I Am Reading: Nurturing Young Children's Meaning Making and Joyful Engagement with Any Book

It’s vital that we support young children’s reading in ways that nurture healthy reading identities, that foster an attraction to books and a love of reading, and that teach them how make meaning in any text they choose, whether or not they can read the words.
―Kathy Collins and Matt Glover

What do we see when young children interact with books before they can read the words?

Kathy Collins and Matt Glover see real reading, characterized by purposeful meaning-making and opportunities for reading growth and language development.

“One of our biggest hopes,” write Kathy and Matt, “is to help you see and value all of the powerful work young children do as readers.” With I Am Reading you’ll see that fostering what little ones do before they can read the words is important early instruction.

Kathy and Matt show how to nurture, nudge, and instruct young readers to make meaning in any text, whether or not they are reading the words. They share:

• observation guides for children reading any kind of book
• specific descriptions of language and independence development
• sample reading conferences and whole-class minilessons
• suggestions for creating reading opportunities in preschool and reading workshops in K–1
• action plans to get you going
• 25 online video clips of children making meaning and teachers supporting them.

I Am Reading pairs two important voices in early literacy to remind us that we’re teaching children, not reading levels. “In the rush toward ever higher reading levels in the early years,” write Kathy and Matt, “we may fail to value the strategy use and high-level thinking children do before they are reading conventionally.” Join Kathy and Matt and look anew at your young readers so you can provide the kind of support that gets them off to a great start.

Kathy Collins is coauthor with Matt Glover of the Heinemann title I Am Reading. Kathy is the beloved author of Growing Readers as well as Reading for Real. She presents at conferences and works in schools all over the world to support teachers in developing high-quality, effective literacy instruction in the elementary school grades. Kathy has worked closely with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University, and she was a first grade teacher in Brooklyn, New York.

Matt Glover has been a teacher, principal, and consultant for over 35 years. He is the author of the Heinemann titles Craft and Process Studies: Units That Provide Writers with Choice of Genre and Engaging Young Writers, as well as the co-author of Already Ready, Projecting Possibilities for Writers, I Am Reading, and Watch Katie and Matt...Sit Down and Teach Up, a video-enhanced e-book. An international literacy consultant, Matt works in schools with teachers on topics related to nurturing writers of all ages, early reading, oral language composition, and supporting children’s intellectual development.