount is-he said he wanted the votes to be counted again.

Multiple Strategies. Teachers often employed more than one strategy during focused instruction. Although questioning was commonly used to initiate instruction, the target word must be either partially known or appear in a very supportive context for this strategy to be effective. Questioning can lead to guessing, so "it is important to provide guidance if students do not quickly know the word's meaning" (Beck et al., 2002, p. 43). In cases where questioning yielded either an incorrect response or no response at all, teachers added additional strategies, such as providing the definition, examples, or imagery.

Discussion

The practices of the teachers at Westpark are both unremarkable and remarkable. They are unremarkable in that their practices are consistent with the descriptions of read alouds in the literature. The teachers selected appropriate texts, words for instruction, and strategies to teach unknown words. They engaged in discussions before, during, and after reading the texts. Practitioners and researchers alike will find familiarity in the descriptions of the read alouds.

At the same time, their practices were remarkable. The intricate series of interactions between teacher, students, and text in a read aloud reflects countless instructional decisions, underlying pedagogical beliefs, and the unique quality of the relationship that has been built between teacher and students. The data obtained from the observations and interviews provide a window into the processes of the readaloud, providing brief but significant glimpses that have important implications. There were many similarities noted in the readaloud practices of the teachers in this study. With the exception of one performance-style reading, readalouds were interactive with the children actively engaged. Attention to word meaning occurred in every read aloud, providing evidence of the importance placed on vocabulary by the teachers. At the same time, individual differences were noted in the way the teachers went about developing word meaning. They varied in their use of incidental exposure, embedded instruction, and focused instruction. Cindy felt it was important for her students to be able to independently figure out word meaning from context. Consistent with that conviction, she most frequently used focused instruction with questioning and incidental exposures, with relatively few incidences of embedded instruction. In contrast, Barbara's pattern of interaction seems to reflect a preference for adult mediation over incidental learning, perhaps stemming from a belief that kindergarten children require more support to learn words during read alouds than their older schoolmates.

In addition to variance in the level of instruction used by the teachers, they also exhibited differences in their use of instructional strategies. Some differences were directly related to the type of book being read. For example, labeling was common when reading picture books, but was seldom used with chapter books. Differences in strategy use may also reflect the teachers' perceptions of appropriate practice for a specific grade. Both second-grade teachers stressed the importance of context clues in teaching vocabulary. This conviction was evident in their frequent use of questioning and context strategies. Other strategies were only used when an adequate response was not obtained, or when a more extensive definition was required for comprehension. The increased use of multiple strategies seen in kindergarten and first grade may reflect the teachers' beliefs that vocabulary development was an important goal apart from story comprehension.

There may be a more pragmatic explanation as well. When reading chapter books, the teachers seemed to have a set stopping point in mind each day. Completing a chapter on time appeared to take precedence over vocabulary instruction. Shorter picture books seemed to afford teachers more time to develop words and employ more strategies within instructional sequences. This would suggest that text selection impacts strategy use in addition to word selection.

Individual differences in read aloud practice are significant because they impact word learning. Even when scripts were used for read alouds, Biemiller and Boote (2006) found that "some teachers were more effective than others in teaching vocabulary to children" (p. 51). They concluded that intangible qualities such as the teachers' attitudes about and enthusiasm for word learning could be a factor in the number of words children learn. Given the degree of variance in word learning, evident when teachers were constrained by a script, it would certainly be expected that differences would only increase when teachers are free to conduct read alouds in their own manner.

Recommendations for practice

Read alouds are instructional events and require the same advance planning as any other lesson. Although the teachers in this study used many strategies identified in the literature as effective, additional time and thought in advance of the reading would have decreased confusions, used time more efficiently, and ultimately increased learning. Books should be selected with vocabulary in mind, previewed, and practiced. Attention to student questions about word meaning that arise during reading is important but may result in extended discourse on words that are not critical to comprehension and can detract significantly from the read aloud experience. Teachers should select target words in advance and plan instructional support based on those particular words. To increase word learning potential, the following five steps are recommended.

1. Identify words for instruction. To maximize learning, words targeted for instruction should be identified in advance. Examine the text for words that are essential for comprehension and Tier 2 words (Beck et al., 2002) that will build reading vocabulary. Look for words that are interesting or fun to say. Narrow the list down to four or five words to target for more in-depth instruction, giving priority to those needed for comprehension.

2. Consider the type of word learning required. Does the target word represent a new label for something familiar or an unfamiliar concept, or is it a familiar word used in a new way? Is the word critical for comprehension? These questions determine the appropriate level of instruction (incidental, embedded, or focused); whether instruction should occur before, during, or after reading; and strategy selection.

