We all want our little ones to become readers. Most of us, though, have been deeply shaped by our own experience as students -- experiences that may lag decades behind modern research! Research in literacy and educational psychology suggests that children learn to read by using multiple cueing systems. That's a fancy way of saying that phonics and sight words are important, but so are contextual clues. ... http://www.squidoo.com/best-emergentreaders-ever Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:08:20 -0600 FeedCreator 1.7.2 Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:45:55 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/best-emergentreaders-ever We all want our little ones to become readers. Most of us, though, have been deeply shaped by our own experience as students -- experiences that may lag decades behind modern research! Research in literacy and educational psychology suggests that children learn to read by using multiple cueing systems. That's a fancy way of saying that phonics and sight words are important, but so are contextual clues. If a child is struggling to read more than 10% of the words in a beginning reader, chances are s/he is reading so slowly that comprehension is lost. Successful intervention programs like Reading Recovery use text at the instructional level (as opposed to frustration level) and include integrated cueing in their "bag of tricks". The public schools often have wonderful sets of "Rigby" leveled readers so that even very beginning readers can have "just right" books. Even if you're a parent educator, you can still find quality emergent readers from Amazon -- or at your local library. The Brand New Readers series is my favorite of these. I have used these beginning readers with pre-kindergartners and kindergartners and also with primary students who are at the earliest stages of literacy. Brand New readers uses multiple cueing systems. What's more, the series brings a smile to little one's faces. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:45:55 -0600