Essential Early Literacy Teaching Strategies

Young children need writing to help them learn about reading, and they need reading to help them learn about writing, and they need oral language to help them learn both.

Effective early literacy instruction provides children with developmentally appropriate settings, materials, experiences, and social support that encourage early forms of reading and writing to develop into conventional literacy. There are eight strategies that are proven most effective in teaching children:

1. Rich teacher talk: Engage children in rich conversations in large or small groups or one on one settings.
2. Storybook reading: Read aloud to the class once or twice a day, exposing children to different kinds of reading materials.
3. Phonological awareness activities (phonemic awareness): Provide activities that increase children's awareness of the sounds of language.
4. Alphabet activities: Engage children with materials that promote identification of the letters of the alphabet such as ABC books, blocks and puzzles, etc.,
5. Support for emergent reading: Encourage children to attempt to read books and other types of print by providing a well stocked library center, functional and play-related print, etc.,
6. Support for emergent writing: Encourage children to use emergent forms of writing, such as scribble writing, random letter strings, and invented spelling, by providing a writing center, shared writing demonstrations, play-related writing materials, etc.,
7. Shared book experience: Read books to children, and point to the print as it is read. While introducing and reading the text, draw children's attention to basic concepts of print such as left-to-right, top-to-bottom, book concepts, etc.,
8. Integrated, content-focused activities: Provide opportunities for children to investigate topics that are of interest to them. The objective is for children to use oral language, reading, and writing to learn about the world.

Kinderchat: Supporting Struggling Students

Kinderchat is a group of teachers from across the world that come together to discuss topics that directly effect children and the education process. Kinderchat meets every Monday night on Twitter, and is easy to follow. If you miss any day you can go to their archives and read through topics that interest you!

The chat I read was about how to support struggling students. As a teacher when identifying a struggling student, it is important to identify what kind of struggle your student is going through. There are two main types of struggle: destructive and productive. 

A destructive struggle: 

+ leads to frustration

+ makes learning goals feel hazy and out of reach

+ feels fruitless 

+ leaves students feeling abandoned and on their own 

+ creates a sense of inadequacy 

A productive struggle:

+ leads to understanding
+ makes learning goals feel attainable and effort some worthwhile 
+ yields results
+ leads students to feelings of empowerment and efficacy
+ creates a sense of hope

If a student is going through a destructive struggle it is important to intervene immediately because this student truly needs your help. It is also to important to understand why the student is struggling with completing a task or understanding a concept. If a student is going through a productive struggle this isn't necessarily such a bad thing because the student grapples with the issues and is able to come up with a solution themselves, while developing persistence and resilience in understanding the goal of a topic. 

As a teacher it is best to know how and why a student is struggling and when the best time to intervene is. By getting to know your students and how they learn you can help them through their academic struggles.

Take Home Literacy Adventure Packs

Parents who read to their children everyday and talk about what they are reading together promote a joy of reading and literacy achievement. One way a teacher can encourage reading at home with families and help support the role of parents as educators is through take home literacy packs. The great thing about literacy packs is that they can be personalized by different teachers to fit the interests of different students. The books can be fiction or non-fiction accompanied by interactive activities that children can bring home to share with their families. The books and activities can then be placed in a zip top bag and sent home with students. The teacher can have a multitude of different literacy packs that he/she rotates around the classroom. When the children and their families complete the pack, they can send it with their student back to school for another classmate to have.

A take home literacy adventure pack program can have many important benefits. It can promote family literacy by showing the value of learning and literacy when families can read to their children. It also provides families with the resources needed to promote reading readiness. If there are English Language Learners in the classroom it can promote English language development by having picture books that can be read aloud to the children with their families. It also helps build family values by encouraging a fun ritual of children and parents coming together to read and do activities together.