50 Early Childhood Literacy Strategies - Softcover

Beaty, Janice J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0131181548 ISBN 13: 9780131181540

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2004

Synopsis

Answering the question of how to teach literacy to young children, this thoroughly child-oriented handbook compiles fifty practical strategies that will engage young children in reading and writing and encourage their emerging literacy skills. The choice of strategies is firmly grounded in current research into the brain mechanisms that underlie the skill of reading. In addition, the focus on words—hearing, speaking, writing, and reading them—creates an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand approach that builds on young children’s' eagerness to communicate with others concerning their thoughts and ideas about the world they live in. The book features seven handy checklists at the end of several chapters—Book Handling Behavior, Developing Eye-hand Coordination with Cooking Tools, Early Childhood Writing Behaviors, Independent Skills Checklist, Reading Behaviors Checklist, Speaking Behaviors Checklist, and Caption Writing Progress that highlight a variety of practical observation vehicles for use with young children. It also covers the use of materials, content, and activities found in most early childhood classrooms. For pre-service, pre-school and primary grade teachers.

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Here is the answer to the early childhood teacher's familiar dilemma: what to do about teaching literacy to young children. 50 Early Childhood Literacy Strategies presents an easy-to-use, easy-tounderstand approach involving young children's own emergence into the world of reading and writing. Teachers and student teachers will quickly learn what picture books and activities to use with children, how to use them, and how children can benefit from their use. They will learn what to expect as young children's writing emerges from scribbles, to pictures, to real words. And finally they will come to grips with the concept of emergent literacy as it appears in preschool children and evolves into conventional literacy as it is taught in elementary school.

Our ideas on how children learn to read and write are continuing to change as advances in neuroscience give us new understandings of the human brain mechanisms underlying reading. This text takes advantage of this new knowledge by presenting strategies that speak to the way children learn. These strategies are tied to the ordinary contents and activities of the early childhood classroom, i.e., books, blocks, chalk, crayons, computer, cooking, dolls, dramatic play, easel painting, finger painting, flannel boards, hammering, puppets, scissors, singing, and storytelling. But the contents and activities are given a "literacy twist" that helps teachers set them up for children's development of early reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Each strategy begins with a literacy concept that briefly but concisely explains the topic. At the heart of each strategy are the practical literacy activities to be used with children, often involving hands-on story activities, drawing, writing, singing, and pretending with character dolls, toy animals, and themselves. The theme throughout the text focuses on words: hearing words, speaking words, writing words, and reading words—the basis of early literacy. At the same time, the strategies focus on children and what they can do to develop these literacy skills. There are more than 50 ways.

Each young child comes to the literacy table as an individual who joins the feast at different times, at different levels, and with an appetite appropriate only to him- or herself. With 50 different dishes set before them, children and teachers too can pick and choose what works best for them. Good appetite!

KEY FEATURES

• Strategies are arranged alphabetically for easy selection. On the inside covers is a table of the strategies grouped by category.
• Most of the strategies are tied to children's picture books at the early childhood level. More than 200 of the finest books have been selected and described or listed within the strategies.
• The activities described have been chosen as models for your easy use, as well as to emulate with your own ideas.
• Assessment of children's literacy progress can be partially accomplished with the following developmental checklists: Book Handling Behaviors, Developing Eye-Hand Coordination with Cooking Tools, Early Childhood Writing Behaviors, Independent Skills, Reading Behaviors, Speaking Behaviors, and Caption Writing Progress.

USING THIS BOOK

50 Early Childhood Literacy Strategies can be used by itself as a handy activities book by teachers, student teachers, and volunteers. It can also be used in any early childhood methods and materials course, children's literature or language course, or any reading or literacy course. College students especially appreciate activity books like this for use in their student teaching or practicum experiences. In addition, it can be used as a supplement to early literacy textbooks such as the author's Early Literacy in Preschool and Kindergarten (with L. Pratt), or other textbooks by the author such as Skills for Preschool Teachers and Building Bridges with Multicultural Picture Books.

About this edition

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0131181548
• ISBN 13: 9780131181540
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 158