Six Key Skills to Prepare Children to Become Readers When they Enter School: Summary Post

Available from Abdo Publishing Group

Back in March and April of 2012, I wrote a series of posts that summarized the six key skills recommended by the National Research Council for preparing children to become readers when they enter school, and I shared practical examples for incorporating these elements when reading the books in my Story Time with Signs & Rhymes series with children.

These six skills are routinely emphasized by the American Library Association and their member libraries. Since I'll be at the ALA Midwinter Conference this coming weekend, (January, 2013) and I'm asked about this series of posts fairly regularly, I thought I'd create a summary post to bring them all together! Here goes:

Print Motivation: Make Reading Fun

Yee Ha Hee Ha Ho! Ideas for Building Phonological Awareness

There's a Story In My Head: Developing Narrative Skills in Young Readers

Pusillanimous: Enrich Children's Vocabulary

Show Me a Sign (as in a street sign): Ideas for Building Print Awareness

It's All Greek to Me: Ideas for Developing Letter Knowledge

And . . . here is a link to related resources, including a great summary of books that are especially helpful in emphasizing the six early literacy skills. (This link will bring you to a page created by Melissa Depper, Youth Services Librarian at the Arapahoe Library District. There are many images on this page, so in my experience it takes awhile to load. Be patient. It's worth it!).