Tuesday Tip–Early Literacy
January 4, 2011
The American Library Association will be releasing updated about Every Child Ready to Read in the upcoming weeks and I thought it would be great to review Early Literacy skills before the new information is released.
There are six main Early Literacy skills that librarians can help parents develop to ensure a child’s success in reading: Print Motivation, Vocabulary, Print Awareness, Narrative Skills, Letter Knowledge, Phonological Awareness. Today, more about…
Vocabulary: Knowing the name of things. A well-developed vocabulary will give a child better understanding and world knowledge. It will also provide a child the ability to sound out words as he or she is learning to read. Children who know and understand lots of words become better readers.
- Parents should constantly talk to their children, describing what they are doing as they are doing it. There is no minimum age, and parents should start when their children are born.
- Introduce as many words as possible to your children. It is important to repeat them as well. Storytime is a great venue for introducing new words to children.
- Share with parents the concept of explaining the meaning of a new word when coming across it while reading.
- Reading books together is a great way to learn new vocabulary; books use three times as many rare words as the average person uses in conversation. (Think of “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” by Mo Willems. Instead of “bird,” the author uses “pigeon.”)
- Expand the description. Don’t just say, “Look a bird!” Try, “Look at that grey pigeon!” Similarly, if a child says, “A bird!” reply, “Yes! That’s a brown hawk flying in the sky.”