Get Ready to Read! Feature
December 2006

NCLD and Stern Center host Building Blocks for Literacy Webinar Series 

NCLD, in partnership with the Stern Center for Language and Learning, recently hosted a three-part series of webinars based on the Stern Center's BUILDING BLOCKS for Literacy® program.  BUILDING BLOCKS shares research based knowledge about early literacy prerequisites as identified by the National Research Council:  shared book reading, sound awareness and the speech to print connection.  For the December GRTR! Newsletter feature, Dr. Blanche Podhajski, founder and president of the Stern Center, describes key BUILDING BLOCKS concepts and activities for immediate implementation in early education classrooms and childcare settings.
 
1. What sets BUILDING BLOCKS apart from other professional development approaches in the early childhood field?

BUILDING BLOCKS combines a curriculum in early literacy with onsite mentoring for early care and education professionals.  By using the three recommendations of the National Research Council–shared book reading, phonological awareness, and the speech to print connection–we were able to focus attention on those intervention strategies that science has shown to be most powerful in preparing our children to become successful readers.

2. Why do you think childcare providers embrace this form of professional development?

Childcare providers spend significant amounts of time with young children and want interaction opportunities to be meaningful.  Knowing that there are a manageable number of literacy targets to think about is appealing.  That these three targets of shared book reading, phonological awareness and the speech to print connection can be addressed through enjoyable activities in which both children and adults have fun is an additional incentive.

3. The research supporting BUILDING BLOCKS is impressive.  Can you tell our readers a little bit more about how you proved the program is effective?

We wanted to find out if by increasing the knowledge of providers we could see changes in the literacy readiness of children.  And, sure enough, not only did children whose providers participated in BUILDING BLOCKS score higher on measures such as Get Ready to Read!, but those in the lowest group rose from below to above an at risk literacy level.

4. To the layperson, it could be assumed that childcare providers already use elements of shared book reading, connecting speech to print and teaching children about sounds through their everyday center activities.  Why is it important for childcare providers to learn explicit strategies for building early literacy skills?

Research has told us that while many children benefit just by showing up at childcare programs where early literacy skills are addressed, almost half of them need to have this information delivered directly, not incidentally.  That is, rather than just reading with children and assuming they are intuiting sounds, letters, vocabulary and concepts of print, it is far better to teach these critical skills explicitly.

5. We often hear from providers wanting advice on how to share information with a child’s parents or caregivers.  Do you encourage providers to include parents in the effort to build early literacy? 

Absolutely.  Parents are a child’s first teachers.  Making time at the end of the day to show parents how reading is done to bolster language, how rhymes and songs promote sound awareness, and how sounds can be linked to print extends children’s exposure to literacy across settings.

6. You have recently partnered with NCLD to host three Webinars based on BUILDING BLOCKS.  By doing this, you are providing professional development to childcare providers all over the country.  What do you hope to accomplish by using this new technology to reach people in the field?

It has been wonderful to take BUILDING BLOCKS beyond a live presentation format through our partnership Webinars with NCLD, so that childcare providers from around the globe can participate.  We have been thrilled with the enthusiasm expressed by participants from as far away as South America and India as well as across this country.  I think it speaks to our increasing awareness of the incredible opportunity we have to advance literacy by reaching learners at an early age.

7. Finally, what would be your top three tips for childcare providers interested in increasing their early literacy activities in their settings?

READ to children, of course, but also TALK about what you have read afterwards:  find appropriate connections during snack time, outdoors, and as children leave for home.

Have fun with rhyming games, songs and poetry, showing children how sounds are alike and different.

Enjoy and nurture children’s emerging awareness of the magic of print – through letters in their names, on food wrappers, and in their first scribbles.

If you are interested in viewing the three-part BUILDING BLOCKS Webinar series, please visit www.getreadytoread.org/webinar.htm. 

Background
BUILDING BLOCKS was developed in 1997 at the Stern Center to investigate the positive effect on children's pre-literacy skills when their early childhood professionals (home-based childcare providers, center-based childcare staff and preschool and kindergarten teachers) are systematically educated on how to enhance specific readiness skills. Over the past ten years, over one thousand early care and education professionals have taken BUILDING BLOCKS, a two-day course and six-month onsite mentorship.   To learn more about the Stern Center, please visit their Web site, www.sterncenter.org.