As children’s professionals, we know the Every Child Ready to Read concepts. Maybe you address a certain one in every program. Maybe parents ask more about them. Maybe you can say them in your sleep. Maybe you didn’t realize they had a name, but are still using them all in your daily work.
Whatever your story is, the five key practices (talk, read, sing, write and play) aren’t going anywhere. This is the final post of a five-part series on concrete ideas to use ECRR in programming.
Take a look at past posts here:
Today’s post is about READ: the most obvious in our line of work and also the most difficult to articulate. Reading aloud to children, sharing books, and talking about books helps children increase their vocabulary and background knowledge, learn how books work, and develop a love of reading.
Activity Ideas
- Display different types of books that a child might enjoy, including pop-up, interactive, wordless, fiction, and non-fiction. Also find titles where children can see themselves and their traditions.
- Make a puzzle where kids put together a book or place the title, author, picture or create their own book. This helps them understand how books work.
- Read the same book multiple times in multiple ways so that kids can gain familiarity with the words and story. Try reading traditionally, then doing a flannel or singing the book, or retelling the story.
- Dialogic reading- ask specific questions before, after, and during stories to help with children’s comprehension.
- Practice shared reading during programs. Give every caregiver/ child pair their own book to read along.
- Display a giant sized story walk outside your library or at a local park.
- Make sure you have comfortable reading spaces in your library for both shared and individual reading.
Book Ideas
The CLEL Bell Awards are announced annually and have one winner in each practice. Here’s the past few years of READ winners with links to the CLEL created activity sheets:
- Bathe the Cat by Alice B. McGinty(2023)
- I’ll Build You a Bookcase by Jean Ciborowski Fahey (2022)
- Help Wanted: Must Love Books by By Janet Sumner Johnson, illustrated by Courtney Dawson (2021)
- The Book Hog by Greg Pizzoli (2020)
- Llama Llama Loves to Read by Anna Dewdny (2019)
Additional Resources
- Babies Need Words Every Day READ Poster
- CLEL Early Literacy READ Tips
- Mem Fox’s Ten Readaloud Commandments
This post addresses ALSC competency group I: Commitment to Client Group point 5: Understands current educational practices, especially those related to literacy and inquiry.