Instructor: Kathleen Evans [e-mail]

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Instructor Kathleen Evans katsevans_at_aol.com
Fostering Emergent Literacy in LibrariesAn
Infopeople WorkshopSummer 2004
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This Workshop Is Brought to You By the Infopeople
Project

• Infopeople is a federally-funded grant project
  supported by the California State Library. It
  provides a wide variety of training to California
  libraries. Infopeople workshops are offered
  around the state and are open registration on a
  first-come, first-served basis.
• For a complete list of workshops, and for other
  information about the Project, go to the
  Infopeople Web site at infopeople.org.

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Introductions

• Name
• Library
• Position
• A favorite memory from childhood of being read to
  or about reading

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Agenda

• Promoting early literacy behaviors
• The components of the reading process
• Selecting books
• Planning and practicing read alouds
• Successful strategies to use with groups of young
  children

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Goals for Today

1. An understanding of the roots of literacy in
   early childhood
2. Suggestions for ways to make library story hours
   more powerful influences in developing early
   literacy
3. A set of criteria for selecting books which
   promote early literacy
4. Methods for promoting primary and second language
   literacy
5. Ways to support parents as childrens first
   literacy teachers

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What Age Are We Talking About?

• Toddlers
• Preschool children
• Children in the primary grades (K-2)
• Struggling readers of all ages
• Readers who love stories

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The Development of Literacy

• As children hear more and more stories, and
  they become aware of people reading and
  responding to print, they are motivated to do
  likewise.
• Reading to, with and by Children
• Margaret Mooney (p. 8)

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Literacy Develops in Young Children

• Through conversation
• Through play
• Through interactions with text

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Discussion Question

• What behaviors in infants
• and toddlers are the foundations of literacy?

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Observable Literate Behaviors

• Pretend reading or writing
• Scribbling and reading
• Pointing at pictures and talking about them
• Book Handling
• holding a book right side up
• turning pages one by one
• beginning at the front of book
• Reading signs and labels
• Manipulation of letters (magnetic etc.)

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Why Read Out Loud to Children?

• Children enter school with a larger vocabulary
• Have had extensive experience discussing
• books
• Have incorporated early reading strategies
• Have greater phonemic and phonological awareness

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Evaluating Books For Read Aloud

• Age appropriateness
• Quality and size of illustrations
• Connections to childrens lives
• people that look like them
• events that they relate to
• cultural issues

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More Criteria for Selecting Read Alouds

• Language at childrens receptive language level
• Repetitive pattern
• Rhyme
• Engaging theme

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Criteria for Selecting Books for English
Language Learners

• Simple and clear illustrations
• Simple grammatical structures
• High interest content
• Refrains and repetition
• Opportunities to practice through oral
  participation

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Exercise 1

• Evaluating Books for
• Read Alouds

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Discussion

• What challenges have you experienced in selecting
  books for read alouds or in helping parents
  select books to check out?

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Helping Parents Select

• Know the interests of the child
• Choose just right topics, text
• Use books focused on childs needs
• Help child gain appreciation of literature
• Books of poetry and songs
• Readable non-fiction
• Remember favorite authors
• Repeated readings of old favorites

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• Group storytime
• a warm, relaxed interlude
• for
• Preschoolers
• participation
• adding sound effects
• chiming in
• Joining the community of readers

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Foundations of Reading

• Oral language proficiency
• Phonemic and phonological awareness
• Visual Acuity
• Aural Skill
• Adequate motor skills

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Cues Good Readers Use

• Good readers coordinate use one or more cues to
• read accurately and to comprehend text.
• Graphophonic-letters/letter clusters blended into
  words
• Syntactical-Structure/grammar of language
• Meaning-Sense of particular text

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Examples of Reading Miscues

• The boy was/sat on the log.
• The children is/are on the log.
• The children swing/swim at the lake.
• The child w-a-s in the w-a-t-e-r.
• The children r-a-t/n to the water.

