Activities that teach PreK-1 students the six components of emergent literacy and beginning reading and word study are presented for classroom settings. These activities are adaptable developmentally and they highlight four important aspects of teaching phonics, spelling and word knowledge that are often overlooked: the rhythm of literacy, Concept…

Educators consider guided reading one of the most powerful instructional tools in a reading teacher's arsenal. Yet, when it comes to emergent bilinguals in both monolingual English and bilingual settings, guided reading is implemented monolingually, or in one language at a time. As the field of reading instruction has moved toward a more…

Measuring students' reading motivation is a common practice in literacy classrooms, and results often inform instruction. This mixed-methods study problematizes this practice, raising tensions between how reading motivation is measured and its enactment in a reading class. Key tensions include reading motivation as competition versus a collective…

This article offers a framework for more equitable classroom reading assessment known as a Critical Assessment Practices (CAPS) approach. CAPS includes a set of four principles that teachers can use to partner with, and to empower, students to support more equitable and informative classroom-based reading assessment. Teachers can apply the CAPS…

Reading involves and is influenced by many factors, which makes reading difficult to understand, teach, and explain to parents, policymakers, and other stakeholders. A metaphor of driving, which likens reading to an everyday practice, demystifies complexities inherent in reading. Both reading and driving are active, strategic processes. Just as…

The authors share how culturally relevant photographs reflecting children's lives and communities were curated and integrated into the literacy curriculum.

Information literacy is a critical 21st-century skill, yet young readers rarely have opportunities to consider where information comes from. In this Teaching Tip, the authors use author's notes in nonfiction storybooks to promote student awareness of authorship. The author's visibility in author's notes varies along a continuum from invisible…

In this teaching tip, I describe how students in my second grade classroom and I developed a curricular structure called Monday Music that involved reading, singing, the study of grammar conventions in the English language, and critical conversations about popular music. Drawing on Dyson's conceptualization of the permeable curriculum, I offer…

More and more students with learning disabilities and other diverse learners are placed for instruction in general education classrooms, which often leaves teachers grappling to design successful peer interactions and literacy activities to meet the needs of all learners in their classrooms. As the shift is made to align literacy instruction to…

With the pressures put on teachers today to meet standards, cover a dense curriculum, and be involved in numerous meetings, taking the time to reflect on instruction may be pushed aside. The authors examined the importance of reflection and its impact on teaching and learning. Reflection allows teachers to evaluate subjective and objective…

An increase in curated lists of books focused on race, bias, equity, and privilege has begun tasking teachers with examining and identifying diversity within their own classroom libraries. As purchasing new books is not always feasible, teachers can look to the culturally authentic books already in their possession to help extend conversations…

Evidence-based core instruction partnered with evidence-based supplemental interventions are vital for students' literacy learning, particularly for students who need additional support (Petscher et al., 2020). Identifying instructional materials that reflect the translation of effective practices is challenging, (Solari et al., 2020) and made…

Phonological awareness and phonics instruction are necessary components of beginning reading instruction and require teachers to have specialized content, pedagogical, and pedagogical content knowledge. This includes knowledge about language structures; reading components, processes, and development; and effective instructional practices. In this…

A contributing factor to the loss of play in many early childhood classrooms is a sharp separation between literacy learning as serious, even urgent, academic work and play as optional, socially-beneficial-at-best, fun. To recenter play in the academic curriculum, early childhood educators must not only demonstrate how play benefits the existing…

The author explores the Names, Journeys, and Dreams project, in which culturally and linguistically diverse learners and their families engaged with picturebooks that inspired dialogic conversations, authentic writing, and family-school connections. The author provides four recommendations for incorporating picturebooks within the reading support…