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2. 2 An Early Education Program

3. 3 n Webbing into Literacy (WIL) is a downloadable program designed to provide rural Head Start teachers with materials and instruction that will launch America's young children on successful academic careers. WIL has begun as a component in a best practices study conducted by Dr. Laura B. Smolkin, Principal Investigator in CIERA, the national Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement.

4. 4 n Presented at the 1999 Core Knowledge Conference as part of the Core Knowledge sequence

5. 5 Webbing Into Literacy n WIL, stressing a developmentally appropriate, balanced approach to literacy instruction, provides teachers with guidance and suggestions for literacy development both in the classroom and at home.

6. 6 Guiding Principles ¶ Web refers to the World Wide Web without which it would be impossible to reach or offer the program to so many.

7. 7 · Web calls to mind Miss Muffett and her spider, reinforcing the important role that nursery rhymes play in the WIL program.

8. 8 Most importantly: ¸ Those at WIL are committed to weaving a Web –There are many fine threads which when woven together provide the support children need to succeed

9. 9 Alphabet Books Take-Home Materials A Book-A-Week A Rhyme-A-Week WIL Instruction

10. 10 A Rhyme-A-Week n Phonological awareness program featuring 30 different rhymes. n Phonograms or “rimes” first identified by Richard Wylie and Donald Durrell in 1970

11. 11 A Rhyme-A-Week n Wylie and Durrell identified 37 rimes that accounted for almost 500 words of Murphy's list n To determine the order of rhymes and rimes to present each week, Wil creators followed Fry's (1998) suggested consideration of frequency.

12. 12 A Book-A-Week n A-Book-A-Week instruction makes use of the 101 Best Books101 Best Books n Cover four books per month

13. 13 A Book-A-Week n Language Development, with attention to vocabulary and syntactic structures. (WIL's A-Rhyme-A- Week deepens this particular emphasis) A-Rhyme-A- Week A-Rhyme-A- Week

14. 14 A Book-A-Week n Acts of Writing, including letter- sound relationships, print concepts, and genre knowledge n Lots of Links, including intertextual connections, connections to other content areas, and connections to children's lives

15. 15 A Book-A-Week n Artist's Craft, with attention to the ways authors and illustrators have created their works

16. 16 Take Home Materials n “My Very Own Nursery Rhyme Collection” n “My Reading Log” –Builds commitment with families

17. 17 n New classroom alphabet each month n They are sent home for families to read together at month’s end Alphabet Books

18. 18 Benefits for Instructions Easily Accessible Complete Lesson Plans Colorful Graphics Multi-facetedMulti-Age Developmentally Appropriate Balanced Learning Transitioning Home-School Connection

19. 19 Resource Smolkin, L.B. (2000). (Homepage of Webbing Into Literacy). (Online). Available: http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/home. html (2000, June 3) http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/home. html http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/home. html

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