Early Literacy Matters

Carol E. Canady, Ph.D. is a Pre-K–5 literacy coordinator and a literacy consultant for various school districts. She has served as a K–8 teacher and counselor and has taught literacy courses as an Assistant Professor at Miami University and as an instructor at Wright State and Cincinnati Christian Universities. She received her Ph.D. in Reading Education from the University of Virginia, and has received distinguished recognition for teaching and community service, including recent demonstration of high leverage teaching practices in a national video series. Among other publications, Early Literacy Matters is the second book she has co-authored.Robert Lynn Canady, Ed.D. is Professor Emeritus and former chair of the Department of Leadership, Foundations and Policy Studies at the University of Virginia, and a national consultant on innovative scheduling and grading practices. He has served as principal of elementary, middle, and junior high schools, and held leadership positions in two school district central offices. He has received numerous awards for outstanding teaching and service and is co-author of four bestselling books, including Elementary School Scheduling: Enhancing instruction for School achievement with Michael D. Rettig, School Scheduling Associates, Inc.

"Early Literacy Matters is a practical guide for school leaders who want purposeful systemic change. Teachers can’t do it alone; it takes inspiration, innovation, interaction, and best-practice literacy instruction. In fact, the authors have inspired me to create an innovative system of instructional delivery in my own school which has led to high performance."—Joan Gordon, Principal, East Union Elementary, Afton, IA"For a number of years—too many—we were seeing students who were reaching grade 3 unable to catch up to their peers in reading. That was because there were not enough of the right strategies in place in the early grades. But with the changes that were made in grades K-2, thanks to the strategies outlined in this book, most of the students were reading at or above grade level by the time they were in third grade, which is all-important to their overall academic success."—Pam Vogel, Former Superintendent, East Union School District, Afton, Iowa

• 1. A Systematic Approach to Literacy Acceleration 2. Benefits of Literacy Teams and Roles of the Literacy Team Leader 3. Systematic Literacy Assessment and Progress Monitoring 4. Systematic Literacy Instruction for Accelerating Progress 5. Walking Through a Potential Master Schedule 6. Collecting Data and Designing a Master Schedule to Prioritize Literacy Acceleration 7. Utilizing Parallel Block Scheduling to Provide Reduced Groups 8. Accelerating Literacy through Out-of-School-Time Options 9. Literacy Program Evaluation and Closing Thoughts