Content-rich Early Literacy
According to the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), at least ⚠️15,000+⚠️ educators graduate every year unprepared to teach children how to read.¹ The NCTQ identified two major causes of this:
1️⃣ Early learning teachers in many pre-service programs are not required to take the courses needed to effectively build essential background knowledge in their future students.²
2️⃣ Many early learning teachers are taught by professors whose approach doesn't align with the Science of Reading.³
Here is a wild stat:
97% of NCTQ surveyed higher education institutions do not require aspiring teachers to complete courses in most of the topics in background knowledge subjects, science or social studies, an early learning teacher needs to know.²
Yet 95% of education leaders agree that “teachers cannot teach what they do not know.”²
Though there is growing attention to building background knowledge as a core pillar of literacy and reading curricula, the Science of Reading (SoR) legislation still doesn’t give it the proper weight. The latest Reading Reform Report reveals that “Despite tracking references to background knowledge systematically, [there is] an almost complete omission of this term in the legislation.”⁴ Both pre-service programs AND SoR legislation give limited attention to background knowledge like social studies, despite research findings that “Social studies is the only subject with a clear, positive, and statistically significant effect on reading improvement.”⁵
Limited attention to social studies means limited reading improvement. There is growing consensus that social studies cannot be meaningfully learned in isolation in an early childhood curriculum or when integrated into the literacy block only. It has to be both.
Early literacy curricula and teacher PD must be steeped in courses that develop background knowledge. Content-rich early literacy learning can no longer be overlooked, given our country's underperforming PISA and NAEP scores. Despite being underemphasized in SoR legislation, background knowledge instruction is a critical component of literacy. Watch Nell Duke's viral video on speaking up for Science and Social Studies.⁶ Let's continue to amplify voices like Nell Duke's!
See the sources below for some deep dives into this topic.
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About AskMeno
AskMeno is dedicated to helping early-childhood leaders build the foundational oral language and social skills necessary for their young scholars’ reading comprehension and emotional wellbeing. AskMeno provides a play-based, teacher-facilitated supplemental curriculum that systematically and explicitly develops oral language and social skills through scaffolded, fun, and engaging learning activities.
