Preschool teachers and early childhood professionals know that storybook reading is important, but they may not know how to maximize its benefits for later reading achievement. This indispensable guide presents research-based techniques for using reading aloud to intentionally and systematically build children's knowledge of print. Simple yet powerful strategies are provided for teaching preschoolers about book and print organization, print meaning, letters, and words, all while sharing engaging, commercially available books. Appendices include a detailed book list and 60 reproducibles that feature activities and prompts keyed to each text.

What motivates us to learn? We all want our students to be engaged learners, but we often struggle with getting them excited about and responsible for their own learning. In Engaging Children, Ellin Oliver Keene explores the question: What can we do to help students develop internal motivation or, better yet, engagement? Differentiating between compliance, participation, motivation, and engagement, she shows how to develop and recognize true student engagement in your classroom and help students take more responsibility for their learning. Explore the conditions where student-driven engagement flourishes. As a teacher, instructional coach, or principal you will learn to cultivate an environment for increasing student engagement. You will also explore four pillars of engagement that provide a framework for considering what it means to be engaged: Intellectual urgency: The compelling drive we experience when we choose to invest time and effort in learning; using questions to propel our learning forward. Emotional resonance: The ability to describe when a concept is imprinted on our mind and our heart; experiencing a strong emotional connection to what we learn or read. Perspective bending: An awareness of how others' knowledge, emotions, and beliefs shape our own; adjusting our thinking when challenged and relishing the opportunity to impact others with our ideas. The aesthetic world: A recognition of moments when we find something uniquely beautiful, captivating, hilarious, or meaningful; discussing a book, an illustration, a painting, or an idea that seems to have been created just for us. Truly engaged children are more likely to remember and reapply what they learn. Engagement provides authentic motivation for students and helps them become citizens who act on their learning for the betterment of the world. With Ellin's guidance, you'll discover how to help all children uncover their drive for deeper learning. Join the Engaging Children Facebook group: facebook.com/groups/EngagingChildren

This new edition incorporates many insights and strategies the authors have learned while working extensively with teachers to implement the project approach. Since the popular first edition was published in 1989, the authors have continued to help teachers around the world understand the benefits of this approach. Katz and Chard discuss in great detail the philosophical, theoretical, and research bases of project work. The typical phases are presented and detailed suggestions for implementing each one are described. Using specific examples, this book clarifies and articulates the process and benefits of the project approach. These specific examples outline how children's intellectual development is enhanced. Years of working with teachers and young children from preschool to primary age provide the authors with first hand experience for employing the project approach. Helpful guidelines will aid teachers in working with this approach comfortably in order to gain the interset of children and in order for those to grow and florish mentally.

Recipient of Creative Child Magazine's 2018 Preferred Choice Award and 2018 Travel Fun of the Year Award, the My Take-Along Tablet: Printing Activity Pad is an expert-tested, trusted resource for learning engagement. The My Take-Along Tablet: Printing for ages 5+ helps children learn how to print through tracing and writing letters and sentences. Designed to keep kids entertained, this early learning education resource is filled with colorful activity pages. Learning how to print can be done anywhere with My Take-Along Tablet: Printing! Packed with fun ways to learn, this children’s handwriting book reinforces letter formation with colorful activities for tracing and writing. My Take-Along Tablet: Printing is the perfect resource to give children the head start they need to develop strong printing skills. From early math and language arts to mazes and doodles, My Take-Along Tablets help children improve a variety of skills in engaging ways. These Brighter Child(R) activity books are filled with colorful pages and captivating activities to keep kids focused while they develop fundamental skills.

The tools you need to teach literacy are all around you! Everyday Literacy has over 100 activities that use ordinary objects such as cereal boxes, traffic signs, and toy labels to help children build essential reading skills.

Parents and early childhood teachers know that reading aloud to children is important, but the specific things that adults do while reading with children that make reading a powerful way to improve children’s language, vocabulary, and early literacy skills can remain a mystery. Read with Me makes those behaviors clear and easy to implement for parents and teachers by outlining the ABCs of Active Reading (Ask Questions, Build Vocabulary, and Connect to the Child’s World). Active Reading is an approach to reading aloud with young children that is supported by decades of research. Read With Me provides parents and teachers with the knowledge and skills to engage young children (age 2 to 5) in Active Reading with examples, clear explanations, and ideas for making one-on-one or small group read aloud sessions a powerful way to build children’s early literacy and language skills, all while creating a lifelong love of reading.

This book describes effective, engaging ways to build young children's print concepts and alphabetic knowledge, which are crucial for both reading and writing development. Presenting shared reading, shared writing, and targeted instructional activities, each chapter features helpful classroom vignettes, a section debunking myths about preschool literacy, and Ideas for Discussion, Reflection, and Action. Strategies are provided for creating print-rich classroom and home environments and differentiating instruction for diverse students, including English language learners. The book also discusses how to assess preschoolers' reading and writing progress. Reproducible checklists and parent handouts can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.

Now in its third edition, this book shows teachers how to incorporate the Project Approach into early childhood curricula, engaging children intellectually and heightening their capacities for thinking, hypothesizing, reasoning, and expressing their natural curiosity. Why has the Project Approach proven to be so successful for engaging young children intellectually and supporting their capacities to think, predict, hypothesize, reason, and express their natural curiosity? Simply put, because project work provides meaningful contexts in which young learners can readily apply and grasp the usefulness of their growing academic skills. This book provides a brief history and overview of the Project Approach and a thorough explanation of how to implement this method for best effect in a wide range of educational contexts. Intended for those who work with young children as well as caregivers and students in training to do so, readers will understand how to apply this approach in order to gain the interest of children and facilitate their mental growth. The book's chapters articulate the process and benefits of the project approach, identify and detail the three typical phases of project work, and provide specific suggestions for implementing each stage. The importance of documentation of the children's work to record the story of their investigation and findings is also discussed.

Based on the idea that children are experts of their lives, this pioneering book suggests that children's active participation in applied linguistics research can open up exciting new possibilities. It is essential reading for researchers in second language education, as well as anyone who wants to conduct research involving children.