The Cornerstones to Early Literacy Childhood
Experiences that Promote Learning in Reading, Writing, and Oral Language
by Katherine Luongo-Orlando
Pembroke Publishers, 2010
ISBN 978-1-55138-257-9 (pbk)
$24.95, 168 pp, index, references, teachers’ resource
www.pembrokepublishers.com
Sometimes teachers need recipe books, but what turns a cook into a chef is the understanding of the “behind the scenes”—what makes things the way they are and how they react under different conditions. Here is a book that helps you delve below the surface and really see what is going on in the process of learning to read proficiently and to write effectively. The author starts by explaining why children play, what play does and how it is connected to reading and literacy. From here she moves on to the role of oral communication, nursery rhymes and folklore, how to enhance the transition to the printed page and from there how to produce written texts. Each chapter starts with a theoretical framework, then reviews the role of the environment and the adult in facilitating development through activities such as those suggested at the end of the chapter.
This is a scholarly work and could be a textbook. The detailed index and reference list that includes 150 sources proves this was written by someone who has experience in research and in teaching the primary grades as well as the adults who will teach the K to 3 crowd.
Even though this text is geared to the primary grades, there is much that can be used by all teachers, for every child can benefit from positive experiences in learning to communicate effectively when speaking and writing, and so this book belongs on all professional bookshelves.
Review by Mary Moroska.
This review is from Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Mar/Apr 2012 issue.