3. Identify appropriate strategies. Select strategies that are consistent with your instructional goals. When the novel word represents a new label for a familiar term, a synonym or gesture may be adequate. Providing examples and questioning might be used to develop a new concept prior to reading, with a simple definition included during the reading to reinforce learning.

4. Have a Plan B. If a strategy proves ineffective, be prepared to intervene quickly and provide correction or clarification. Have an easy-tounderstand definition at the ready. Be able to provide a synonym or an example.

5. Infuse the words into the classroom. Find opportunities for the new words to be used in other contexts to encourage authentic use and deepen word learning.

Final thoughts

Read alouds can be viewed as microcosms of balanced instruction. This balance does not result from adherence to a prescribed formula, but rather from countless decisions made by teachers. These instructional decisions affect the balance of direct and incidental instruction, between planning in advance and seizing the teachable moment, the quantity and quality of vocabulary instruction within the readalouds, and ultimately student learning. Teachers' perceptions of an appropriate balance are evident in their uses of read alouds, styles of reading, text selection, and in the way that vocabulary is developed.

The read aloud context has proven to be an effective vehicle for vocabulary instruction, but further research is needed to clarify the conditions that optimize word learning and to determine the most effective manner of adding elaborations and explanations during story reading without detracting from the pleasure of the reading itself. Identifying the practices that are commonly used by primary classroom teachers provides researchers with valuable information that can lead to the development of effective instructional strategies, inservice teachers' staff development, and preservice teacher training.

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Vocabulary Development During Read Alouds: Primary Practices

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Reading aloud is a common practice in primary classrooms and is viewed as an important vehicle for vocabulary development. Read alouds are complex instructional interactions in which teachers choose texts, identify words for instruction, and select the appropriate strategies to facilitate word learning.

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Types of Reading in the Classroom - Artifact 3

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Types of Reading in the Classroom - Artifact 3

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Shared Reading is when a teacher reads a book, usually a Big Book, to the the students. Sometimes the teacher does the reading and sometimes the students can read along with the teacher. Shared reading is an interactive experience for the students where the teacher can model how the book should be read.

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Types of Reading in the Classroom - Artifact 2

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Types of Reading in the Classroom - Artifact 2

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Guided Reading is usually used in Reader'a workshop. Fountas and Pinnell have a leveled reading system that classifies books by letters. The letters all correlate to a certain level of reading. Teachers choose specific leveled books and they work with the students in a small groups. The teachers then ask guiding questions to help the students comprehend the story that they are reading.

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Types of Reading in the Classroom - Artifact 1

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Types of Reading in the Classroom - Artifact 1

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Reading Aloud involves teachers reading aloud to students, students reading aloud to each other, and students reading aloud to themselves. Reading aloud helps students to make connections and it models fluency.

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Once upon a time, there was a grownup, a child, and a very good book.

Goodnight room
Goodnight moon
Goodnight cow jumping over the moon

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is a beloved children's bedtime story. Young children instantly relate to the struggle of the little bunny trying to get to sleep. Such stories are memorable because they move children and allow them to make personal connections that inspire them to think more deeply, to feel more wholeheartedly, and to become more curious listeners.

Many of us can remember from our own experience the precious time spent sharing and talking about stories. We remember relating to the friendship between a little girl and a teddy bear named Corduroy in the book of the same name by Don Freeman. We also related to the friendship between a spider and her pig friend, Wilbur, in E.B. White's Charlotte's Web.

We connected to the characters, their situations, or the settings in which the stories took place. Little did we know that when we were making such connections we were learning to think and act like good readers. Because reading aloud provides children with a model of confident and expert reading, many parents and teachers make it a vital part of their teaching practice.

Helping children understand what they read

This article praises the power of reading aloud and goes a step further to praise the power of thinking out loud while reading to children. It's an easy way to highlight the strategies used by thoughtful readers.

Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia, once told a seventh-grader, "A book is a cooperative venture. The writer can write a story down, but the book will never be complete until a reader, of whatever age, takes that book and brings to it his own story." Developing into this kind of reader requires children to become conscious of the multiple comprehension strategies that allow them to deeply understand and engage with the material.

This article focuses on three specific comprehension strategies:

Connecting books to children's own life experience

Connecting the books children are reading to other literature they have read

Connecting what children are reading to universal concepts

The first three sections of this article present current research and practices related to reading aloud. The last section shows how to apply this research to your work with children. We will discuss the important benefits of reading aloud; how to choose good books to read aloud; how to model or teach comprehension strategies as you read aloud; and examples of how to use these comprehension strategies with two sets of books.

