Read the Transcript

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Karly O'Brien: jump right in! So, hi everyone, welcome! We are super excited that you are here for today's special Rally to Read 100 kickoff webinar, Read Together, Inspire Together. If you've joined us before, welcome back. And if this is your first session with us, we are super thrilled to have you. You can revisit this session along with any of our past webinars in our webinar archive.

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Karly O'Brien: and I will be sure to share that link in the chat later this evening. Couple of logistics. Closed captioning is available for the webinar, and we encourage you to use the chat box and Q&A throughout the webinar to share any questions or reflections.

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Karly O'Brien: So today, we're talking about one of the most meaningful ways that we can support children as readers, and this is reading aloud together. Whether at home, in the classroom, or in the community, read alouds offer powerful opportunities to build children's vocabulary, background knowledge, comprehension, and language skills.

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Karly O'Brien: All while fostering curiosity, connection, and a love of reading.

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Karly O'Brien: We'll explore research-informed strategies for making read-alouds more engaging and intentional, from selecting high-quality books to sparking rich conversations

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Karly O'Brien: That help children make connections and deeper… deepen their understanding of the world around them.

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Karly O'Brien: So before we get started, a little bit about us. Reading is Fundamental, or RIF, is the nation's largest children's literacy nonprofit.

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Karly O'Brien: We turned 60 this year, and our mission, is and always has been to inspire the joy of reading, and to ensure every child has the opportunity and resources to become a lifelong reader.

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Karly O'Brien: So tonight's webinar, or this afternoon's webinar, is especially exciting because we're kicking off Year 6 of Rally to Read 100, which is RIF's National Reading Engagement Initiative, designed to inspire children, educators, and families to come together to celebrate the joy of reading.

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Karly O'Brien: Each year, Rally to Read brings stories to life through free author read-alouds.

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Karly O'Brien: Engaging literacy activities and resources that help children discover new books.

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Karly O'Brien: Explore meaningful topics, and build a lifelong love of reading. So throughout the year's campaign, we will explore 6 monthly themes, each with new books, activities, and opportunities to connect reading to the world around us.

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Karly O'Brien: So whether you are dialing in as an educator, looking for engaging classroom resources, or a family member hoping to make reading together part of your everyday routine, Rally to Read 100 offers something for everyone. So I will be sure to share a link in the chat so you can explore the resources and join us together through the year.

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Karly O'Brien: And what makes Rally to Read especially relevant to today's conversation is that it gives us a way to bring so much of what we'll be discussing throughout the session to life.

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Karly O'Brien: Through author read-alouds, engaging activities, and resources for educators and families, Rally to Read offers practical opportunities to build children's language, vocabulary, and background knowledge, all while keeping the joy of reading at the center.

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Karly O'Brien: And as a special thank you for joining us tonight. If you are here live with us, at the end, you will be entered into a raffle to win 6 of the featured Rally to Read books. So, if you're still here at the end, we will announce the winner at the end of the session, so very exciting.

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Karly O'Brien: So, now I am especially honored to welcome today's featured speaker, Dr. Susan B. Neumann, one of the nation's leading researchers in early childhood literacy and language development.

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Karly O'Brien: Dr. Neuman is a professor of teaching and learning at New York University, where her research focuses on early literacy development, language, and vocabulary acquisition.

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Karly O'Brien: And improving educational opportunities for young children, particularly those growing up in poverty.

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Karly O'Brien: She previously served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education, where she helped establish major federal initiatives supporting early reading and professional development for early childhood education. Dr. Neuman has authored more than 100 scholarly articles and numerous books.

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Karly O'Brien: including the Handbook of the Science of Early Literacy. She has also served as the co-editor of Reading Research Quarterly, the International Literacy Association's flagship reading, research journal. Her contributions to the field have been recognized with two Lifetime Achievement Awards for literacy research.

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Karly O'Brien: And she is a member of the Reading Hall of Fame, and a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, so…

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Karly O'Brien: I am, or we at RIF are incredibly fortunate to have her joining us to share her expertise on the power of read-alouds and the important role they play in children's knowledge, language, and the joy of reading. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to you. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Susan B. Newman.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Oh, Karly, that's so nice. That was such a nice introduction, I really appreciate that.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, I'd love to… let's see if I can, I can share my screen.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: It looks like… I can't.

