by Sharon Palsha (right)
Clinical Associate Professor
UNC Chapel Hill
What techniques do you currently use to teach storybook reading to students? Do you provide chances for your students to practice and get feedback on reading storybooks to groups? What strategies do you use to do that? Sharon Palsha from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill talks about the new CONNECT Module 6 on dialogic reading and it’s use in early childhood settings.
Research points out the importance of high quality read-alouds for increasing the vocabulary, oral language and comprehension of pre-school children. Therefore, knowing how to implement a high quality read-aloud is a critical skill needed by early childhood professionals. CONNECT Module 6 on dialogic reading allowed my early childhood students to become competent and skilled in their abilities to read to children. A valuable tool in the module is the availability of a checklist that reminds students, through the use of the acronyms CROWD and PEER key elements to include as they read to children. The teacher candidates came to understand that dialogic reading is more than simply reading to children, but an opportunity to have conversations with children around a book. Is your early childhood program giving the attention to dialogic reading that it deserves? I strongly encourage you to check out CONNECT’s new module!
About the Author: Sharon Palsha, a former researcher at FPG Child Development Institute, has 34 years experience as an educator and is currently a Clinical Associate Professor of Early Childhood at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she begins her ninth year coordinating and teaching in the undergraduate program. Sharon is also currently a Research Fellow at FPG working to assist in the development of CONNECT Modules.
STARTER QUESTIONS
- What techniques do you currently use to teach storybook reading to students?
- Do you provide chances for your students to practice and get feedback on reading storybooks to groups? What strategies do you use to do that?
- Have you used any CONNECT Videos for instruction? If so, how has it been received by students?