Read, Play, and Learn! Storybook Activities for Young Children: Collection 1 [Storybooks and Teacher's Guide; Modules 1-8]
Toni W. Linder
Read, Play and Learn! is a play-based curriculum designed to promote growth across all of the areas of development important to a young child. With a school-year's worth of ready-to-use lessons or modules, the curriculum provides story-related activities centered around themes such as enjoying seasonal festivities, sharing emotions, making friends, understanding other cultures, and just having fun. This set of module booklets comprises the first collection of storybook activities for the curriculum. Providing 2 weeks of theme-based activities, each module booklet covers how to use the curriculum, the story, planning sheets, vocabulary, materials, classroom areas/centers, involving families, and additional suggestions. The module booklets each relate to a particular children's story: (1) "The Kissing Hand;" (2) "Somebody and the Three Blairs;"(3) "Picking Apples & Pumpkins;" (4) "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything;" (5) "The Knight and the Dragon;" (6) "Abiyoyo;"(7) "Night Tree;" and (8) "The Snowy Day."
Summary for Teacher's Guide:
This teacher's guide provides guidance in encouraging early learning and development by creating a literacy-rich environment for preschool and kindergarten children of all ability levels. The guide explains how to arrange the classroom, organize the day, introduce modifications for children of varying ability levels, and involve family members in their child's education. The guide also offers background information on the importance of play and literature in early learning, provides an overview of developmental domains, and discusses what to expect at various levels of children's development. The guide's appendix provides reproducible master planning sheets and illustrations to use with module activities.
Toni W. Linder. Read, Play, and Learn! Storybook Activities for Young Children: Collection 1 [Storybooks and Teacher's Guide; Modules 1-8] (1999). Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.: Baltimore, MD.
(640 pages).
Language: English
Reading Level: Average
Formats Available: Printed Material
(Price is for storybooks and case, teacher's guide cost $45.00)
Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
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Languages Available: English
Read, Play, and Learn! Storybook Activities for Young Children: Collection II [Storybooks and Teacher's Guide; Modules 9-16]
Intended User Audience:
Users maybe anyone who works with pre-school children 3-6 years old. Users can be from all disciplines: occupational therapy, psychology, social work, early childhood education, audiology, etc. The curriculum is inclusive and is meant to be used with children from all developmental abilities.
Product Development:
The author's background is educational psychology and special education. The team of developers included teachers, occupational therapists, psychologists, and speech therapists. Team members are European American; however, contributors to the modules included professionals from African American and Hispanic backgrounds, as well.
Product Evaluation:
This material has not been formally evaluated. However, it was field tested in a number of different settings throughout the U.S. with children from many backgrounds, including Hispanic, African American, European American, Native American, Asian, and Indian.
Product Dissemination:
Approximately 500 have been distributed from Fall 1999-January 2000.
Review #1
About the reviewer:
The reviewer has worked for ten years with both preschool and early
intervention programs throughout the state of Illinois. The majority
of her work has concentrated on Birth to Five programs in a large,
multiethnic, urban area. In the last four years she has trained and
consulted in Head Start programs on the provision of services to
infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with known or suspected
disabilities. She has conducted training locally, statewide, regionally
and nationally within the federally-funded program.
Audience:
The material's intended audience is early childhood administrators, staff and parents who work with children 3-6 years old.
Strengths of the Material:
The presentation of the material is easy to follow because of the specific headings used. For example, if the reader wanted a list of developmentally appropriate stories to share with children in this age range, they need only refer to the heading entitled, "The Storybook Module." The curriculum can be used by professionals across disciplines and is inclusive of children with varying abilities. In addition, the curriculum uses a literacy-based, play-oriented and developmentally appropriate approach to learning. Instruction can be individualized by making needed adaptations in the program and through daily interactions among the children, their peers and teachers. It also includes a section on encouraging family involvement and offers a variety of sample forms that can easily be modified for use by the program.
