Early Literacy

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What is Early Literacy?

"Early Literacy is what children know about reading and writing before they actually learn to read and write. To clarify, early literacy is not the teaching of reading. It is building a foundation for reading so that when chidren are taught to read, they are ready."

"Reading readiness starts at birth, when the parent or caregiver begins talking with the baby." This slide show from SlideShare tells more about early literacy.

from Early Literacy Storytimes @ your library

Six Early Literacy Skills

The six early literacy skills based on research conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development:
1. Print Motivation
2. Phonological Awareness
3. Vocabulary
4. Narrative Skills
5. Print Awareness
6. Letter Knowledge

Information for the blog posts below comes from Early Literacy Storytimes @ your library by Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting and Pamela Martin-Diaz.

Blog Posts

Alisa Burch

Letter Knowledge

Letter Knowledge, one of the six early literacy skills, is knowing that letters are different from each other, that the same letter can look different and that each letter has a name and is related to sounds. If a child cannot tell one letter in the alphabet apart from another, he or she will have a difficult time learning the sounds the letters represent. Check out this slide show on letter knowledge from SlideShare. Share… Continue

Posted by Alisa Burch on November 30, 2008 at 6:58pm

Alisa Burch

Print Awareness

Print Awareness, one of the six early literacy skills, means noticing print, knowing how to handle a book and understanding how to follow the written words on a page. Children need to know that print has meaning, that people read the book's text not just look at pictures and that English books read left to right, front to back. Here is another slide show from SlideShare about print awareness. Have you worked with children on… Continue

Posted by Alisa Burch on November 30, 2008 at 6:47pm

Alisa Burch

Vocabulary

Vocabulary, one of the six early literacy skills, refers to knowing the names of things and concepts, feelings and ideas. Children who have heard a lot of different words and have a large vocabulary find it easier to learn to read. A child's vocabulary is dependent upon the amount of time parents and caregivers spend talking with him or her. If a word is in a child's spoken vocabulary it is easier for a child to relate the printed word with the spoken word. Here is a great… Continue

Posted by Alisa Burch on November 30, 2008 at 6:30pm

Alisa Burch

Narrative Skills

Narrative Skills, one of the six early literacy skills, is the ability to describe things and events and to tell stories. Retelling a story, sequencing events that happened during the day and talking with children about the stories you read together help them develop narrative skills. This slide show from SlideShare tells more about narrative skills. What activites would you use to improve or develop children's narrative skills?

Posted by Alisa Burch on November 30, 2008 at 6:30pm

Alisa Burch

Phonological Awareness

Phonological Awareness, one of the six early literacy skills, is the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words. Activities that emphasize phonological awareness include rhyming, breaking words into syllables and hearing beginning sounds in words. Here is a slide show about phonological awareness from SlideShare. In the video section of this site there is a photostory of the "Say it Slow, Say it Fast" game… Continue

Posted by Alisa Burch on November 30, 2008 at 6:16pm

Alisa Burch

Print Motivation

Print Motivation, one of the six early literacy skills, refers to a child's interest in and enjoyment of books. This simply means making reading fun. Parents, caregivers and librarians need to make reading experiences pleasant. Forcing a child to sit still during a reading session may leave a child with a negative feeling toward books and reading. Let children ask questions. Read in a comfortable setting and at a time when the child is interested and not stressed. Here is a nice… Continue

Posted by Alisa Burch on November 30, 2008 at 5:30pm

Sample Handouts for Preschool Storytimes

Here are sample handouts for preschool storytimes from the Harrison County Public Library in Corydon, IN. Most of the information in the handouts about early literacy is borrowed from the book Early Literacy Storytimes @ your library written by Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting and Pamela Martin-Diaz and from the ALA Every Child Ready to Read @ your library training manual. The fingerplays and songs come from many various source books and websites. These handouts are meant as a guide and may be modified or customized to fit your programs' needs. You will find them here in PDF format (this changed the spacing and made the fingerplay section run into a second page) and also as published web pages in Google Docs.

Here are Google Docs followed by a PDF version link:
Bears bear pdf.pdf
Christmas christmas pdf.pdf
Cows cows pdf.pdf
Dinosaurs dinosaurs pdf.pdf
Eric Carle Eric Carle pdf.pdf
Farm farm pdf.pdf
Wolf wolf pdf.pdf

Storytime Handout Template

Click here to view a template for storytime handouts in Google Docs.
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhmwnp5c_17f5jw2cdz
 
 
 

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