earlyreading.info Goes Live

Website Supplies Resources for Reading First Initiative

By Jan Jenner

The Reading First initiative sets a clear goal for elementary schools: all students must read at grade level by grade 3. To help teachers meet this challenge, the Regional Educational Laboratory at PREL has developed the earlyreading.info website. Reliable information for teachers who make teaching and learning decisions for prekindergarten to grade 3 students is now available at www.earlyreading.info. The site provides resources for grant writers, state education officers, and other school personnel as well.

Developed through a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Education’s Reading First and PREL, the website is part of the technical support made available to states and schools as part of this initiative. Links to government, research laboratory, and other nonprofit websites provide access to research-based information to support efforts to improve children’s skills. The PREL site acts as a referee for these materials, ensuring that they have undergone a thorough review process and meet Reading First criteria for quality, validity, and appropriateness. Publishers have also provided access to online books written by key early reading researchers.

Without the delays and costs associated with shipping and handling, site users gain instant access to research, curriculum and policy materials, and classroom strategies and activities. In evaluating the website, one teacher commented, “The amount of information on this website is tremendous.” Another noted that activities are referenced, making it easy to demonstrate that lesson plans incorporating them are research-based. Still others appreciated finding brochures, pamphlets, and flyers they could print out and send home with students, noting that the handouts contained exactly the kind of information they wanted to give parents.

earlyreading.info organizes content by category for quick, efficient retrieval. Categories include:

• grade level (prekindergarten through grade 3);
  
• reading component (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension);
  
• resource type (knowledge/research, materials/resources, strategies/activities, assessment, policy/standards, and family/community).

Information can be located through both browse and search functions. To browse, select a grade level, a reading component, and a resource type from the list above. To search, type any word into the search box.

For further information on the earlyreading.info website, contact Jan Jenner at jennerj@prel.org.

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