Classroom Implications

To develop an appreciation of stories and books, children need a great deal of experience with literature, as active listeners and active participants. In reading to children, adults should stop to let children discuss how the characters feel and what they want to do, and make predictions about how stories will end. Adults should help children actively explore the meaning of new words and concepts. Book reading should include nonfiction as well as fiction selections.

Concepts of print develop through exposure to literature.  Children need to know that stories and other texts are written from left to right, that spaces between words matter, and that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the words on a page and the words the readers says.

Children start by learning to recognize and print their names, the names of their classmates, and names of familiar objects around the classroom or home.

Without sufficient storybook reading experience in early childhood (preliterate children, in general, and at-risk learners, in particular), students may be missing a key part of the initial foundation of reading.

Experiences with print (through writing and reading) help preschool children develop an understanding of the conventions, purpose, and functions of print.

Phonological awareness and letter recognition contribute to initial reading acquisition by helping children develop efficient word-recognition strategies (detecting pronunciations and storing associations in memory).

Storybook reading, as well as the nature of the adult-child interactions surrounding storybook reading, affects children's knowledge about, strategies for, and attitudes toward reading.

Students should read well-written and engaging texts that include words the children can decipher to give them a chance to apply their emerging skills.

Children need opportunities to expand their use and appreciation of printed language - the purposes and functions of written language are essential to their motivation for learning to read. Children must become aware that printed language is all around them on signs, billboards, labels, in books, magazines, and newspapers, and that print serves many purposes.

Children need opportunities to hear good stories and informational books read aloud daily. Listening to and talking about books on a regular basis provides children with demonstrations of the benefits and pleasures of reading. Story reading introduces children to new words, new sentences, new places, and new ideas. They also hear the kinds of vocabulary, sentences, and text structures they will find in their school books and be expected to read and understand. Reading aloud to children every day, and talking about books and stories, supports and extends oral language development and helps students connect oral to written language.

As children become fluent readers, they read increasingly challenging literature, both fiction and nonfiction, of greater complexity and difficulty. They read daily with partners, in groups, and independently at school and at home.

Children need opportunities to read and comprehend a wide assortment of books and other texts. As children develop effective decoding strategies and become fluent readers, they must read books and other texts that are less controlled in their vocabulary and sentence structure. They learn to use word order (syntax) and context to interpret words and understand their meanings. Soon they become enthusiastic, independent readers of all kinds of written material including books, magazines, newspapers, computer screens, and more. Providing children with a great many books, both narrative and informational, is of primary importance. Classroom libraries must offer children a variety of reading materials, some that are easy to read and others that are more challenging and of increasing difficulty and complexity. Children need access to many books that travel home for reading with family members.

Children need opportunities to develop and comprehend new vocabulary through wide reading and direct vocabulary instruction. Written language places greater demands on children's vocabulary knowledge than does their everyday spoken language. The number of new words children learn from reading depends upon how much they read. It is important that teachers read aloud to children and encourage them to do a great deal of voluntary and independent reading. During reading instruction, children should be encouraged to attend to the meanings of new words.

The meaning of unfamiliar words are taught and discussed. Students also acquire word meanings through wide reading.

Lots of books are in evidence (and in use) in classroom libraries and the school library.

Students must have access to classroom and school libraries that contain a large and varied book collection.

Provide an environment that encourages play with spoken language as part of the broader literacy program. Nursery rhymes, riddles, songs, poems and read-aloud books that manipulate sounds may be purposefully used to draw young learners' attention to the sounds of the spoken language. Click here for a list of Predictable Books.