On the subject of reading literacy, it is the careful development.

On the subject of reading literacy, it is the careful development of listening and language skills that is an absolute requirement! Reading is foundational to all school learning. Congratulations to all you fabulous parents, teachers, librarians, literacy professionals, and educational stakeholders in all you do! You are, indeed, fantastic because you rock in this ever evolving commitment to children’s literacy! As a retired elementary educator specializing literacy as a teacher and librarian in a career spanning 40 plus years! I want to share a basic summary of what I learned in order to produce successful students! Although, as primarily an elementary educator, I speak as a generalist to all teachers because my sharing is not only for parents and elementary educators; it is advisable for parents of older students and secondary educators as well. Due to the fact any gaps in learning observed at the middle school/high school level interfering with academic success can be traced back to be pinpointed at some skill never mastered in the earlier grades. PK and K are crucial in that it gives us the gift of time for developing prerequisite foundational concrete skills necessitated prior to trying to teach abstract skills for what will come later. Purposeful playful learning is key to success. Often some school administrators are not accustomed in discerning playful, purposeful learning from goof-off with no purpose play. so, to that effect, if little children are not seated at desks like older children, the classroom observation becomes misjudged due to the observer not in-tuned with the gift of play done purposefully and appropriately. On the subject of reading, it is the careful development of listening and language skills that is an absolute requirement! Listening to lots of stories and then through dramatic play; role play the story to retell it in sequence. This contributes to vocabulary and oral language development, simultaneously, exhibiting aural comprehension which is a prerequisite to reading comprehension. Infusing art with storytelling to have children draw what happened first, next/middle of story, and last is a beneficial hands-on learning activity that children love because it taps into their creativity for expanding or developing. Doing this type activity for little children connects literacy development to infuse themes of social studies/science through art-writing-fine motor development for writing and the practice formation of basic stokes of handwriting. Model to children drawing straight lines; slanted lines, half circles, and whole circles to draw faces of boy/girl; faces of animals, apples. pumpkins, bear, snowman, grapes. This encourages creativity and builds confidence and self esteem to illustrate stories children heard/listened to or their own made up stories. Any time learning is interrelated, it becomes more meaningful. On language/vocabulary development; Singing songs; chanting nursery rhymes; playing circles games develops ear-training which is a part of and a prerequisite for learning to read. Listening to identify and distinguish environmental sounds; listening to distinguish same/different sounds; listening to identify initial/last sounds; and listening to determine whether words have the same medial and final sound; which means does the word rhyme or not? If a child is proficient at identifying rhyming words, it is the single most profound prediction of future reading success. On the subject of mathematics; I reiterate, PK and K are crucial in that it gives us the gift of time for developing prerequisite foundational concrete skills necessitated prior to trying to teach abstract skills for what will come later. Developing concrete knowledge of combinations of numbers concretely teaches math facts. Modeling to children how to make/show/exhibit combinations of numbers from 3 through10 using dyed two toned lima beans or unifix cubes/connecting cubes if affordable.

For example, with red and yellow cubes, model to children to show all the ways to make 3.

· Arrange to show 1 red cube and 2 yellow cubes...1+2

· Arrange to show 2 yellow cubes and 1 red cube... 2+1

· Arrange to show 3 red cubes and blank space... 3 + 0

· Arrange to show a blank space and 3 yellow cubes...0 + 3

Over time students will be able to reproduce as modeled by the teacher on their own to show 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10. Model sufficiently combinations and patterns. This is foundation to mathematics throughout the grades and beyond. You must know, First grade is the "must" learn to read grade! Even though many children learn to read prior to first grade; and it's wonderful if they do. Yet, they are not compelled to read but, it is compelling to do so in first grade! In fact, it is a must! If not, this becomes a problem because, at this point is when children begin to be determined as dyslexia or learning disabled. What my experience has taught is that children labeled early on as having dyslexia or learning disabled are neither. These children suffer the misfortune of having been poorly taught! Another important knowing is that... “If by the end of second grade, a child is not reading well, that child is very much at risk of not achieving the American Dream!” ~Pleasant Rowling On the subject of cursive writing, cursive writing still needs to be taught! It is a part of literacy! Students exiting the educational process without having learned cursive writing will not be able to read historical documents; simple fact. I'm passionate about literacy! Especially about literacy development which will be shared via my weekly blog postings. Additionally, enjoy writing the types of books I always wanted to read to children; but, they had not been written; until I wrote them.