Ladders to Literacy

This practical guide for teachers and practitioners supports the development of early literacy skills through engaging activities for students at risk for reading failure, including children with disabilities and their typically developing peers. The book contains approximately 60 classroom activities for kindergarten students designed to facilitate skills in three areas: print awareness, metalinguistic awareness, and oral language. Research suggests that these three areas are strongly related to later reading development. Filled with adaptable games, crafts, storytelling, and other classroom ideas, this book will complement prereading curricula in the kindergarten classroom. Activities focus on preacademic skills, early literacy development, and early reading development. Goals become more intense as children learn to recognize letters, match sounds with letters, and develop phonological awareness and the alphabetic principle. This new edition includes new information on the measurement of literacy, 11 new activities, a new section of tips for teachers, and information on new literacy research.