Be an Informed Parent

Learning about current trends and research in literacy development will help you ensure that your child gets the best support, both at home and at school. Not only will you learn about simple and fun things to do with your child at home, you will also become an informed advocate of your child's school programs and curriculum.

We have developed the following guiding principles, based on our interpretation of the research and more than 45 years of experience working with children:

• Higher level literacy—our goal for all students—is achieved by learning to think critically about texts.
• Oral language is the basis of language acquisition (for hearing children) and therefore the basis for literacy.
• Reading aloud to young children, and to adolescents, helps them make the transition from the spoken word to the written word.
• Even children who cannot yet decode or who have difficulty with the decoding process can begin to develop the higher literacy skills of critical thinking by asking and answering questions about stories they have heard read aloud.
• Because there are many types of written materials and many purposes for reading, students should be exposed to a wide variety of written materials, be taught a variety of reading strategies appropriate to the various types of texts, and be given ample opportunities to practice the skills and strategies they have acquired in order to become proficient.
• The social construction of meaning is an important part of coming to terms with challenging and complex texts. Therefore, discussion is a necessary step in the reading process when the goal is understanding literary, philosophical, or theoretical works.
• A strong writing component, with opportunities to create various forms of writing, is an important part of any literacy program.