Family Literacy

Early Childhood Education

Teachers can use these resources to plan activities that will support children's literacy learning.

  • The Early Childhood Education Component from Show Me Family Literacy
    www.lift-missouri.org/resources/smfl/chapter05.pdf
      "Early childhood education serves the children of adult learners by advancing emerging literacy skills through developmentally-appropriate literacy and pre-literacy activities. Family literacy theory attests that learning begins at birth and is encouraged through participation with adults in meaningful activities. Young children who are living in circumstances that place them at greater risk of school failure - including poverty, low level of maternal education, and maternal depression - are much more likely to succeed in school if they attend well-planned, high-quality early childhood programs."
      National Reading Council, Preventing Reading Difficulties.


    Reading

  • Learning and Growing Together
      This is an interactive resource for parents about early learning and literacy. A teacher tour guide orally presents the information. Captions for what the teacher is saying are available.

  • Reading Rockets
    www.readingrockets.org/
      A project of WETA, the public broadcasting station in Washington, DC, this site provides detailed information about learning to read and strategies for supporting struggling readers at home, at school, and in the community. It offers news, practical information, expert advice, and resources for parents, teachers, tutors, child care providers, and policymakers.

  • Reading is Fundamental for Teachers
    www.rif.org/educators/
      This section is designed especially for teachers, childcare providers, librarians, and other professionals to support your efforts to help children become lifelong readers.

  • Get Ready To Read
    www.getreadytoread.org/
      "Get Ready To Read is a national initiative to build the early literacy skills of preschool-age children. This Web site is a part of NCLD's (National Center for Learning Disabilities) initiative to provide parents, educators, health-care professional and advocates with information to help build early literacy skills by integrating emergent literacy screening and learning activities into routine early childhood education, child-care and parenting practices."

  • How Do Children Learn to Read?
    www.readingrockets.org/article/356
      A full print statement titled How Do Children Learn To Read? by Dr. G. Reid Lyon. This article covers phonemes and phonics, as well as various aspects of children learning to read including making the connection between sounds and letter combinations as well as the importance of the speed of word recognition.

  • How Do I Know a Good Early Reading Program When I See One?
    www.ed.gov/parents/read/resources/goodprogram.html
      An article written to provide guidelines for parents on what is expected from a good reading program, and what should be expected from and available to their children.

  • Read Across America
    www.nea.org/readacross/
      Originally started to get students excited about reading, the NEA's Read Across America, is one of America's largest reading events that culminates each year on or near Dr. Seuss's birthday. Their web page has a downloadable resource kit to help students learn about Dr. Seuss's author and the many hats of Seuss, and a pledge to participate in reading to your children. There are also helpful instructions for arranging reading events for classrooms, and tips and information for parents about reading there children.

  • CIERA Center for Improvement of Early Reading Achievement
    www.ciera.org/ This national center for research on early reading is a great resource for practitioners working with children.


      Multicultural Resources

    • Resources in Spanish
      www.ed.gov/espanol/bienvenidos/es/index.html
        Many family literacy programs serve native Spanish speaking parents who are developing their Spanish literacy skills. The U.S. Department of Education has developed a website with some of their most requested publications in Spanish. Have your staff and students explore http://www.ed.gov/offices/OIIA/spanishresources. Materials would be good addition to parenting education and adult education classes. Single copies of many of the materials are available by calling a toll-free number and referring to the inventory number.


      Special Needs

    • Teaching LD: Information and Resources for Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities
      www.teachingld.org/expert_connection/default.htm
        The resources on this site can be adapted for use with parents who have reading difficulties or to help parents who have children with learning differences.


      General Teacher Resources

    • Playing "better than lessons"
      news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4456131.stm Young children can learn more if they are allowed to play in the sand at school, rather than sitting still in formal lessons, suggests research.

    • ProTeacher
      www.proteacher.com
        This site focuses on resources, activities and ideas for teachers of all age groups.

    • Parent Talk - Preschoolers
      www.tnpc.com/parentalk/preschool.html
        This site contains links to information parents and caregivers can use to help preschoolers get ready to read and ready for school.

    • The Family Education Network
      www.fen.com
        Parents and caregivers can get help when their kids have homework questions. This site also has links to other parent sites.

    • The Magic of Everyday Moments by Zero to Three
      www.zerotothree.org/magic/
        This series of booklets has tips and information about everyday activities parents can use to be their child's first teacher. The books can be printed out for free. The Zero to Three main web site is also worth exploring.

    • Promising Practices Network (PNN)
      www.promisingpractices.net/
        "The Promising Practices Network (PPN) web site highlights programs and practices that credible research indicates are effective in improving outcomes for children, youth, and families. The information offered is organized around three major areas: proven and promising programs, research in brief, and strengthening service delivery."

    • National Network for Child Care
      www.nncc.org/homepage.html
        NNCC unites the expertise of many of the nation's leading universities through the outreach system of Cooperative Extension. Our goal is to share knowledge about children and child care from the vast resources of the landgrant universities with parents, professionals, practitioners, and the general public. We network with committed individuals around the country to bring you practical information and resources that will be useful to you in your everyday work with children.
        Cooperative Extension has an 80 year history of working in the areas of child care and early childhood development. Our outreach efforts strongly impact international, national, state, and local efforts. We teach and work in almost every county (approximately 3150) in the US.

    • Earlychildhood.com
      www.earlychildhood.com
        Kids love to be creative and the developmentally appropriate activities on this site use that creativity to develop language and literacy.

    • Developmental Assets
      http://www.search-institute.org/assets/
        The site has useful materials for practitioners who work in all four components of family literacy. The materials are especially appropriate for programs that integrate the components.


      Activities for Kids

    • PBS Kids
      pbskids.org/
        This resource has a wide variety of activities for parents and children to do together. These activities will help parents "raise a child who is ready to learn." There are separate sections for kids, parents, and teachers.

    • The E-Square
      www.alri.org/esquare/
        Take a virtual tour of E-Squares three city blocks of useful, informative store fronts. Each store in E-Square covers a different topic on everything from getting a job to early child hood education to rental agreements and buying a home.

    • Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids
      bensguide.gpo.gov/
        "This site provides learning tools for K-12 students, parents, and teachers. These resources will teach how our government works, the use of the primary source materials of GPO Access, and how one can use GPO Access to carry out their civic responsibilities."



      • Quotes on family and education (Refresh to see another quote)


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      Ohio Literacy Resource Center - Celebrating 10 Years of Enhancing Adult Literacy 1993-2003 This page http://literacy.kent.edu/FamilyLiteracy/forworkers/ece.html
      and is maintained by the OLRC.
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