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Common DifficultiesSeen in Struggling Readers

• Decoding
• Word knowledge
• Phrasing and fluency
• Monitoring
• Poor coordination of cues
• Poor Comprehension
• Stamina
• Motivation

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Comprehension

• Based on prior knowledge
• Involves making predictions
• Realized through connections to text
• Requires making inferences
• Includes summarizing
• Occurs with visualizations or mental
• models

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Mechanics of Learning to Read

• Book handling skills
• Left to right directionality
• One to one matching
• Sound symbol awareness
• Knowledge of high frequency words
• Awareness of punctuation

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• Children learn to read by being surrounded by
  talk and print. They see how the printed word can
  be used to tell new stories and bring new
  meanings to their lives. They learn that many
  events and ideas they hear read to them are
  similar to those they have experienced and
  reflect the way they feel about their
  experiences.
• (p.8) Margaret Mooney

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Book Handling Skills

• Show the front and back of book
• Indicate location of authors and illustrators
  name
• Read title clearly, while pointing at each
• word
• Model left to right directionality
• Point out punctuation
• Show features of text, captions, table of
  contents

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Demonstration and Practice of Book Handling Skills

• Use the book selected
• In pairs practice book handling skills. Be sure
  to point to and say
• Author
• Title
• Illustrator
• Front and back
• Any challenges presented in this text

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Parts of a Read Aloud

• Book introduction
• Stopping points
• Connections
• Questions

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Introducing a Book

• Provides overview of the book
• Allows children to make predictions by looking at
  the cover.
• Taps their prior knowledge of the topic, genre,
  author
• Highlights potentially difficult concepts or words

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Challenges to Understanding the Book

• Difficult genre
• Difficult content
• Lack of prior knowledge

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Using Questions

• Before the story
• to determine prior knowledge about topic,
  setting, genre
• to help child create connections
• During the story
• to create connections
• to generate predictions
• to elicit possible solutions
• After the story
• to generate connections
• to evaluate predictions and solutions

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Supporting English Language Learners

• Use props, photos, doodles to demonstrate
  difficult words or concepts
• Use simple language to describe
• Accept non-verbal responses
• Practice vocabulary using illustrations
• Practice grammar using simple refrains

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Exercise 2A, B

• Fill out section A and B on Exercise 3
• In pairs practice the beginning of your read
  aloud including
• Book-handling skills
• Introducing your book
• The questions you would ask before the story.
  Prior knowledge needed to comprehend story
• Any difficult aspects of genre or content

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Use Stopping Points to

• Ask for predictions
• Elicit connections
• Cue children to join in refrain or pattern
• Clarify an unusual word or concept
• Check for understanding

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Help Child Make Connections

• Text to self refers to the ways child sees
• his or her own experiences reflected in
• the story.
• Text to text refers to the ways a child sees
• similarities between story and other
• stories.

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Use Questions During the Story to

• create connections
• generate predictions
• elicit possible solutions

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Exercise 2C

• Fill out section C on Exercise 3
• Plan
• stopping points
• places for making predictions
• places to visualize
• place for inference or summarizing
• places for making connections
• Practice in pairs

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After the Story Use Questions to. . .

• generate connections
• discuss favorite parts
• make connections
• evaluate predictions and solutions

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Practice with a New Book

1. Use form to plan for read aloud
2. Work in your small group to complete planning
   form
3. Choose one person to read to the large group
4. Be prepared to give and receive feedback on your
   plan

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Tips for Working with Young Children

• Forward planning
• Get the groups attention
• Arrange seating for visibility
• Create a bag of tricks
• Have a plan but be flexible

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Challenges of Reading to Groups

• Visibility and audibility for all in the group
• Comfortable seating arrangements
• Children who have trouble sitting still
• Noise and distractions

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Solutions for Managing Groups

• Create optimal seating arrangements
• Effective book selection
• Modulation of voice and speed
• Focusing techniques to get groups attention
• Quick spot checks to redirect and re-engage
  wiggly kids
• Using stopping points to keep children engaged

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Making Group Stories Work for English Language
Learners

• Seat where illustrations are visible
• Speak slowly and clearly
• Take care to have eye contact
• Make use of non verbal check ins
• Simplify language as needed

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Remember Reading Aloud

• Awakens children's imaginations
• Improves their language skills
• Opens new worlds of enjoyment
• Coaxes children away from television
• Parents, teachers, and librarians work together
  to promote reading
• Reading aloud is a special occasion
• adapted
  from Jim Trelease

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Please fill out your evaluations