Literacy Express
Print Awareness
Print awareness is the knowledge that printed words carry meaning and that reading and writing are ways to obtain information. A child’s understanding of print is one of the first steps toward developing reading. Literacy Express teaches letters and their sounds in a systematic way so that each child develops the key building blocks in the development of his/her ability to decode written words.
Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness, or phonological sensitivity, is an important pre-reading skill and a reliable predictor of a child’s later reading ability. It is the understanding that words are made up of sounds or sound structures that can be put together in different ways to make different words. Literacy Express presents age-appropriate phonological sensitivity games and activities that help the children learn about and become aware of the sound structures of words. The activities follow a developmental continuum and involve rhyming, compound words, multi-syllable words, and onset-rime.
Dialogic Reading
Dialogic reading is an interactive shared reading practice using picture books in order to increase a child’s vocabulary wile further developing his/her overall language skills. The teacher asks questions and encourages students to expand upon the story. Dialogic reading primarily uses three main techniques – i.e., asking “what” questions, asking open-ended questions, and expanding upon what the children say.