Environmental Print in the Classroom : Meaningful Connections for Learning to Read

Environmental print - print found in a child's natural environment - serves an important part of a child's beginning literacy development. This book offers a research-based rationale for using environmental print as an instructional literacy tool and practical suggestions for implementing this approach in your kindergarten classroom.

Authors Jennifer Prior and Maureen R. Gerard guide you in enriching your existing curriculum with environmental print connections that reinforce the reading skills children are learning in school. The chapters show you how to create a print-rich play environment and implement teacher-facilitated activities, ultimately leading to students - independent use of environmental print games. You will learn how to:

-Enrich students
-play with environmental print play props and play activities
-Create an environmental print curriculum that incorporates purposeful instruction
-Implement print games and activities using environmental print.
-Use environmental print to assess students' print awareness and sight-word vocabulary.
-Help parents assist their children in learning to read using environmental print.

The appendixes include descriptions of the authors' own studies on environmental print and reactions from classroom teachers who participated in the studies.

Although this book focuses primarily on kindergarten students, it also offers ideas for preschoolers and more advanced learners. Use this book to provide your students with practical, engaging literacy instruction using environmental print.

The International Reading Association is the world's premier organization of literacy professionals. Our titles promote reading by providing professional development to continuously advance the quality of literacy instruction and research.

Research-based, classroom-tested, and peer-reviewed, IRA titles are among the highest quality tools that help literacy professionals do their jobs better.

Some of the many areas we publish in include:

-Comprehension
-Response To Intervention/Struggling Readers
-Early Literacy
-Adolescent Literacy
-Assessment
-Literacy Coaching
-Research And Policy

Early childhood educators, media specialists, and staff developers will learn how to use a print-rich classroom as a literacy tool. --School Library Journal