The benefits of reading aloud

Reading aloud is the foundation for literacy development. It is the single most important activity for reading success (Bredekamp, Copple, & Neuman, 2000). It provides children with a demonstration of phrased, fluent reading (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). It reveals the rewards of reading, and develops the listener's interest in books and desire to be a reader (Mooney, 1990).

Listening to others read develops key understanding and skills, such as an appreciation for how a story is written and familiarity with book conventions, such as "once upon a time" and "happily ever after" (Bredekamp et al., 2000). Reading aloud demonstrates the relationship between the printed word and meaning - children understand that print tells a story or conveys information - and invites the listener into a conversation with the author.

Children can listen on a higher language level than they can read, so reading aloud makes complex ideas more accessible and exposes children to vocabulary and language patterns that are not part of everyday speech. This, in turn, helps them understand the structure of books when they read independently (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). It exposes less able readers to the same rich and engaging books that fluent readers read on their own, and entices them to become better readers. Students of any age benefit from hearing an experienced reading of a wonderful book.

Choosing good books

Children need to be exposed to a wide range of stories and books. They need to see themselves as well as other people, cultures, communities, and issues in the books we read to them. They need to see how characters in books handle the same fears, interests, and concerns that they experience (Barton & Booth, 1990). Selecting a wide range of culturally diverse books will help all children find and make connections to their own life experiences, other books they have read, and universal concepts. (Dyson & Genishi, 1994).

Children use real life to help them understand books, and books help children understand real life. Choose books that invite children to respond with enthusiasm and understanding. Look for books with rich language, meaningful plots, compelling characters, and engaging illustrations (Gambrell & Almasi, 1996).

Keep two simple questions in mind: Is it a good story? Is it worth sharing with my student? Other ideas to consider when selecting good books include:

Is the book worthy of a reader's and listener's time?

Does the story sound good to the ear when read aloud?

Will it appeal to your audience?

Will children find the book relevant to their lives and culture?

Will the book spark conversation?

Will the book motivate deeper topical understanding?

Does the book inspire children to find or listen to another book on the same topic? By the same author? Written in the same genre?

Is the story memorable?

Will children want to hear the story again?

"Think aloud" to model how to make connections

By modeling how fluent readers think about the text and problem solve as they read, we make the invisible act of reading visible. Modeling encourages children to develop the "habits of mind" proficient readers employ.

Helping children find and make connections to stories and books requires them to relate the unfamiliar text to their relevant prior knowledge. There are several comprehension strategies that help children become knowledgeable readers. Three are:

1. Connecting the book to their own life experience

2. Connecting the book to other literature they have read

3. Connecting what they are reading to universal concepts

4. (Keene & Zimmermann, 1997)

Helping children discover these connections requires planning and modeling. Parents and teachers can encourage and support thinking, listening, and discussion, and model "think-alouds," which reveal the inner conversation readers have with the text as they read (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000). Parents and teachers can point out connections between prior experiences and the story, similarities between books, and any relationship between the books and a larger concept.

Here are some examples of "think-alouds":

To make connections between the book and your own life, think aloud as you share. When you read the beginning of A River Dream by Allen Say, for example, you can comment, "This book reminds me of the time my father took me fishing. Have you ever been fishing?"

To make connections between related books with the same author or similar settings, characters, and concepts, say "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe is an African tale that is similar to the tale of Cinderella. Both stories are about sisters - one kind and the other spiteful. Do you know any stories about nice and mean sisters or brothers? Let's continue reading to find out other ways the stories are similar."

To connect a book to a larger world or universal concept, you could say to your student, "Stellaluna by Janell Cannon helps me understand that we are all the same in many ways, but it's our differences that make us special."

While fluent readers make these types of connections with ease, many readers do not. Children need to be shown this type of thinking and then asked to join in and participate in book conversations. This active involvement gives you, the teacher, a glimpse into each reader's thinking.

Putting it all together

We found that many children's books are based on classic or universal concepts that come up again and again: understanding ourselves, exploring relationships with families and friends, and investigating other communities, people, and ideas. These concepts help children better understand the social fabric that makes up our world.

One way to begin training parents in how to use "think alouds" is to bring a selection of books with a universal theme, like friendship or family traditions, and have parents read them aloud to one another. Prompt parents to think about the comprehension strategies they are using and to make the same connections they want children to make.

The following are two collections of books that lend themselves especially well to "think alouds."

