Teaching Literacy in Kindergarten

Reviews / Votes

An outstanding resource for preservice and practicing teachers. In a user-friendly format, McGee and Morrow present excellent ideas for creating effective literacy practices in the kindergarten classroom. Further, they clearly explain the theory and research that underlies these practices. This is an ideal text for courses addressing emergent/early literacy at either the graduate or undergraduate level, as well as for teachers who want to expand their understanding of 'best practices' in the early literacy environment.--Melanie R. Kuhn, PhD, Graduate School of Education, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

This practical, research-based volume is very comprehensive and extraordinarily accessible. The book can serve as a curriculum guide that is more in-depth than commercial curricula and that more fully explains each of the suggested practices. A teacher learns not simply what to do, but why and how it benefits children. This book could also serve well as a text for students in content-based curriculum and instruction courses. Students who subsequently practice-teach at the kindergarten level will be well prepared for the literacy instruction they must provide and are likely to wear out the book's pages as they consult it daily while planning their lessons.--Judith Schickedanz, PhD, Department of Literacy and Language, Counseling, and Developmental Studies, School of Education, Boston University

McGee and Morrow have painted a wonderful portrait of kindergarten that will inform the practice of early childhood educators across the country. The book vividly illustrates the kinds of interactions and classroom routines that extend children's language and thinking to support early literacy development. Examples of children's drawing and writing, paired with their own words about their work, provide insight into how their understanding of print grows and changes over the course of the kindergarten year. Bringing research-based instructional strategies to life for teachers and teacher educators, this book is a 'must read.'--Renee M. Casbergue, PhD, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of New Orleans

Teaching Literacy in Kindergarten presents practical information that I have not seen in other texts. It will be an excellent resource for new kindergarten teachers as well as more experienced teachers. The explicit teaching ideas offer a wealth of alternatives for meeting student needs. I especially enjoyed the number of ways to schedule a balanced literacy framework into the kindergarten day.--Rita Perre-Davis, MEd, Literacy Coordinator, Freedom Hill Elementary School, Vienna, Virginia
- The reader friendly text and numerous examples help this book meet its goal of being a practical resource book for teachers....What makes this book different from other practical books for teachers is that it explains the theory and research behind recommended practices....A positive aspect of this book is that teachers learn not only ideas of what to do, but also why and how children benefit from those ideas when they are put into practice....This well organized teacher-friendly book contains many examples of student's work, resources, and practical ideas. The authors, who are leaders in the field of literacy, did a good job of presenting a great deal of theory in a compact, easy to read format and have met their goal of making a useful book for practitioners. --Education Review, 5/7/2005