Limitations of the Material:
The material should be offered in other languages.
Adaptations:
None.
Generalizability:
This material would be appropriate for use in a variety of communities.
Recommendations:
This material is recommended, although it has not been formally evaluated. However, it was field tested in different settings throughout the United States with children from many backgrounds.
Producer's Response:
Not available at this time.
Review #2
About the reviewer:
The reviewer has a master's degree in early childhood special
education and a doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction.
She taught preschool through the elementary grades for 15 years
before teaching at the college level. She taught courses in early
childhood education at two Native American tribal colleges for three
years and currently teaches early childhood courses at the
University of South Dakota. She has directed the production of a
video and CD-ROM on inclusion.
Audience:
Toni Linder has designed these materials to be used by all who work with pre-school children from three to six years of age. It can be used by professionals in a variety of disciplines, such as early childhood education, occupational therapy, audiology, psychology, and others. The materials contain a great deal of material to share with parents, but is written for professionals working with children and families, not the families themselves. The material is not restricted to any cultural group but is intended for a wide audience.
Strengths of the Material:
The Read, Play, And Learn materials consist of a teacher's guide and a series of instructional modules. The modules are each based on a particular favorite storybook, and each includes: a brief retelling of the picture book; planning sheets outlining suggested activities for two weeks; key words and concepts used in the books; materials needed to carry out the two weeks of activities; suggestions of centers that can be set up; how to involve families; and additional storybooks, activities, songs, fingerplays, and children's software that can be used. The purpose of the material is clear, providing a curriculum that addresses all areas of development, using play and literacy as the foundation. It describes the importance of play and choice in children's learning and development.
The material is very clearly presented and the print format is very useful. The directions for using these modules are very easy to follow. The reading level is relatively average and should be easily understood by professionals. Contact information, including ordering information, is easily found at the beginning and end of the book. The material has been field tested with children from many different cultural backgrounds throughout the United States. There are a few photographs found in the modules; these represent a variety of cultures and abilities and enhance the materials.
The material discusses the importance of emergent literacy and explains why service providers and families should be concerned about it. The assessment measures they mention are very much in keeping with the emergent literacy approach and include observation, checklists, and including children in their own assessment.
The material does an excellent job of showing how literacy can be incorporated throughout the entire curriculum, using a variety of activities including adult-child storybook reading of familiar and predictable stories, songs, poems, and centers that provide many excellent hands-on opportunities. It describes the importance of having print-rich environments and how to make use of them in both the classroom and at home. The book has an excellent handout for parents describing how to recognize and use print found in each room of the house. There are ideas on how to help families learn how to conduct storybook readings. The material describes helping children see multiple purposes for reading and writing and describes the stages of reading and writing. It encourages acceptance of children's emerging writing skills and their invented spelling as they move toward more conventional spellings. It presents well designed activities to develop phonemic awareness, reading and writing.
One of the real strengths of the material is its acknowledgement of the many developmental levels of children in a program. It provides suggestions for adaptations to lessons and materials so that they are appropriate for all children. The manual has an entire chapter dealing with how to use this approach with children who have a hearing loss and another chapter on working with children with visual impairments. It advocates using a "transdisciplinary" team approach, which would include parents as well as professionals from a variety of fields.
Read, Play, and Learn acknowledges the important role of families. Both the handbook and modules contain wonderful handouts for parents that help them work on building literacy at home throughout daily activities. It includes a set of literacy goals to share with parents which includes helping children develop a love of books and learning and the ability to communicate in a variety of ways. It describes many ways of working with parents including handouts, personal communication, bulletin boards with information for families, communication notebooks, and parent advisory boards and committees. There are numerous resources listed throughout the materials that are very helpful both for parents and professionals.
The materials point out that it is important "to be sensitive to and knowledgeable about children in relationship to their families and culture and community." Books chosen for the modules do contain characters from several cultures and cover a variety of topics, such as friendship, acceptance, fears, and family traditions. The module focusing on the book, The Kissing Hand, is especially helpful for children who will be transitioning from one setting to another.