Read aloud collection 1: We can be anything we want to be

This sample set of books communicates the idea that we can be anything we want. As children develop their sense of self, they often doubt their own abilities. These stories allow children to share such doubts and they model how children can reach their goals.

Concept: We can be anything we want to be.

Anchor book: Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman

Companion book: The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting

Companion book: City Green by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan

Age range: All

Amazing Grace opens the conversation. Begin by asking an open-ended question to help the listener make a connection between the book and his or her own life experience. For example, "Grace loves to pretend to be characters from stories. When you pretend, who do you like to be?"

The story then reveals that Grace wants to play Peter in her class's production of Peter Pan, but the other kids tell her she cannot - Peter's neither African American nor a girl. Model thinking out loud with a connection such as, "This reminds me of the time I was told I couldn't play soccer because I couldn't run fast enough." This helps draw the listener into the connection.

Ask the listener to share his own experiences, and to predict what Grace might do next. Like many children, Grace turns to her family. Nana, Grace's grandmother, takes her to see an African American ballerina performing Juliet from Romeo and Juliet. While this reference may be lost on some children, they will relate to the line from the story, "I can be anything I want?"

Children will be eager to predict the ending of the story - at the tryouts for the play, the class agrees that Grace is best - and will relate to the last line of the book, "If Grace put her mind to it, she can do anything she wants."

In The Wednesday Surprise, Anna and Grandma work every Wednesday night on a surprise for Dad's birthday. At the beginning of the story, ask your student to talk about hir or her experiences of attending surprise parties, being watched by a babysitter, having a grandparent who lives nearby, or simply reading books with someone - including with you.

As the story continues, model book-to-book connections. For example, "This story is about the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter. There were also a grandmother and granddaughter in Amazing Grace. Do you think these two stories will be alike? Let's keep reading to find out."

Encourage your student to think about what reading every Wednesday night might have to do with the surprise. The story reveals that Anna is teaching her grandmother how to read. Although Dad thinks he has received all his presents, Grandma gives him the best one of all - she reads aloud the stories that Anna has taught her.

Draw out the book-to-book connection: "When I read that Anna's grandmother wanted to be a reader, I think that the story is about how we can be anything we want to be. This reminds me of the story, Amazing Grace. Grace also believed she could be anything she wanted to be. Also, like that story, this one shows the relationship between a grandmother and a grandchild." Then follow i[ with an open-ended question to your student, "How is Anna's relationship with her grandmother different than Grace's?"

City Green is the last book in this set. Like the others, it is well written and supports the universal concept of self-determination.

When a young girl and her elderly friend create a community garden, an empty lot in an urban neighborhood is transformed into a wonderful place filled with flowers and vegetables. While many children may not have had experiences with community gardens, they may connect to the city scene and the idea of wanting the place you live to be beautiful.

By this time, your student might be eager to share her thoughts on book-to-book connections. All three stories depict a grandparent figure and a young girl. All three show how the two work together to get something done. In both Amazing Grace and City Green, the characters did not believe in something, but had a change of heart.

Connections between books and universal concepts are made during the reading of each story, and deepen after the last story. You might model how all three stories support the idea that we can be anything we want. "Grace wanted to be Peter Pan. Anna's grandmother wanted to be a reader. What did Marcy want to be in City Green? What would you like to be? Who will help you become what you want to be?"

Read aloud collection 2: Being a newcomer

This collection allows children to share their own stories of being new to a situation and to gain an awareness of the experiences of other newcomers. In addition, these stories allow you to discuss ideas about diversity and acceptance with your student.

Concept: Being a newcomer is filled with challenges and memories.

Anchor book: Painted Words/Spoken Memories by Aliki

Companion book: Going Home by Eve Bunting

Companion book: The Memory Coat by Elvira Woodruff

Companion book: My Freedom Trip by Frances Park and Ginger Park

Age range: Second grade and up

Painted Words/Spoken Memories is the anchor book for this theme. It is a picture book that shows two aspects of the immigrant experience, both from a child's perspective. The first story, "Painted Words," follows Marianthe or Mari, who is new to the United States, and her mother on the dreaded first day of school.

Some children have personal stories of being new to this country; others have stories of being new to a classroom, school, or neighborhood. These experiences will help relate what you read to the theme. Your conversations with your student may include topics such as moving to a new home, making new friends, or learning a new language.

In the "Spoken Memories" section of the book, Mari shares her life story through art. Encourage your student to share parts of his life story by modeling how to do so. "My mother used to tell me stories about what it was like to leave her home in Jamaica. Has your family always lived in this area or did they move here from some place else?" Try to be sensitive if the child is not comfortable sharing. Your student will see herself as a storyteller and immediately relate to this aspect of the book.

