This article discusses one component of writing mechanics — finesse with sound/symbol correspondence. It describes a method, called Memory Foundations for Reading, that can be used by a parent with a single child or a teacher with a group and which helps children use many senses to recall letter sounds.
A veteran teacher describes how she used visualization, Google images, video, and Skype to build background knowledge and enrich her students’ classroom read aloud of a fiction book about ospreys.
Here are some activities designed to be fun for both you and your toddler as well as to help your young child (ages 1 to 3) gain the skills needed to get ready for school.
Through children’s books, interviews with Black children’s authors and illustrators, classroom activities, online history resources, and powerful documentaries, we celebrate and learn about the lives and contributions of African Americans.
The powerful combination of systematic vocabulary instruction and expanded learning time has the potential to address the large and long-standing literacy gaps in U.S. public schools, particularly with low-income students and English language learners.
A third grade teacher describes her approach to helping students comprehend informational text. Her strategies include teaching text features and creating text-dependent questions for close reading.
One potential way of fostering empathy in young children is through picturebooks. Learn about empathy, theory of mind, the development of emotional intelligence, and the role of picturebooks in the classroom.
Understanding text structure is key to reading comprehension and also helps strengthen writing skills. In this section you’ll learn about the 5 most common text structures and how to help students learn to identify and use text structures in their reading and writing.
There are many people at your child’s school who are there to help your child learn, grow socially and emotionally, and navigate the school environment. Here’s a selected list of who’s who at your school: the teaching and administrative staff as well as organizations at the district level. You might want to keep this list handy all year long.
Early education expert Rebecca Palacios and offers information on the following components of a pre-K ELL program: language instruction, curriculum, professional development, and family outreach.
Learn about three common terms and descriptions related to reading instruction that may help give you a better understanding of what’s happening in your child’s classroom and what it means for your young learner.
Phonological and phonemic awareness are important pre-reading skills, related to the ability to hear, identify, and play with the sounds in spoken language — including rhymes, syllables, and the smallest units of sound (phonemes). Children with strong phonological awareness skills are ready to become readers.
The framework provided in this article for viewing students’ science writing offers teachers the opportunity to assess and support scientific language acquisition.
Teaching kids to identify text structure is a really good idea. However, focusing those efforts on how the content is structured will usually be more beneficial than on the common rhetorical structures.
Through children’s books, interviews with children’s authors, activities, and educational resources, we celebrate and learn about Native American and Alaska Native history and culture.