Limitations of the Material:
While this material does an excellent job of describing how to work with children of varying abilities, it does not focus a great deal of attention on culture or cultural diversity. It does mention the importance of culture several times, but does not touch much on issues such as tapping into children's home literacy practices that may differ from more traditional practices. There is some attention given to asking families to share their culture with their own children and the class, such as inviting parents in to help make tortillas while reading the book The Three Little Javelinas. There is a very good list of materials in each module to help children carry out the activities; however, these lists of materials do not emphasize the need to include dolls, toys, props, materials and foods from other cultures.
The manual does not provide a great deal of assistance to those who are working with children for whom English is a second language. It does not discuss issues of assessment or developmental writing for these children, but does suggest that books be translated for families who would benefit from this. The manual does not provide explanations of how to support literacy activities in the homes of non-literate families. The book does not address issues of power, racism, prejudice, or socio-economic class as they relate to emergent literacy. The book does contain some technical jargon but is generally very easy to understand.
Adaptations:
This material could be supplemented with outside information on how to work with children who are bilingual and are learning English as a second language. These could include ideas on how to assess second-language learners and how to support children's emerging literacy in their dominant or native language. Using additional materials on how to work with families who do not speak English or who are not literate would also help those who are working with families in these situations. More material on the inclusion of culture and cultural issues in helping children acquire literacy would strengthen the curriculum.
Generalizability:
This material can be used with all cultural groups. It could be used with parents and caregivers from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds with the assistance of someone who could communicate with those who are interested.
Recommendations:
Recommended. Read, Play, and Learn is an excellent resource. It provides a curriculum that can be used with all children to create an inclusive environment that promotes the development of children in all areas. The activities are well planned and very complete. It provides a very developmentally appropriate approach to learning, including meaningful, hands-on activities and centers in a literacy-rich environment.
Producer's Response:
Not available for this review.
Gail Becker - Elementary teacher, Champaign-Urbana IL
If I were teaching an early childhood or kindergarten class, I would definitely incorporate this curriculum into my classroom. It is literacy based but expands into every other curriculum area. I like the idea that there are many suggestions given for expansion of the story, but that the teacher and the children can take the expansion in any direction they want to go. The structure is there, but it allows for creativity.
The graphics, illustrations, and photos in this curriculum include children with disabilities and children and families from a variety of backgrounds (e.g., Hispanic, African American, and Native American) in a nonstereotypical manner. Although more stories are Eurocentric, there are also stories that include characters and customs of other cultures. Suggestions for adapting the curriculum are not specifically given for children and families from different backgrounds. However, finding additional multicultural and multilingual books that follow the themes and philosophy of this program would be a relatively easy adaptation a user could make.
It is easy to recommend this curriculum to others because it is so child centered. The idea that activities for every day are specifically written out in a concise manner makes it easy to incorporate into most any classroom for young children. There are planning sheets for "at-a-glance" reference. A list of key words and concepts, including labels, action words, and descriptors to which the children can be introduced are given for each story. A list of toys, playthings, equipment, supplies, food, and other items needed for each module are specifically given for ease of organizing. A description of 10 days of different activities for each area or center in the classroom, plus suggested modifications for the sensorimotor, functional, and symbolic levels of learning, are adequately provided. There are recommendations for involving families or other caregivers, including sample letters to send home. In most instances, this program offers more activities than the teacher will be able to incorporate, which is intentional so that activities can be selected that match the interest, abilities, and educational and developmental needs of the children being served. The teacher's guide describes the foundations of the curriculum, provides instruction in using the curriculum with children of different ages and ability levels, offers suggestions for classroom set-ups, and reviews the stages of literacy development. The guide also provides information on how to use the modules with transdisciplinary teams.