Like "Painted Words", Going Home is about a family leaving one country to live in another. Ask your student to make this connection between the two books. This book also presents the idea that parents may call one place home, and their children, another. When Carlos and his family go to his parents' village for Christmas, he realizes the sacrifices his parents have made so their children may have better lives.

Pause to listen to your student's thoughts about work, family values, and so on. Reread the lines from "Spoken Memories": "People were leaving our poor village. They were going to a new land, hoping for a better life." This line will emphasize the connection between the two books.

Compared to the first two, the remaining books in this collection may be more abstract (for some children). The Memory Coat begins at the turn of the century in the characters' native country and ends in the United States. The character, Grisha, who has lost his parents, will not give up the tattered coat his mother made him before her death.

Unless your student has a personal experience with immigration, it will be the coat that he or she relates to. Your student will likely make a connection between a sentimental or favorite item he or she could not part with and the character's need to hang onto the coat.

My Freedom Trip is the last companion book in this collection. Unlike the other books, the characters in this book do not immigrate to the United States. They flee North Korea for a better life in South Korea.

Your student may want to compare and contrast this story with the others for a richer understanding. Explore the idea that many people leave their countries or communities for a better life, and a better life does not necessarily have to take place in the United States. You can also ask, "What are the things that make life better?" Through this rich discussion, you can help your student make connections between the books and the main concept of the collection - being a newcomer is filled with challenges and memories.

Final thoughts

Developing comprehension strategies through reading aloud requires planning and setting up an environment of thinking, listening, and discussion. You will soon learn how to follow your student's lead: modeling connections, asking questions, encouraging discussion, and using literature to prompt personal storytelling.

Become comfortable with slight diversions. Through conversations and diversions, children make meaning and share connections that are relevant to them. Reading aloud to children gives them the opportunity to try on the language and experience of others. It helps them make connections with their lives, and informs their view of themselves and others. Thinking aloud helps children learn how to use comprehension strategies that are important when reading independently.

Sample read aloud collections to try

Family traditions (Age range: all)

Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco

Dumpling Soup by Jama Kim Rattigan

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

Friendship (Age range: all)

Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes

Henry Hikes to Fitchburg by D. B. Johnson

Matthew and Tilly by Rebecca C. Jones

Henry and Amy (Right-Way-Round and Upside-Down by Stephen Michael King

Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber

Immigration (Age range: second grade and up)

Painted Words/Spoken Memories by Aliki

Going Home by Eve Bunting

How Many Days to America? A Thanksgiving Story by Eve Bunting

My Freedom Trip by Frances Park and Ginger Park

The Memory Coat by Elvira Woodruff

The wonders of literacy (Age range: second grade and up)

More Than Anything Else by Marie Bradby

Papa's Stories by Dolores Johnson

Amber on the Mountain by Robert Johnston

Tomás and the Library Lady by Pat Mora

Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco

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Once upon a time, there was a grownup, a child, and a very good book. Goodnight room Goodnight moon Goodnight cow jumping over the moon Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is a beloved children's bedtime story. Young children instantly relate to the struggle of the little bunny trying to get to sleep.

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This is a poster of a checklist for fluency that students can reference while they read. Students should read accurately, with appropriate speed and expression, while following the rules of punctuation. This reminds students of what they should be doing while reading.

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This article defines fluency as "reading words with no noticeable cognitive or mental effort." It talks about the fluidity and automaticity that students should have when they read. Word recognition should come naturally to students and it is important for teachers to work on that skill.

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Fluency (automaticity) is reading words with no noticeable cognitive or mental effort. It is having mastered word recognition skills to the point of overlearning. Fundamental skills are so "automatic" that they do not require conscious attention.

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"Literacy is defined as the ability to read to speed, accuracy, and proper expression." This article shows examples of what fluency problems look like, and then it provides ways for both teachers and parents to help. E. H. Hiebert's, a theorist who studied fluency, research "addresses how fluency, vocabulary, and knowledge can be fostered through appropriate texts." (http://textproject.org/about/textproject-board-members/ehh/)

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Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their reading is smooth and has expression.

Children who do not read with fluency sound choppy and awkward. Those students may have difficulty with decoding skills or they may just need more practice with speed and smoothness in reading. Fluency is also important for motivation; children who find reading laborious tend not to want read! As readers head into upper elementary grades, fluency becomes increasingly important. The volume of reading required in the upper elementary years escalates dramatically. Students whose reading is slow or labored will have trouble meeting the reading demands of their grade level.

