New literacy resource helps preschoolers become lifelong readers
YPSILANTI, MI, May 14, 2019 — HighScope Educational Research Foundation, a leader in early childhood research and practice, has released Let’s Read It Again! Interactive Read-Alouds. This new resource equips educators with materials and strategies to boost young children’s critical literacy skills and puts preschoolers on the path to becoming lifelong readers.
“Early literacy skills are indicative of later academic success, and the stronger a child’s early literacy skills, the better equipped he or she is to learn when they enter school,” said Suzanne Gainsley, Early Childhood Applied Practice Manager, HighScope. “This resource gives early educators creative ways to use high-quality children’s literature to build comprehension and makes reading with children an engaging experience.”
Let’s Read It Again! is based on the research-supported method of reading a book to young children multiple times. Repeated readings of a text, each with a different focus, has been shown to increase children’s vocabulary, comprehension, and enjoyment of literature. Adding read-alouds to the daily classroom routine provides children with opportunities to actively engage with text and allows teachers to scaffold children’s understanding of the book’s content and features. These experiences help to lay the foundation for later reading skills.
Each interactive read-aloud includes ideas and prompts for educators to actively involve children in multiple readings of 20 high-quality children’s books — a carefully curated selection of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry texts. Each activity includes vocabulary words from the text with child-friendly definitions, suggested stopping points throughout the text for teachers, and ideas for what they might say to engage children in the reading process to support their literacy development.
About HighScope (highscope.org)
HighScope Educational Research Foundation is an early childhood leader in pursuit of a world where all children have the opportunity to develop socially, emotionally, and cognitively so they have satisfying, productive lives. HighScope supports the development of young children from birth through age eight by developing and providing quality, research-based, high-quality curricula, assessments, professional learning, and other supports in the context of families and their communities.
HighScope’s roots extend back to the Perry Preschool Project (1962–1967). Launched in Ypsilanti, Michigan and led by Ypsilanti Schools psychologist David Weikart and Perry Elementary School principal Charles Eugene Beatty, the Perry Preschool Project was one of the first early childhood programs in the United States intentionally designed to increase school success for preschool children living in poverty. Today, HighScope’s work can be found in classrooms throughout the United States and in educational settings around the globe.
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