What Children Need to Succeed in Reading

All children need a print-rich literacy environment, daily opportunities to read and write in meaningful and motivating ways, and ample opportunities for child-initiated and child-directed learning.

Literacy Basics

1. A print-rich environment
   • Adults who read for their own purposes
   • Adults who write for their own purposes
   • Frequent story-time experiences
   • Information about letter names and sounds
   • Shared reading
   • Dictation and other shared writing experiences
   • High-quality literature
   • Contextualized print
   • Functional print
   • Answers to questions about print
2. A rich oral-language environment
   • Adult language models
   • Adults who listen to children
   • Free exploration of oral language
   • Peer conversation
   • Dramatic play roles
   • Experiences for vocabulary enrichment
   • Vocabulary information as requested
3. Firsthand experiences of interest
   • Play
   • Daily living
   • Field trips
   • Nature exploration
4. Symbolic representation experiences
   • Dramatic play
   • Drawing and painting
   • Music and dance
5. Pressure-free experimentation with writing (independent writing)
   • Drawing
   • Scribbling
   • Prealphabetic writing
   • Phonics-based learning
6. Pressure-free exploration od reading (independent reading)
   • Reading from memory
   • Reading with context clues
   • Matching print to oral language
7. Information about literacy skills
   • Left-to-right sequence
   • Letter-sound relations
   • Checking for meaning