The four components of language arts are listening, speaking, reading and writing, points out Rae Pica in a blog post earlier this year, but "the first two don't get the respect and attention they deserve." That's why she shared an article by Nancy E. Bailey that makes a strong argument for focusing first on play, as a way to develop listening and speaking skills. "These skills are developed through play, which leads to interest in words and a reason to want to read."

For 4- and 5-year-olds, Bailey criticizes the elimination of play kitchens and dress-up in Kindergarten classrooms and deplores behavior-focused schools that reduce children's opportunities to speak, among other issues. To underscore her point, she reviews five child development books published in earlier decades to show how early education has changed. The emphasis in these texts is on conversing with children, playing--and on reminders not to "drill" children to learn their letters, but to encourage them with entertaining books, games and songs.  

When schools first shut down because of COVID-19, there were many lists of videotaped read alouds--even from famous actors and actresses. The problem, according to the Institute for Education Sciences*, was that these videos, however helpful at the time, were just "adults reading the text of books."  In order for read alouds to be more than just a pleasant experience, they say, young children need more: an intentionally designed, interactive event--that is, "not just listening to the words of the book, but answering questions along the way." And they provide a video in which a skilled professional developer offers suggestions for making this happen, even in the virtual environment. Read more  and watch the video.

* The Institute for Education Sciences is the statistics, research and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education.

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"Studies have revealed that 4 to 6-year-olds whose parents read to them more were better at identifying that others might have desires or beliefs different from their own," according to an article from The Reading Teacher magazine. The authors point out that research in literacy has mostly focused on things like vocabulary or spelling, but say that reading also affects "social competence"--that is, the ability to understand emotions. 

One reason is that fiction is a simulation of the real world. Another is the way stories engage the readers' emotions. Read more, including implications for the classroom.