Building Kindergarten Readers - From the playground to the text
Using an interactive shared reading experience your students can learn to interact with the text in such a way that letters and words come off of the page and into their eyes, ears and mouths!
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This might be for you if . . .
You want a whole class lesson that transfers to independent practice and literacy stations.- You want to learn to use your observations to impact your teaching.
- You want to change your teaching across the school year - INTENTIONALLY!
- Many of your students seem lost, without footholds in print.
- You know kindergarteners are sponges but you struggle with what is developmentally appropriate in kindergarten literacy.
- You feel like something is missing in your kindergarten literacy instruction.
- You know kids need to learn to read and decode but they don’t even know their letters.
- You end each year feeling like you have students who could have learned more, if only you would have done things differently.
Imagine your teaching if . . .
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You could participate in a year-round professional development series that would help you not just deliver fantastic reading lessons but to transfer that learning to independent practice and literacy stations.
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You could have a classroom alive with texts that students can read.
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You could engage and move all students (including special needs and English Language Learners) in an interactive classroom reading experience.
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You could learn why kindergarteners are different from first or second grade readers.
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You could learn where to begin reading instruction when students know nothing!
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You could teach letter confusions, reversals and formations with more confidence.
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YOU COULD INCREASE A STUDENT'S WAY OF KNOWING!
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THIS is the kindergarten professional development that is right for you!
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WHAT OUR TEACHERS ARE SAYING
EMILY - KINDERGARTEN TEACHER
“Well, I'll be honest at the beginning of the year I was a little nervous to take on this new adventure. It seemed like we were, maybe, pushing kindergarteners further than they should be pushed. But through all the trainings and modeling that Jen showed us and all the examples Jen’s given us and all the resources; I've seen that kindergarteners are more than capable of doing the things that we're asking them to do in reading. I have also noticed that this goes really well with guided reading. Our kids are in a much better spot at this point in the year than they have been in years past. Now students are noticing things like punctuation at the end of sentences. They're able to pick out high frequency words, even if it's a word that we haven't talked about in a few weeks. It still just comes up over and over again. They're able to take on CVC words and blend them on their own. Really, everything that you would normally teach in a phonics or a whole group lesson is all embedded in this one experience.”
BROOKE - KINDERGARTEN TEACHER
“I really see it as transformative for me. Just looking at how I taught before and feeling like I'm trying my best but they're just was something that wasn't quite clicking for my kids. And then, using the interactive reading experiences, it just gives those kids, and me too, this almost step by step process of we're just going to focus on this right now. And we're going to get really good at that (step/skill). And then, just exactly when they're ready, that's when it (the next step/skill) comes. So, it's just been really great to have that “focus” for me when looking at reading. I will not teach differently than this.”
Chris - SAI 2021 Elementary Principal of the Year
“What has surprised me the most is the level of engagement and curiosity that they have. We have kindergarteners learning vocabulary words because they're curious, because they want to know more. We see more kids that are reading on their own independently or writing on their own independently or being engaged in a center independently for longer than you used to see. You see kids fully engaged for 20 minutes in some sort of literacy because they're interested in it and they want to know more. So that's the piece that has been the most fun is to see. It’s like they're asking for more. They don't want to be done. When they do the shared reading there are so many words that they know. Especially this time of year. There are fewer words that they don’t know and they are telling you that. It was all teacher directed and now it is all student engagement.”
THE YEAR AT A GLANCE
OPENING SESSION
Learn about the BIG 3: seeing like a reader, hearing like a reader and thinking like a reader! These three big ideas will impact classroom organization and lesson content.
Monthly Sessions
Videos of classroom lessons and student reading will anchor these two hour sessions as we explore where to go next with our teaching.
Binder, Workbook Pages and More
You will get a binder, workbook pages, and getting started lessons mailed to you. Each month you will receive new workbook pages and lesson plans.
What our teachers are saying:
Nicki - KINDERGARTEN TEACHER
I feel like in kindergarten you want to teach them everything. But it’s the slowing down piece and (knowing) that we're going to get really good at something and then we're going to move on.”
Shelby - KINDERGARTEN TEACHER
“I've seen so much more growth in all of my kids, even my lows compared to my years past.”
Hi, I'm Jennifer, CEO of Building a Reader
I am a wife to an amazing man and mother to three. My friends call me Jen. My passion for literacy acquisition has been that ‘happy spark’ in my life. The spark started the first year I taught kindergarten and has never stopped! My passion just seemed to grow over the next 24 years!
I would say my drive to help kindergarten teachers came when I was trained in Reading Recovery, as a Reading Recovery Teacher Leader and as a Guided Reading Plus coach. These experiences on my journey brought to head two things; my need for a depth of understanding about how students acquire literacy (versus just practicing letter games) and a belief that kindergarten teachers should have an opportunity to learn it. I knew what I didn’t know as a kindergarten teacher and through discussions with other teachers, found out that they didn’t know it either.
My passion project, Building a Kindergarten Reader Through Interactive Shared Reading Experiences began. I studied, created a plan, taught teachers and continued to revise. I even went back to teach kindergarten! When everything was set, I spent a year training teachers and doing action research! The outcomes were BETTER than I had anticipated! Yes, BETTER!
The truth is, learning starts in kindergarten! This is the training that will help set the stage for your readers!
See you at training,
Jennifer
JOIN THE WAITLIST!PLUS A BONUS
Problem-solving sessions to discuss the hardest to teach!
Brooke - KINDERGARTEN TEACHER
“It just gives me such a focus. I feel like my low kids are not guessing. They just know - okay here are the things that I can try. They're more proud of their reading. They're excited to do it. It just feels like they're more in control because we practice it whole group and then they do those same things in our small group and in their independent work at their stations.”
Erin - LITERACY COACH
“Jen's depth of knowledge is incredible and she's always stretching us to have rationale behind the decisions that we make based on best practice and research in the field of literacy. She continues to stretch us and grow as as professionals by even again breaking things down in ways that are really easy to understand that we can apply that very same day into teaching.”
Carla - English Language Learner Teacher
Jennifer has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to literacy. She is able to balance the theoretical aspects of the teaching of reading with practical, in the moment teaching moves. When she leads large group learning, she contextualizes the instructional decisions we make as teachers within the science, research, and best practices of literacy instruction. When she coaches in the moment as I teach, she leans in with warmth and knowledge. I feel simultaneously supported and challenged. As teachers, we need opportunities to “level up” in our teaching, and Jen does a great job of meeting teachers where they are and supporting strategic shifts in both theoretical knowledge and practice.
