Ms. Denise reads to her Mt. Zion preschool students throughout the day. Reading aloud is not only one of the most important thing we can do to support early literacy, it is also a critical tool to building vocabulary.
Vocabulary knowledge is a critical aspect to an individual's ability to read, communicate, and acquire new knowledge. Deficits in vocabulary knowledge, which may appear as early as one year of age, are long-lasting and are associated with a number of negative academic outcomes (e.g., Biemiller & Slonim, 2001; Beitchman, Jiang, Koyama, Johnson, Escobar, Atkinson, Brownlie, & Vida, 2008.; Pearson, Hiebert, & Kamil, 2007)
Research in Action
The Indy Learning Team partners with Mt. Zion Academy to provide books lists and writing activities. That translates into 208 books each year. And this is just a start, they make reading books the center of their play-based program!