What the problem looks like

A kid's perspective: What this feels like to me

Children will usually express their frustration and difficulties in a general way, with statements like "I hate reading!" or "This is stupid!". But if they could, this is how kids might describe how fluency difficulties in particular affect their reading:

I just seem to get stuck when I try to read a lot of the words in this chapter.

It takes me so long to read something.

Reading through this book takes so much of my energy, I can't even think about what it means.

A parent's perspective: What I see at home

Here are some clues for parents that a child may have problems with fluency:

He knows how to read words but seems to take a long time to read a short book or passage silently.

She reads a book with no expression.

He stumbles a lot and loses his place when reading something aloud.

She reads aloud very slowly.

She moves her mouth when reading silently (subvocalizing).

A teacher's perspective: What I see in the classroom

Here are some clues for teachers that a student may have problems with fluency:

Her results on words-correct-per-minute assessments are below grade level or targeted benchmark.

She has difficulty and grows frustrated when reading aloud, either because of speed or accuracy.

He does not read aloud with expression; that is, he does not change his tone where appropriate.

She does not "chunk" words into meaningful units.

When reading, he doesn't pause at meaningful breaks within sentences or paragraphs.

How to help

With the help of parents and teachers, kids can learn strategies to cope with fluency issues that affect his or her reading. Below are some tips and specific things to do.

What kids can do to help themselves

Track the words with your finger as a parent or teacher reads a passage aloud. Then you read it.

Have a parent or teacher read aloud to you. Then, match your voice to theirs.

Read your favorite books and poems over and over again. Practice getting smoother and reading with expression.

What parents can do to help at home

Support and encourage your child. Realize that he or she is likely frustrated by reading.

Check with your child's teachers to find out their assessment of your child's word decoding skills.

If your child can decode words well, help him or her build speed and accuracy by:

Reading aloud and having your child match his voice to yours

Having your child practice reading the same list of words, phrase, or short passages several times

Reminding your child to pause between sentences and phrases

Read aloud to your child to provide an example of how fluent reading sounds.

Give your child books with predictable vocabulary and clear rhythmic patterns so the child can "hear" the sound of fluent reading as he or she reads the book aloud.

Use books on tapes; have the child follow along in the print copy.

What teachers can do to help at school

Assess the student to make sure that word decoding or word recognition is not the source of the difficulty (if decoding is the source of the problem, decoding will need to be addressed in addition to reading speed and phrasing).

Give the student independent level texts that he or she can practice again and again. Time the student and calculate words-correct-per-minute regularly. The student can chart his or her own improvement.

Ask the student to match his or her voice to yours when reading aloud or to a tape recorded reading.

Read a short passage and then have the student immediately read it back to you.

Have the student practice reading a passage with a certain emotion, such as sadness or excitement, to emphasize expression and intonation.

Incorporate timed repeated readings into your instructional repertoire.

Plan lessons that explicitly teach students how to pay attention to clues in the text (for example, punctuation marks) that provide information about how that text should be read.

More information

Find out more about fluency issues with these resources:

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Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately.

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A sound chart is a simple poster that can be hung in a classroom in order to help students with their phonics. Since they will already know the sounds, this chart has both a picture and the letter. This will support students when they need to make the connection between sound and symbol. It also has sound blends for sounds such as "th" and "ch." It goes further than just the individual letters so that students can see what other sounds look like as well.

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This is a phonics dance that relates a book to a song. There is a book that the teacher will read/sing to the students before hand, relating the different letter sounds to the letters and a word that starts with that letter. The teacher will have to model the song and dance multiple times in order to teach it to the students. This video shows the students performing the song and dance with the teachers in the background. After the students learn the song, this is a very helpful tool because it is a fun kinesthetic way that teaches them the letters. It also allows them use their verbal language because it is both a dance and the song. Relating phonics to a song and dance will help students be able to memorize the different letter sounds, letters, words that go with the letters, and compound sounds such as digraphs and blends.

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Mrs. Amor's Kindergarten Class Phonics Dance- Lincoln Elementary School

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This article defines phonics as "the connection between graphemes (letter symbols) and sounds." The article focuses on phonics and teaching children how to read. This is different than phonemic awareness because it is more about reading the words on the page by correlating the sound to the letter. Phonics is very important for students learning to read because they need to be able to identify the different word sounds before they can match them to their corresponding letter or letters. The article discusses the importance of the alphabet because before the alphabet is even used, students are solely relying on sounds. The introduction of the alphabet allows students to make the connection between the sound and the symbol. Jeanne Chall, who was a theorist that studied phonics, believed that phonics were "superior to whole word instruction." (http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1819/Chall-Jeanne-1921-1999.html)

