Photograph of toddler reading to stuffed bear
Photo by Judi Moreillon

Irresistible Invitations: Early Literacy Engagements for Preschool and Primary Children

Presentation for Oregon Reading Association
Reading: The Bridge to Literacy
February 2006
Portland, Oregon


Presenters:

Chris Kurtz, Educator
Jane Kurtz
, Children's Book Author
Toni Buzzeo
, Children's Book Author and School Library Media Specialist

Judi Moreillon, Ph.D., Clinical Assistant Professor, Northern Arizona University, and Children's Book Author


Description of Program:
Participants will engage in an interactive workshop, which will demonstrate strategies for developing oral language, vocabulary, phonological awareness, listening skills, concepts about print, and meaning making in young children. The presenters will invite participants to rejoice in the rhythms, the rhymes, and the stories as well as celebrating the research and theory to support a holistic, constructivist, multicultural framework for these irresistible early literacy invitations.


Objectives:
Participants will:
1. Experience rich and playful oral language, which forms the sociocultural foundation for early literacy;
2. Rediscover story listening and adult-child conversations about texts as vital components of literacy learning;
3. Experience the joys of decontextualized (book) language through scaffolded encounters for making meaning with authentic literature written expressly for young children;
4. Engage in conversations related to the power of children's literature for classroom instruction.


Kyra Teis's illustrations and the poem from Read to Me were used as a framework for this presentation.
You can access those illustrations on the Kyra Teis Web site.


Beginning Upon a Lap

Sensitive and Meaningful Enculturation into the World of Books

Positive feelings about books

Brain Research related to Early Literacy (Looking, Focusing, Attending)

"Parentese" and Interpretative Conversations

Judi Moreillon

 

Does it Matter What We Read?

Picture Books and Poems

Writing for children versus Writing for instruction

Making School Stories Familiar Stories - Patterned Language

Role of rhythm and rhyme
and lively language

Alliteration - repetition of phonemes

Jane Kurtz:
Rain Romp

Toni Buzzeo:
Dawdle Duckling
and Ready or Not, Dawdle Duckling

Judi Moreillon:
Too Much Talk

 
Songs

Songs and Family Stories

Music and Memory

Refrains/Repeated Lines- Predictability

Funds of Knowledge (Moll)

Toni Buzzeo:
Dawdle Duckling

Judi Moreillon:
"My Hands/Mis manos"

 
Funds of Knowledge

Home - Community Literacy

Judi Moreillon:
"Stories within Stories" Bibliography (pdf file)

Jane Kurtz:
In the Small, Small Night

 

Enriched Play = Authentic Literacy Events

Fingerplays and Other Kinesthetic Participation (puppets)

Play as literacy engagement

Fine and gross motor skill development

Toni Buzzeo:
Little Loon and Papa

Judi Moreillon
Playground Rhymes: "Ms. Sue"

 

Roles for Siblings, More Proficienct Peers

Cross-age Tutors

ZPD with Peers (Vygotsky)

 

Judi Moreillon:
ZPD

 

Reading Pictures

Artists and Art

Visual Literacy

Reading Illustrations
(flannel board stories)

Jane Kurtz:
Water Hole Waiting

Toni Buzzeo:
Ready or Not, Dawdle Ducking

 

Text-to-Text Connections

Canon of Children's Literature

Author Studies

Intertextual Connections

 

Judi Moreillon:
The Canon

Jane Kurtz:
Do Kangarooms Wear Seat Belts?
In the Small, Small Night
Rain Romp

Toni Buzzeo:
Dawdle Duckling
and Ready or Not, Dawdle Ducking

 

Planting the Literacy "Seed"

Modeling as Seed Planting


Enriching the Curriculum through Literature

?

 

Growing as Literate People

Complexity and Uniqueness
of Literacy Development

Judi Moreillon:
Louise Rosenblatt - Transaction Theory

updated: 6 February 2006