Accelerating Language Skills and Content Knowledge through Shared Book Reading

Students in early childhood settings don't always get the benefits of shared book reading—a strategy proven to boost language skills and content knowledge. Prepare the next generation of teachers to make the most of shared reading with this accessible textbook, a complete guide to building vocabulary-rich science and social studies lessons and discussions around storybooks and informational texts. Field-tested with children in high-poverty school settings, this instructional approach is valuable for any young learner at risk for comprehension difficulties.

This concise book presents the authors' proven, empirically based "Project WORLD" (Words of Oral Reading and Language Development) framework for integrating shared book reading into the classroom. Offering both big-picture curriculum design principles and specific instructional strategies, this text gives teachers the know-how they need to accelerate language skills, vocabulary development, and high-priority science and social studies content knowledge for all young children.

Ideal for preservice teacher education courses and in-service professional development!

GET TEACHERS READY TO:

• Use the most effective shared book reading and vocabulary practices
• Teach new vocabulary while introducing key science and social studies concepts
• Align vocabulary instruction with content standards and objectives
• Stimulate and expand children's oral language abilities via interactive book discussions
• Implement a framework tested in collaboration with Head Start and preschool teachers
• Choose their own books and vocabulary words to teach
• Design lesson plans that get results
• Build a strong foundation for children's future success in science and social studies
• Advance learning with proven teaching techniques, such as multiple exposures to words and connected concepts and strategies
• Successfully teach both English language learners and native English speakers

PRACTICAL MATERIALS: A step-by-step Shared Book Reading Instructional Unit Planner, sample vocabulary words with child-friendly definitions, real-life classroom vignettes with embedded instructional techniques and suggestions, examples of appropriate storybooks and informational texts paired by science or social studies themes, and tools to support teachers' content vocabulary instruction.

See how this product helps strengthen Head Start program quality and school readiness.

Dr. Pollard-Durodola is a professor in the Early Childhood, Multilingual, and Special Education Department of the School of Education at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Her scholarship attends to the prevention/intervention of language and literacy difficulties (Spanish/English) among students at risk of academic difficulties. Central to her scholarship is developing intervention curricula that build on validated instructional design principles, evaluating their impact on the language and reading development of struggling readers, and investigating how to improve the quality of language/literacy practices of teachers and parents of English learners. She is interested in bridging research and practice by examining the feasibility/usability of research-based practices. She has published in peerreviewed journals such as Exceptional Children; Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness; The Elementary School Journal; Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools; and Bilingual Research Journal.

Susan B. Neuman, Ed.D., is a professor in educational studies specializing in early literacy development. Previously, she directed the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. Her research and teaching interests include early childhood policy, curriculum, and early reading instruction from prekindergarten to Grade 3. In her role as Assistant Secretary, she established the Reading First program and the Early Reading First program and was responsible for the implementation of all activities in Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Act.