CT Ready to Read is an initiative of the CT State Library designed to equip public library staff with the information, skills, and tools needed to promote and develop early literacy skills and reading readiness in their communities. Through research backed learning models, workshops, and resources, library staff will have the opportunity to learn to model for, and work with, parents, caregivers, and children.
Using programs like Every Child Ready to Read, Reimagining School Readiness, Supercharged Storytime, strategic partnerships and more, participants will learn how to incorporate intentional practices into traditional theme based storytimes and early literacy programs. As community anchors, libraries are emblems of public service, lifelong learning, and equitable access, and CT Ready to Read was created for libraries so that they have the capability to help prepare all Connecticut children for reading.
Print Motivation: interest in and enjoyment of books and reading. Children with print motivation enjoy being read to, plays with books, pretend to write, and like visiting the library. Children who perceive reading as a pleasurable activity and books as interesting will be motivated to learn to read.
Phonological Awareness: the ability to hear and manipulate the smaller sounds in words (rhyming, syllables, starting sounds). Children with phonological awareness skills recognize that words are made up of a number of sounds. They can hear and create rhymes, say words with sounds or "chunks" left out, and put sounds together to make a word. Children who can hear and understand how words are made up of smaller sounds will be more successful at "sounding out" written words when they start to read.
Vocabulary: knowing the names of things, including objects, animals, and other concrete things as well as abstract things such as feelings, concepts, and ideas. A strong vocabulary helps children decode words and understand what they read. Children with bigger vocabularies have an easier time when they start to read, because it's easier for them to make sense of the words they are sounding out. Children who understand what they're reading are more motivated to keep reading.
Narrative Skills: the ability to describe things and events and tell stories. Children with good narrative skills can use expressive language effectively. They can recount events, describe things, and tell and retell stories. They can explain their feelings and desires, which can lead to fewer tantrums and help make parenting easier. Narrative skills are important to reading development because they help children comprehend and explain the meaning of what they’re reading.
Print Awareness: the ability to notice print, to know that print has meaning, to understand how to handle a book, and to know how to follow print in a book. Children have to be aware of words before they can read them. They need to know how books work - which is the front and back cover, what's upside down and right side up, which page to start on and which direction to read (from left to right in English).
Letter Knowledge: knowing that letters are different from each other and that they have different names and sounds. As children gain letter knowledge, they learn that the same letter can look different (capital and lowercase), that each letter has a name, and each letter is related to sounds.
This project is funded by the State of Connecticut and the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Connecticut State Library.
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