Resources

Early Childhood
Resources

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS PROVIDED TO ALL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS BY THE EARLY YEARS COMMITTEE.

Please check the professional resource section in your school's library.

Video Resources Click picture:

New Book for 2004-2005

On Solid Ground
by Sharon Taberski.

This book will be arriving in schools in November 2004. In this book Sharon shares what she has learned in her twenty years of working with children and teachers. She begins by describing her procedures for assessing children's reading and using what she finds to inform her work. She covers scheduling and managing reading conferences, taking oral-reading records, and using retellings and discussions as tools. Sharon explains how she uses shared reading, read-aloud, guided reading and work-study groups to teach strategies to the whole class, small groups and to individuals. She describes how independent reading is a time for practice and discusses the crucial role of matching children with books. On Solid Ground is informed by curren thinking and loaded with advice, booklists, some ready-to-use reproducibles and examples of what children say and do. A wonderful resource for teachers from Grades 1-4.

For Nursery/Kindergarten Teachers 2003-2004

Are you an auditory learner?

You may be interested in borrowing A Live Audio Seminar on "Enhancing the Literacy Development of Your Preschoolers and Kindergartners" presented by Cecile Mielenz of the Bureau of Education & Research.

This set of 6 audiotapes contains some good ideas for working with Nursery and Kindergarten children. If you are interested in borrowing this set of tapes and the accompanying resource book for a short period of time please contact Gayle at grobertson@wsd1.org to make arrangements.

Books from 2003-2004

Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs (Revised Edition)
edited by Sue Bredekamp and Carol Copple.

This book defines developmentally appropriate practice as the outcome of a process of teacher decision making that draws on at least three critical, interrelated bodies of knowledge: 1) what teachers know about how children develop and learn; 2) what teachers know about the individual children in their group; and 3) knowledge of the social and cultural context in which those children live and learn. Other parts of the book provide elaboration and examples to help teachers think about applying the principles and guidelines contained in the position statement.

Literacy Work Stations: Making Centers Work
by Debbie Diller.

This book will help teachers solve the dilemma of what the rest of the class does while the teacher works with small groups. The book provides practical suggestions for over a dozen work stations that link to instruction and make preparation and management easier for teachers. The book provides information on introducing the station (centre), materials to include, how to solve problems that occur, how to differentiate and how to assess and keep students accountable.

Teaching Number: Advancing Children's Skills and Strategies: by Jim Martland has been sent to all elementary schools.

The book provides an approach to the teaching of early numeracy, which is both structured and progressive. It complements and builds on the assessment of children's number knowledge and strategies documented in the authors' Early Numeracy: Assessment for Teaching and Intervention which is one of the books upon which the Comprehensive Assessment Math component is based. This approach to teaching has been developed through Mathematics Recovery and Count Me In Too Projects in Australia, the UK and the USA.

2002-2003

The Power of Retelling: Developmental Steps for Building Comprehension by Vicki Benson and Carrice Cummins.

Provides teachers with the insight and background to move retelling beyond assessment of comprehension to become a highly effective instructional strategy for teaching comprehension. The model provides steps to lead students from supported concrete retelling to abstract, analytical retelling. The children learn to "retell" as a prerequisite to retelling (Pretelling), understand story structure (Guided Retelling), organize and represent story (StoryMap Retelling) and expand writing skills (Written Retelling).

Guided Readers and Writers Grades 3-6: Teaching Comprehension, genre, and content Literacy
by Irene C. Countas and Gay Su Pinnell.

This comprehensive resource book explores all the essential components of quality upper elementary literacy programs. It includes suggestions for helping struggling readers and writers in each section. The book covers Independent reading, Guided Reading, Literature Study, Comprehension and Word Analysis and more. One of the most useful sections if the First Twenty Days of Independent Reading.

2001-2002

Guided Reading: Making It Work by Mary Browning Schulman and Carlene deCruz Payne.

This book is a very 'teacher-friendly' book that begins with clear descriptions of the reading strategies proficient readers use. The authors show how teachers can help young readers internalize these strategies through guided reading instruction. They also show how to build a balanced literacy program and include many ideas for independent literacy activities. The book contains literacy icons, information about managing guided reading groups, running record information and much more. This book is recommended by our Reading Recovery Teacher Leader Marilyn Wiebe who has used the book with Reading Recovery teachers.

Learning Through Problems: Number Sense and Computational Strategies by Paul Trafton and Diane Theissen.

Computational Strategies is a practical resource filled with classroom examples showing students who value challenges, reflect on their work, and participate in thoughtful discussions with their peers. The book shows how number sense and computation can be learned within a problem-centered framework..

2000-2001

Facilitating Preschool Literacy
Editor Robin Campbell.

This book addresses three important themes in the literacy learning of preschool children: 1) Children are active constructors of their own learning; 2) Families provide invaluable support in the early literacy learning of children; 3) Preschool settings should reflect the literacy learning that occurs in many homes and should provide opportunities for children to further develop their literacy.

The Phonological Awareness Handbook for Kindergarten and Primary Teachers
by Lita Ericson and Moira Frasaer Juliebo.

This book offers a practical and comprehensive means of teaching and monitoring children's development of phonological awareness in the classroom. The authors provide answers to frequently asked questions, offer a possible teaching sequence and suggest a variety of activities to enhance children's phonological awareness.

Early Literacy: A Resource For Teachers from Saskatchewan Education, 2000

This practical resource guide provides many ideas for teaching language arts that can be used in Kindergarten to Grade 2 classrooms.

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Early Childhood Resources

Early Childhood
Resources