Ready to Read 2007 - Workshop Descriptions

Topic: Alphabetic Understanding

•  How children become aware of print.

•  Early Learning Content Standards overview.

•  Why learning the alphabet is the first step in connecting letters and sounds.

•  Fishing the alphabet activity.

•  Book: A My Name Is. . . by Alice Lyme

Topic: Phonemic Awareness

• Word decoding skills.

• Rhyming games.

• Book: The Hungry Thing by Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler

• Activity: Rhyming food for the Hungry Thing.

Topic: Vocabulary Acquisition

•  The need for conversations and stories and books that expose children to new words.

•  Vocabulary = word knowledge + world knowledge

•  Finding the right book

•  Activity: Vocabulary word boxes

•  Book: Chickens Aren't the Only Ones by Ruth Heller

Topic Emergent Writing

•  What is emergent writing/how does writing develop?

•  Fostering attempts at early writing

•  Book: Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One by Kate Duke

•  Activity: Storybooks (homework) where children dictate/illustrate stories.

Reading Process – Comprehension

•  Dialogic reading/how to

•  Reading for Meaning

•  Motivating Young Readers

•  Book: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

Reading Process – Literacy Text

•  Retelling stories through drama (acting out the story)

•  Distinguishing between fantasy and reality

•  Using predictable and repetitive text for “shared” reading by adult/child

•  Book: The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone

•  Activity: Acting out The Three Billy Goats Gruff