Teachers Partner with Parent Literacy Leaders
If children must hear and use a word 24 times before 80% of them can remember it, teachers will need help making sure special words get repeated. Invite parents to become Literacy Leaders who learn to say what they see their children doing for 10 minutes three times a day. By choosing one conversation starter from The Gift of Words, such as #8 Cook it, Eat it, Clean it up, which is based on one topic, the kitchen, Literacy Leaders will repeat the same or similar words. Each week the conversation will change to a different conversation starter from the book so the network of words the Literacy Leaders agree to say many times will change each week. If both the teacher and all of her Literacy Leaders agree to stay on the same conversation starter each week, the children will hear words repeated at home and at school. See links to lesson possibilities for classrooms for children ages 0-1 ½ and 1 ½ - 3.
