Shared Storybook Reading: Building Young Children's Language and Emergent Literacy Skills

Reading storybooks with young children is one of the most important things adults can do to support early language and literacy skills. What other fun, engaging interaction can teach children so many critical concepts €" including print awareness, vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and social and conversational skills€" all at once? Making the most of shared reading is the goal of this practical guide, ideal for early childhood educators in preschool, Head Start, and child care programs. Step-by-step strategies help educators engage, respond to, and teach young children during storybook reading €"information they can share with parents to continue the learning at home. Readers will discover how to

• create a fun and enriching reading atmosphere
• choose appropriate books, read with expression, and actively engage children
• use book reading to help children develop in semantics, phonology, syntax, morphology and pragmatics
• promote children's print awareness and phonological awareness
• work with children who have developmental delays and behavior challenges
• motivate reluctant readers
• work effectively with individual children and small groups
• support parents in developing their children's language and literacy development

All of the suggested strategies can be adapted for use with any storybook, and many are vividly illustrated with sample scripts that educators can use to guide their own interactions with children. And with the helpful appendices, teachers will have short summaries of strategies for easy reference, a "reading log" to give to parents, answers to parents' frequently asked questions about reading at home, and a glossary of key terms. Loaded with ready-to-use ideas, this guidebook has everything early childhood educators need to turn the fun of shared reading into a powerful learning experience.