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Reading Worksheets, Spelling, Grammar, Comprehension, Lesson Plans

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Phonics is one of the primary building blocks of reading. Without an understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds, reading cannot occur. This multifaceted connection between print and pronunciation is an important component of any instructional program in reading because it provides readers with tools for discovering new written words.
What is phonics?
Simply put, phonics is the connection between graphemes (letter symbols) and sounds. Because we have been readers for a good portion of our lives this relationship seems apparent and common sense. However, in reality there is no natural connection between words and their meanings. For example, there is nothing innately "cup-like" about the word "cup". Even more, the written letters making up the word "cup" do not reflect anything about an actual cup. The word and its written form are agreed upon by English speakers and thus must be learned in order to communicate.

At the very core of phonics lies the alphabet. In order to master phonics a person must master the alphabet. Letters then need to be connected to their corresponding sounds. As we know as English speakers, this is easier said than done. Many letters can represent a number of different sounds. Thus learning phonics is an ongoing process for a developing reader.
Elements of Phonics
The correspondence between letters and sounds presents itself in several different ways. While letters remain the same, sound comes in different units: syllables, onsets and rimes and phonemes. Each syllable is made up of an onset, a rime or a combination of both. An onset is any consonants presented before a vowel in a syllable. For example, in the word "star"/st/ is the onset. Conversely a rime is any vowel and consonant(s) following an onset. In "star"/ar/ is the rime. Phonemes are the small units of sound that make up a word. While "star" consists of only one syllable, it contains four different phonemes: /s/ /t/ /a/ /r/.
Role of Phonics in Reading
As you may have noticed phonics and phonemic awareness (the understanding that words are comprised of small segments of sound) are intimately connected. Phonics relies heavily on a reader's phonemic awareness. The reader must not only understand that words are made up of phonemes (small units of sound), he must also know a number of phonemes. Since a reader's primary phonemic awareness develops through speaking and listening, most children come to reading with many phonemes stored in their knowledge banks. Phonics instruction connects these phonemes with written letters so that they can transfer their knowledge of sounds to the printed word. This is why phonics instruction is an important component of early reading education.

The goal of phonics instruction is to help readers quickly determine the sounds in unfamiliar written words. When readers encounter new words in texts they use the elements of phonics to decode and understand them. There are a number of ways in which phonics can be applied to reading. Synthetic phonics builds words from the ground up. In this approach readers connect letters to their corresponding phonemes (sound units) and then to blend those together to create a word. For example, if a reader encountered the word "apple" and did not recognize it, he would sound out each segment of the word (/a/ /p/ /l/) and then blend these sounds together to say the entire word. Analytic phonics, on the other hand, approaches words from the top down. A word is identified as a whole unit and then its letter-sound connections are parsed out. This approach is especially helpful when a reader comes to words that cannot be sounded out (such as "caught" and "light") and reinforcement of sight words. Analogy phonics uses familiar parts of words to discover new words. When applying analogy phonics to the word "stun" a reader notices that the second half of the word is the same as other familiar words ("sun" and "fun"). She can then apply her knowledge of this phoneme to easily decode the word.
Impact of Phonics on Reading Ability
Phonics instruction has a strong impact on the reading abilities of young children. Those receiving phonics instruction in the early grades (K-1) showed significant gains in their reading comprehension and spelling abilities and moderate growth in oral reading skills. Studies show that children in grades 2-6 also show growth in these areas, but theirs is not as considerable as that seen in primary grade students. At the upper grades, phonics instruction has a positive impact on the reading abilities of disabled, low achieving non-disabled students as well as those from low socio-economic backgrounds. These groups of children showed growth in their abilities to decode and spell new words. However, their reading comprehension skills were not affected by phonics instruction.

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Phonics is one of the primary building blocks of reading. Without an understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds, reading cannot occur. This multifaceted connection between print and pronunciation is an important component of any instructional program in reading because it provides readers with tools for discovering new written words.

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This picture depicts a chart of the different steps that teachers can use to build on a student's phonemic awareness. It starts with the kinesthetic awareness of sounds, and ends with the rhyming, as shown in the video in Artifact 2. This chart is a more organized and spread out depiction of the video in Artifact 2. It shows the individual steps of how to gradually increase phonemic awareness in a classroom.

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This video discusses how students should have a foundation of phonemic awareness before the letters are introduced to them. It talks about a kinesthetic approach, and how the mouth moves when they make the different letter sounds. The students can feel the movements of their lips and the vibrations of their throats to see how each sound is made differently. The video then goes on to discuss compound words and different kinesthetic ways to glue separated words back to together. It also brings up single syllable and multi-syllable words and how students can phonemically break them down. Word families and rhyming are then brought up, to show students how words can sound the same, but with a different beginning sound.

