Read to them, show enthusiasm for stories, show excitement at the exciting parts, show sadness at the sad parts, laugh when it's funny. Let them experience the book through you. Think aloud, as we do in elementary. Connect stories to their lives. Give them the Text to Self and Text to Text connections. Talk about authors, say how amazing the pictures are, look how they show the boy so sad. Ask what they would do if this happened to them. Pull out the emotions. Even in elementary kids need time to catch on to the fact that they can really experience books as empathetic experience. LOVE reading yourself and read lot's of children's books. Go to the internet and show them the author's websites. Eric Carle has videos showing how he creates the pictures. Have students make up stories, dictate them to you as you write them down and then give the paper back to them to illustrate. Show the same emotions when you read thier books. They will see reading and literature as a enjoyable and rewarding experience. When they are ready, play with words with them. They need to hear the sounds. Even before they see the letters, they need to hear rhymes, illiteration and the cadence of poetry. They can be made aware of punctuation without ever needing to use it. When you read, tell them you stopped at the end of a sentence because of the period. You slowed down because there was a comma. Quotation marks mean you read with expression, like the person talking. Awareness, awareness, and a BIG show of a love and amazement of books. It's what we wish for all our students, it's what most of us got as children, and it's what pre-literate children deserve! I'm so glad you asked. Because the answer is so simple and easy to do. Anyone who truly loves literature will do this ease. Debbie Goodis 2nd Grade Teacher Former Pre-School Teacher
________________________________ From: Mary Jo Chevalier <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, June 6, 2009 1:41:44 PM Subject: [MOSAIC] (no subject) Hi my name is Mary Jo and I am an early childhood educator currently working in a pre-k classroom. My question is directed toward Kindergarten teachers however all teaching levels are welcome to respond. My question is : What can I do as a teacher in a pre-k classroom to help prepare the children for the literacy expectations that occur in kindergarten. With the push down of curriculm so much more is expected of kindergarteners and I want to do all that I can to ensure their success in kindergarten. Mary Jo _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