The advantages of "Read, Play, and Learn" are many. The use of the same storybook over two weeks (or longer if desired) allows repeated encounters with themes and concepts and the modification, adaptation, and generalization of skills related to those ideas across time and from school to home. The reiteration of concepts and themes provides opportunities for understanding in multiple ways. The development of projects allows children to work at their own pace. Repeated exposure to activities builds memory skills. Actions, events, characters, language structures, and vocabulary are increasingly understood, retained, and applied. In short, each story and its related activities serve as the stimulus for discussion.
Letticia Alvarez - undergraduate student, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The books are wonderful in that they present important universal themes. "The Kissing Hand," for example, is an endearing story that discusses separation anxiety, and "The Knight and the Dragon" teaches about friendships and problem solving. Although cultural diversity is encompassed, it is not necessarily emphasized. Of the 16 books included in this curriculum, only 3, "Abiyoyo," "The Three Little Javelinas," and "The Snowy Day," present characters representing minority groups. More books highlighting people of different backgrounds would enrich the curriculum. Children need to see themselves in the books they read to promote self-esteem and pride in their diverse backgrounds.
Within this curriculum, language may be a deterrent in some settings. Children who are learning English as a second language, or those who receive a bilingual education, may have difficulty understanding these materials. Although the professional could search for more appropriate books to fit his or her classroom's needs, the task of finding books to follow this model may be difficult. It would be useful if versions of this curriculum were available in other languages as well. The curriculum was designed to assist teachers in their ongoing efforts to engage parents; however, the sample letters to parents would be more effective if they were shorter and written more simply. Parents' varying educational backgrounds were not considered when these were written; however, they do provide a format from which professionals could derive their own letters.
Although this curriculum attempts to serve all children, professionals should keep in mind other circumstances in which they will need to make alternate arrangements. For example, this curriculum would not be the best tool to use in teaching a child when language may be a barrier. Also, this curriculum does not consider possible low literacy rates in families, which should be taken into account when implementing strategies to engage families. Also, it may not be feasible to ask parents to take their children on excursions, as some modules suggest, if the families have limited income.
Despite these limitations, this transdisciplinary curriculum is a good tool for teachers to implement in a classroom when a broad range of abilities are present. The curriculum is well organized and allows for flexibility in the classroom. The modules are well designed, with predictable formats and meaningful activities. Also, the educator will appreciate the details included in the modules, which save preparation time.
Camille Unzicker - Graduate student in early childhood special education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
I would use the "Read, Play, and Learn" curriculum because (in part) it explains the type of activities that are done in the early childhood center for two-week blocks of time. It also explains how to set up the classroom (e.g., what materials go in each center) to follow the storybook theme. The language is easy to understand, and when there are technical terms, they are fully explained. In addition, "Read, Play, and Learn" is literacy based and has a lot of suggestions for involving parents in school activities (e.g., notes sent home for parents to do storybook activities with their child). Another impression I had was that "Read, Play, and Learn" is a transdisciplinary play-based curriculum and is meant to be used by a team. The greater the impact of other professionals on giving input for adaptations and intervention strategies to use, the more effective curriculum implementation will be for each child.
The curriculum can be used with all cultural groups; however, it does not give specific adaptations or suggestions for working with children with disabilities and their families who come from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds (except that the material does suggest that storybooks can be translated for families whose first language is not English). The curriculum can be strengthened for these families by including outside information on activities and strategies to support children's emerging literacy in their dominant or main language. Information should be readily available to those who work with families who do not speak English, along with information on their culture. For children and families who come from different backgrounds, there are different adaptations that give support. For example, if English is a second language, the teacher can bring cultural items (i.e., traditional dress) and teach the children simple phrases to say "please" and "thank you." Overall, I believe the "Read, Play, and Learn" curriculum would be challenging to adapt because it does not recognize that families maybe nonliterate, non-English-speaking, and low income. Some schools may not have the funds to provide outside resources to meet these families' needs (e.g., buying books).
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