This practical text offers guidance on how to provide explicit, systematic instruction on language and literacy to English learners.

Early Literacy Fundamentals offers powerful activities to develop the skills, concepts, and knowledge underpinning early literacy. It builds on the personal, social, emotional, creative, and physical development skills that are a traditional part of early childhood programs. Based on the latest research, the book recognizes that oral language is the bedrock upon which formal learning is based and that literacy: begins at birth and is part of an ongoing developmental process; develops concurrently with oral language development; is enhanced by adult models who expose children to print and how it works; is based on a systematic relationship between letters and sounds; is rooted in and connected to the child's culture and communication patterns. Each of the activities, organized around a seven-strand framework that reflects successful early childhood practices, is presented along with background research and practical advice on helping children initiate their own constructive play. The types of activities teachers will find include: learning activities appropriate to a young child's age and stage of development; quality pre-school activities that boost all children's language and literacy skills, and build a strong foundation for reading and literacy success in school; opportunities for children to use oral language in a variety of ways as they play and experiment with words; adult-initiated whole-group activities that can be extended into child-initiated play. Early Literacy Fundamentals provides a comprehensive overview of the language and literacy experiences children need, and helps teachers give them a strong base on which future reading and learning success can grow.

This fully revised fourth edition outlines seven strands of practice for three to six-year old children, designed to develop the skills, concepts and knowledge underpinning literacy in the early years. Accompanying each strand are clear explanations of the research and reasoning on which they are based. Practical advice on helping children transfer their learning into their own child-initiated activities, to build a genuine and solid foundation for literacy, is integral to the book.

"This core text introduces pre-service teachers to the essential components of literacy and describes how to effectively deliver explicit, evidence-based instruction on each component"--

It’s not hyperbole to conclude that in today’s world, information literacy is essential for survival and success; and also that, if left unchecked, the social consequences of widespread misinformation and information illiteracy will only continue to grow more dire. Thus its study must be at the core of every education. But while many books have been written on information literacy, this text is the first to examine information literacy from a cross-national, cross-cultural, and cross-institutional perspective. From this book, readers will learn about information literacy in a wide variety of contexts, including academic and school libraries, public libraries, special libraries, and archives, through research and literature that has previously been siloed in specialized publications; come to understand why information literacy is not just an issue of information and technology, but also a broader community and societal issue; get an historical overview of advertising, propaganda, disinformation, misinformation, and illiteracy; gain knowledge of both applied strategies for working with individuals and for addressing the issues in community contexts; find methods for combating urgent societal ills caused and exacerbated by misinformation; and get tools and techniques for advocacy, activism, and self-reflection throughout one’s career.

This guide reveals the benefits of using multisensory instruction in any classroom. After they review 50 years of research and experience with those with learning disabilities, the authors explain how and why multisensory methods work.'

Grade level: k, t.

A devastatingly large number of people in America cannot read as well as they need for success in life. With literacy problems plaguing as many as four in ten children in America, this book discusses how best to help children succeed in reading. This book identifies the most important questions and explores the authoritative answers on the topic of how children can grow into readers, including: What are the key elements all children need in order to become good readers? What can parents and caregivers provide all children so that they are prepared for reading instruction by the time that they get to school? What concepts about language and literacy should be included in beginning reading instruction? How can we prevent reading difficulties starting with infants and into the early grades? What to ask school boards, principals, elected officials, and other policy makers who make decisions regarding early reading instruction. You'll find out how to help youngsters build word recognition, avoid comprehension problems, and moreâ€"with checklists of specific accomplishments to be expected at different ages: for very young children, for kindergarten students, and for first, second, and third grade students. Included are 55 activities to do with children to help them become successful readers, a list of recommended children's books, and a guide to CD-ROMs and websites. Great strides have been made recently toward identifying the best ways to teach children to read. Starting Out Right provides a wealth of knowledge based on a summary of extensive research. It is a "must read" for specialists in primary education as well as parents, pediatricians, child care providers, tutors, literacy advocates, policy makers, and teachers.

This book serves as a succinct resource on the cognitive requirements of reading. It provides a coherent, overall view of reading and learning to read, and does so in a relatively sparse fashion that supports retention. The initial sections of the book describe the cognitive structure of reading and the cognitive foundation upon which that structure is built. This is followed by discussions of how an understanding of these cognitive requirements can be used in practice with standards, assessments, curriculum and instruction, to advance the teaching of reading and the delivery of interventions for students who encounter difficulties along the way. The book focuses on reading in English as its exemplar, but shows how its framework can be adapted to understand the broad cognitive requirements for reading and learning to read in any phonologically-based orthography. It provides a way for reading professionals to think about reading and its development and gives them mechanisms that, coupled with such understanding, will help them link what children must know to become strong readers to what teaching can best provide through the competent use of available tools. In this way, the book will help reading professionals be both efficient and effective in what they provide all their students and be much better equipped to support those students who struggle to learn to read.

While most children learn to read fairly well, there remain many young Americans whose futures are imperiled because they do not read well enough to meet the demands of our competitive, technology-driven society. This book explores the problem within the context of social, historical, cultural, and biological factors. Recommendations address the identification of groups of children at risk, effective instruction for the preschool and early grades, effective approaches to dialects and bilingualism, the importance of these findings for the professional development of teachers, and gaps that remain in our understanding of how children learn to read. Implications for parents, teachers, schools, communities, the media, and government at all levels are discussed. The book examines the epidemiology of reading problems and introduces the concepts used by experts in the field. In a clear and readable narrative, word identification, comprehension, and other processes in normal reading development are discussed. Against the background of normal progress, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children examines factors that put children at risk of poor reading. It explores in detail how literacy can be fostered from birth through kindergarten and the primary grades, including evaluation of philosophies, systems, and materials commonly used to teach reading.