Getting Started with Early Reading Together®

The Early Reading Together®: Workshop Leader's Handbook contains all the information which school/ECE leaders, teachers and librarians need to implement the programme effectively and as intended. The sets of Early Reading Together® resources for whānau contain the information parents/whānau need to support their children at home.

Early Reading Together® is designed so that it can be implemented in a school or ECE service by interested teachers, ideally with the support of their colleagues and community librarians (wherever possible). The Workshop Leader's Handbook is a carefully scripted, stand-alone professional development resource which enables educators and librarians to implement Early Reading Together® effectively. For example, the Handbook includes:

• the key understandings on which the programme is based
• detailed, step-by-step suggestions for setting up the programme
• clear descriptions of each workshop and each workshop activity

The contents of the Workshop Leader's Handbook are firmly grounded in decades of research and best practice, which include implementing and supporting Early Reading Together® in a range of schools and early childhood services, with diverse groups of parents and children. The Handbook is a user-friendly, sound and practical resource.

Experience has shown that teachers, school/ECE leaders and librarians who (a) read and understand each section of the Handbook and (b) follow the step-by-step processes carefully, are likely to maintain the integrity of the programme and therefore implement it effectively. The result is that the workshop programme is enjoyable and worthwhile for the families, teachers and librarians who participate. Early Reading Together® then becomes a sustainable component of the programmes which schools, early childhood services and libraries provide for their communities.

More Information:

1. A message from Jeanne Biddulph MNZM (Early Reading Together® programme developer).
2. A PDF comparing Early Reading Together® and Reading Together® is available here.
3. Information about Early Reading Together® is available in Section 4 of Jeanne Biddulph's Submission on the Parliamentary Inquiry into engaging parents in the education of their children.