Emily Brown Hoffman for Goodheart-Willcox Author Testimonials

Speaker: Emily Brown Hoffman, National Louis University

Emily Brown Hoffman: A struggle that teachers commonly face in teaching emergent literacy classes is connecting the theory of emergent literacy or the why we do things in the classroom with the practice, which is the application of instruction, the skills, what are we actually doing? And so conducting the theory and the practice, this is a huge point of this textbook. We really blend that. Why and the how and we do this in age group reflection um where we think about infants and toddlers and preschoolers and pre kindergartners and kindergartners as distinct age groups. And then at the end of these distinct age groups, we're talking about, we make sure to have reflections at the end of each chapters where students help to interpret information holistically. So how do we really think about the information of developmentally appropriate practice? And what do we do with this information as a teacher? Another thing that's sometimes difficult to teach in a classroom is how early literacy is learned and taught outside the classroom in a preschool classroom as well as inside. So what does speaking, listening, reading, writing look like in any setting? Not just a standard preschool classroom

Emily Brown Hoffman: One of the things that I am most excited about in this edition of our book is that we have 20 high quality and reoccurring features throughout the text. In each of these features, we tackle a really important early childhood concept, whether that's the role of technology in the early childhood classroom, which really critically examines early childhood use of technology through a developmentally appropriate practice lens. Another feature is called inclusive classroom where we look at how we can make classrooms really welcoming and supportive of Children with all of their individual needs. Another feature we have is called family connection where we look at how families can be connected with classrooms in classrooms, how families can be brought into classrooms and also how classrooms can connect to broader families and communities. And then we also have some things like storytime checklists where it's really concrete examples of how teachers can use storytime components to teach unconstrained and constrained skills to Children of all ages.

Emily Brown Hoffman: One thing that makes emergent literacy in early childhood unique is the focus on the teacher's role in the classroom. So no matter what age you are teaching from infants to kindergarten, we have unique lesson plans that help students really focus on what components are needed in planning emergent literacy activities and instruction for Children. Another thing that is really exciting is we have partnered with the magazine Cricket. It's very important in early childhood settings to have lots of poems and rhymes and wordplay. Cricket is a nationally recognized magazine with current poems that are represented in this book. So often you'll see out of date nursery rhymes for examples of what Children should be learning as far as language play. But in this book, you'll see current and high quality poems and language play represented. We also have over 100 and 50 book titles of high quality children's literature that have diverse representation. Through these examples. You'll be able to create your own library of children's literature that will be a solid foundation for teaching Children emergent literacy skills.