Links to Literacy Instructional Best Practices

The Teacher...

• pre-reads the books

Introduces the book to the children:

• title
• name of author
• name of illustrator
• shows cover
• lets children make predictions
• does a picture walk
• reads with expression
• asks questions
• encourages children's interaction with story
• uses props to engage children
• adds new words from story to Picture Word Wall

Reads to:

• small group
• large group

Provides an environment for reading:

• cozy inviting reading center
• comfortable large read aloud area
• variety of books are available at numerous centers

The Teacher...

Provides listening opportunities in which children:

• follow verbal directions
• participate in rhythmic activities
• identify sequences of sound
• identify environmental sounds
• identify word substitutions in familiar phrases or nursery rhymes
• listen for patterns in words
• listen for beginning sounds in single syllable words, ex: c-at
• listen for ending sounds in single syllable words, ex: ca-t

Provides activities using rhyming words in:

• nursery rhymes
•  poems
• songs
• read-alouds
• word play
• fingerplays
• models speaking in complete sentences
• encourages speaking in complete sentences
• provides opportunities for children to listen to, recite, or sing rhymes, poems, songs, and fingerplays

• naming objects
• describing objects
• learning new vocabulary

Asks questions:

• who?
• what?
• when?
• why?
• how?
• open-ended questions

Encourages children to:

• describe events
• describe feelings
• re-tell stories
• re-enact stories or situations
• use positional words
• give directions
• speak in complete sentences
• models speaking in complete sentences

Provides opportunities for language activities to take place in:

• small groups
• large groups
• individually

Print Awareness/Early Writing

The Teacher...

• models directionally and one to one matching by pointing to words in text, charts, poems, songs
• models left to right directionality when writing
• displays pieces of familiar text (songs, poems, finger plays) around the room at a child's eye level to "read" independently 
• calls attention to print displayed around the room
• uses interactive writing to provide opportunities for the children to construct print
• engages children in shared and interactive writing activities
• maintains a writing center in a prominent area of the room
• provides a variety of writing materials in all learning centers include things to write on, things to write with, and accessories (envelopes, tape, stamp-pad, magazines, junk mail, magnetic letters, catalogs, etc.)
• gives praise and encouragement for early writing attempts
• records the child's dictation
• displays children's work at the child's eye level
• provides examples of environmental print for the children to identify
• uses the Picture Word Wall to call attention to words as unites of print
• provides opportunities for children to respond to literature