In most Western European nations (with a few exceptions, such as the U.K.), children learn to read at the age of 6. Even in the U.S., the practice of teaching children to decode words at age 5 is fairly recent. Teaching reading in kindergarten became popular with the rise of standardized testing. This was based on the assumption that early reading would give children a head start, allowing them to do better on the standardized tests they would take in the upper elementary grades. Did the strategy work?
Winner of the 2018 Literacy Research Association’s Edward B. Fry Book Award, Reading the Rainbow: LGBTQ-Inclusive Literacy Instruction in the Elementary Classroom addresses LGBTQ topics in early education. Drawing on examples of teaching from elementary school classrooms, this timely book for practitioners explains why LGBTQ-inclusive literacy instruction is possible, relevant, and necessary in grades K–5.
When adults think of STEM, they often relate it to complex mathematical equations, daunting engineering problems, or complex biological processes. And, oftentimes, young children have the opposite thinking. In Teaching STEM in the Preschool Classroom, the authors claim that children are natural and curious explorers of the world – particularly scientific and natural approaches. And, the authors believe that nurturing this curiosity is important in establishing STEM learning habits early on.
Twelve years ago, in 2007, Ready or Not: Leadership Choices in Early Care and Education, provocatively put forth the question of what defines and bounds early care and education (ECE) as a field of practice. Twelve years later, the field’s defining questions remain unanswered. And it’s showing!
Writing art education lessons plans (or any lesson plan, for that matter) can seem like a tedious chore completed by a teacher for use by someone else (maybe) other than the teacher! However, I’d like to invite you to consider writing art lesson plans for a moment as a way to nurture your creative souls, which I lovingly refer to here as “unicorns and rainbows.”
Will you be in Washington DC for National Association for the Education of Young Children 2018? Take time between sessions to visit the Teachers College Press booth in the exhibit hall. We’ll be there with our latest books on early childhood education. Below, we’ve listed some information and tips for attendees.