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Reading & Spelling Teacher Training Section

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Remediation Plus Phonemic Awareness Training Part

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Denise Eide discusses developing Phonemic Awareness in students and how it forms the essential building blocks of reading and fluency. For more information on the Logic of English, please visit us online at http://www.LogicOfEnglish.com.

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This article discusses the importance of a student's ability to "hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds." It then gives different phonemic strategies and instructional techniques for teachers to use to help there students. The page also provides different literacy statistics and grade leveled literacy activities and assignments. Marie Clay, a theorist who studies phonemic awareness, designed the Reading Recovery Lesson and how phonemic and phonological awareness are two elements that build a student's ability to read.

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First of all, Phonemic awareness is not phonics. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds-phonemes--in spoken words. Before children learn to read print, they need to become more aware of how the sounds in words work. They must understand that words are made up of speech sounds, or phonemes (the smallest parts of sound in a spoken word that make a difference in a word's meaning).

Why Phonemic Awareness Is Important

Phonemic Awareness Can Be Developed Through Activities

Identify and categorize sounds

Blend sounds to form words

Delete or add sounds to form new words

Substitute sounds to make new words

Phonemic Awareness Instruction Is Most Effective When--

Students are taught to manipulate phonemes by using alphabet letters.

Instruction focuses on only one or two rather than several types of phoneme manipulation.

Phonemic instruction is taught in Kindergarten or First Grade.

Phonemic Awareness Instruction Basics

Children who cannot hear and work with the phonemes of spoken words will have difficult time learning how to relate these phonemes to graphemes (A letter of an alphabet, or all of the letters and letter combinations that represent a phoneme, as f, ph, and gh for the phoneme- American Heritage Dictionary) when they see them in written words. Early readers can show they have phonemic awareness in several ways:

recognizing which words in a set of words start with the same sound

isolating and saying the first or last sound in a word

combining or blending the separate sounds in a word in order to say the word

breaking up or segmenting a word into its separate sounds.

Examples of Phonemic Awareness Skills

Blending: What word am I trying to say? Nnnnn-oooo--t.

Segmentation (first sound isolation): What is the first sound in not?

Segmentation (last sound isolation): What is the last sound in not?

Segmentation (complete): What are all the sounds you hear in not?

"One of the most compelling and well-established findings in the research on beginning reading is the important relationship between phonemic awareness and reading acquisition." (Kame'enui, et. al., 1997)

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First of all, Phonemic awareness is not phonics. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds-phonemes--in spoken words. Before children learn to read print, they need to become more aware of how the sounds in words work.

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Early Childhood Literacy Development - Artifact 3

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Early Childhood Literacy Development - Artifact 3

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Early childhood literacy development is not just about reading. Literacy includes reading and how children decode words, language and how they can talk about or retell a story, and movement and how they write words or act out a story. Literacy encompasses how a student understands and interprets what they are reading, or what is being read to them. It helps them to build their vocabulary and learn new things about the world. Literacy is important for students who do not know how to read or write as well, because it gives the opportunity to hear a story and gain important oral language and social skills.

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Early Childhood Literacy Development - Artifact 2

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Early Childhood Literacy Development - Artifact 2

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This video talks about the importance of reading to a child. Dr. Morrow brings up different reading strategies that both parents and teachers should use in order to promote early childhood literacy development. She says that the reader should start with a picture walk to gain the students' interests and see what the story will be about. The children should also be given the opportunity to use oral language to interpret the story, whether it be through acting out or retelling. Teachers or parents need to model different real life scenarios for children so that they can start to build their own language and develop socially. She discusses the importance of using the preschool standards that New Jersey has in order to put an emphasis on instruction in early childhood. Dr. Morrow believes that early literacy is the most important aspect in literacy development.

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Dr. Lesley Morrow - Literacy Development

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Dr. Lesley Morrow details her work in early literacy development and the role of parents and teachers in educating the child. Dr. Morrow is a professor at Rutgers University's Graduate School of Education where she is coordinator of the literacy program.

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Early Childhood Literacy Development - Artifact 1

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Early Childhood Literacy Development - Artifact 1

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This article discusses the importance of childhood literacy and why it is important to start as early as possible. It lists different teaching strategies such as Storybook Reading and emergent reading and writing. The article also puts an emphasis on what students "should" be doing and "should" be learning by the time they reach the kindergarten age. Then, the article moves into written expression