Kidwatching: Documenting Children's Literacy Development

This smart, practical guidebook shows preschool, kindergarten, and primary teachers how to refine their literacy evaluation practices through careful kidwatching. By observing and recording children's literacy development, teachers also develop new understandings of the ways children think and learn. Ultimately, through kidwatching, teachers plan curriculum and instruction that are tailored to individual strengths and needs.

Gretchen Owocki and Yetta Goodman are the perfect pair to guide teachers through the kidwatching process. Yetta coined the term in her seminal article in 1978 and has spearheaded the use of miscue analysis as a window into the reading process. Gretchen, Yetta's former graduate student, is an outstanding educator and published author on the ways young children develop literacy. Together, they have written a book that will serve as a professional development tool as well as a kidwatching handbook. In each chapter, they provide

• a clear description of how kidwatching enhances teaching and learning
• specific guidelines and suggestions for kidwatching
• practical tools and resources to be used in documentation and analysis
• empowerment for children―a chance to evaluate and revalue themselves by partnering with teachers to document and reflect on their knowledge.

Kidwatching provides a framework for engaging in systematic, yet very personalized, data collection in all areas of literacy. High-quality kidwatching gives teachers the information they need to teach effectively and to share detailed, factual information with families and administrators. Kidwatching can also be used to strengthen school reform, to develop a common set of principles and practices that are in tune with local needs and interests. Learn to watch kids and see how effective you can be on these fronts.

Yetta Goodman is credited with popularizing the concept of kidwatching. She is Regents Professor at the University of Arizona College of Education’s Division of Language, Reading, and Culture. A book of her writings, Notes from A Kidwatcher: Selected Writings of Yetta M. Goodman, was edited by Sandra Wilde and published by Heinemann in 1996. She was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from Hofstra University.

Gretchen Owocki powerfully demonstrates the importance of bringing meaningful instruction to not only traditional reading-instruction topics like comprehension, but also to contemporary issues such as Common Core and RTI. In the bestselling titles The Common Core Writing Book, 6-8; The Common Core Reading Book, 6-8; The Common Core Lesson Book, K-5; The Common Core Writing Book, K-5; and The RTI Daily Planning Book, she masterfully breaks down instructional issues and strategies into manageable chunks that help teachers differentiate instruction, meet curricular goals, and improve as practitioners.

For more than 15 years, she has helped teachers find researched-based practices that improve learning by letting students experience curriculum as part of their own development. In other Heinemann titles such as Comprehension; Make Way for Literacy; and Time for Literacy Centers, she shares teaching that engages students through authentic, meaningful tasks and challenges them to grow as readers and writers. A professor at Saginaw Valley State University, Gretchen is a Heinemann Professional Development Services provider.

» Read Gretchen's article "Setting a Course to Maximize the Potential of CCSS" in the Heinemann PD Journal.