Early Reading First and Beyond : A Guide to Building Early Literacy Skills

Foster young children′s early literacy skills and build a strong foundation for reading!

Emphasizing the importance of providing emerging readers with the skills for future literacy success, Early Reading First and Beyond is a comprehensive resource that helps early childhood educators develop children′s readiness for kindergarten by providing creative learning experiences based on the most current literacy research.

In reader-friendly terms, Susan E. Israel illustrates how to create rich learning environments, provide activities to engage young minds, and promote the important language, cognitive, and early reading skills necessary to encourage learners′ self-confidence. Teachers will find proven practices, assessment tools, guidelines for meeting individual learning needs, examples, advice for professional development sessions, and connections to International Reading Association standards.

This book presents essential information for understanding and implementing the core components of an Early Reading First program:

• Designing early childhood programs of excellence
• School-parent partnerships
• Oral language development
• Phonological awareness
• Print awareness
• Alphabetic knowledge
• Early metacognitive thinking

Advocating strong connections between home and school, this accessible text offers teachers, early childhood education specialists, literacy coaches, administrators, and parents the appropriate tools to make a significant, positive difference in young children′s futures.

Susan E. Israel is an independent researcher, writer, and literacy consultant and currently serves as President and Director of Reading Alliance for Catholic Education in Indiana, where she works with small and large corporations to enhance literacy products. Her special research interests are in the areas of reading comprehension, writing, and child-mind development as it relates to literacy processes. Israel served as assistant professor at the University of Dayton, and in 2005 she was awarded the University’s Panhellenic Council Outstanding Professor Award. She has also served on the national faculty at the University of Notre Dame Summer Program, where she taught reading and language arts methods. A former elementary teacher, she was awarded the 1998 teacher-researcher grant from the International Reading Association (IRA). Having been an active member of the IRA for over a decade, she has served on a number of IRA committees and interest groups and recently was president of the History of Literacy Special Interest Group. In addition, she has been active with the National Reading Conference. Israel has authored, coauthored, or edited over 15 books and volumes and is the senior editor of the recently published comprehensive volume, Handbook of Research on Reading Comprehension (Israel & Duffy, 2008). Other recent publications include Teachers Taking Action: A Comprehensive Guide to Teacher Research (with Cynthia Lassonde, 2008), Reading First and Beyond (with Cathy Collins Block, 2005), Collaborative Literacy (2006), Shaping the Reading Field (2007), Poetic Possibilities (2006), and Quotes to Inspire Great Reading Teachers (2006).