Question 7:  And, so?

What are the unanswered questions I have/you have about early literacy and working to ensure that all kids are successful readers.  Below are the questions I posed at the beginning of this “7 Questions” Blog.  I still have many unanswered questions, but I’m learning.

Question 1: Who (January 10, 2014)

7 Questions about Learning to Read and Reading to Learn. Q. 1 Who are the stakeholders?

And so?   I’ll keep reading and learning….more to come later.  What could you do with these ideas?  Can you bring attention to the importance of learning to read and reading to learn to other stakeholders/advocates?

Question 2:  Why

7 Questions About Learning to Read: Question 2–Why is learning to read important?

And so?  So, how do we make sure we are tracking children’s language/literacy/learning progress from age 2 to grade 2?  Whose responsibility is it?  How do we do it?

Q3 What

7 Questions About Learning to Read: Question 3: What do students need to learn?

And so?  So, how do stakeholders make sense of the “what to teach” question?  Do parents, beginning teachers, specialists working with struggling readers, preschool teachers, or community stakeholders, for example, know what is being taught as “early literacy skills” in their school in the K-2 classrooms?  Is there continuity across the K-2 range?  How are decisions about what to teach made?  Does it matter what a teacher or school decides to use as an early literacy curriculum? 

Q4 When

 7 Questions about Learning to Read and Reading to Learn Q. 4. When to start

And so?  So, if we know the importance of oral language and its development (or lack of development) in home and preschool settings, how can we engage and support parents and preschool teachers as they “teach” oral language skills and relate them to reading, beginning in infancy and extended through preschool and the primary grades?

Q 5 Where?

7 Qs. Question 5: Where?

And so?  So, what tools and skills do we need to maximize the contribution of each type of stakeholder/advocate—family, school, “local” community, online community?

 

Q6 How?

Q6. How? How do children learn to read/read to learn? How do we teach them?

And so?  So, how can we identify the “best practices” in these 4 domains: Decision-Making, Context, Assessment, and Models of Learning to Read? While what works in one school (or one research report) may not be a one-to-one fit with another school, classroom, or context, reports of “best practices” do give us a place to begin.  We might ask how accessible these reports are to teachers and families.  And, we might ask what roles teachers and parents have in determining and implements a reading program.