The naeyc has a wealth of additional information for which they have provided links. One link that follows the issues that we have discussed this week is http://wwwfamlit.org/ This is the link for the National Center for Family Literacy. One thing that I have learned this week was the prevalence of immigrants not utilizing the early childhood programs available to them because they did not understand the eligibility guidelines. One major way to fight illiteracy is to work with the whole family. The NCFL provides many resources for teachers and families. Some of these resources are a national conference, professional development opportunities, policy and advocacy for literacy, and grant opportunities.
Another resources I found was a self assessment and planning tool for early childhood programs. The link provided a rubric with guidelines for developing and assessing programs. The professional is led through very specific information for scoring themselves. Then they are called to create an action plan to improve upon the guideline. I felt this would be a very good tool for beginners as well as seasoned teachers. In order to provided an excellent and equitable program for all children, it is crucial to continually self-assess.
Thank you for sharing this web site; I love being able to add new resources to my collection. Literacy is so important to me and I am also an avid reader. "Children’s reading scores improve dramatically when their parents are involved in helping them learn to read" (www.famlit.org), but it can often times be difficulty to impress parents of the importance of reading especially if there is a language barrier. I try to encourage my families to read to their children in their native tongue in hopes of creating the literacy connection.
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