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Karly O'Brien: Let me sit here.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: I think you have to disable.

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Karly O'Brien: Let's see here… I'm gonna make you…

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Karly O'Brien: Share settings. I tried to… it looks like you can on mine, sorry. Let's see.

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Karly O'Brien: Post tools for share… Okay, maybe try that, Dr. Neumann?

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Okay, yes, it works.

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Karly O'Brien: Lovely! Sorry about that, thank you all.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Okay, so, Karly, can you see my screen now?

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Karly O'Brien: Yep, sure can.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Oh, great.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Well, it's such a delight to, be with you today. You know, RIF is a special organization. I remember years ago, when I was a teacher, thinking, how was I going to get books for my class? And I filled out this application for Reading as Fundamental, and a whole bunch of

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Wonderful books came,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: to help me in my work. So, you know, I'm forever grateful to, Ring is Fundamental, and the goals that you establish, which I think are so critically important.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So today, I wanted to really focus on some of the inherent goals of Reading as Fundamental, which is to read, to inspire, to, you know, to create reading experiences that spark children's curiosity. And I want to stop for a second and just…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Talk about curiosity and the importance of that.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Notion, very, very early in children's lives.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So I always begin… I love these pictures, because to me.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: I think we are the luckiest people in the world, those of us who deal with early childhood education, because we always have… no one day is like the next day. Every day, our life is special, and

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Dr. Susan Neuman: It's special because of these special children. They come with their goofy ideas, they have wonderful sense of humor and imagination, curiosity about their world. They come up with great solutions, and they're always asking interesting questions.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So I think about the fact that, you know, some

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Dr. Susan Neuman: careers in life. You know, every day you go and sit behind a desk, but all of us here are so lucky because we're able to interact with children and just understand and get to understand their… their world.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And so one of the things that's so clear in their world is they love books. I always used to do a fun thing with my own children. We would go to a playground, for example, and

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Dr. Susan Neuman: I would have a book with me, and I would start reading, and all of a sudden, I would see all these children become my best friends. They just wanted to hear the stories that, we were reading. So, I know that children are inherently interested in books, with their bright colors, their covers, their, they know something is in there.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: They may not know how to access it.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: But they know it's there. And it's fascinating to… For me to see this.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: This is actually, a picture that I saw on my way home. I live in New York City, and we were walking home to my apartment, and I saw this child, and he was reading. And note, he's about 2 or 3 years old.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And apparently, I asked his mother, could I take his picture, because I wanted to understand what was so exciting about this book that he had. Well, it turns out that he had just come from the library, and he could not wait until he got home to read that book.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, I know that every child is so curious about what is inside a book, and they know it goes somewhere, but they're not exactly sure. And if they're not sure, you and I know they often make up their own stories, because they're so curious about their world.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: But this is fascinating to me, and here's our problem. Many of our children fall out of love with reading.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So you probably have seen some of the headlines in our press, that over the past decades, children's natural curiosity remains high. So they're curious about their world, but reading for pleasure is not something that they turn to, and it's sharply declined.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Now, some of you may have,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: ideas about why that happens, but there is a stark

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Difference in the amount of time children spend reading for pleasure, both with their parents and on their own.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And so, it's a whirring trend to me, because I really see the decline in reading for pleasure, and I imagine some of you are like me, you just love reading, you do it all the time, but look at that downward trend. It's really pretty stark.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And some people might say, well, why has this happened? And how do we begin to…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Reverse this trend, and help children really become excited to read.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So I have some ideas, but I'm certainly encouraging you to think of these ideas as well.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: I think if I asked you… let me just say before I go to this next slide, if I asked you

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Dr. Susan Neuman: What do you think… why is this decline in reading?

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Dr. Susan Neuman: I have a feeling that if you took a minute

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Many of you would say one thing.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And I think that one thing would be social media.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: That screen time and social media has become so important in children's lives, even young children's lives, that they have a tendency to turn to it, and they have a tendency to like the very short bits that they can get on social media and

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And, screen time. And so, that might be one of the reasons. But I think there are other reasons as well.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: I think that sometimes, many children are coming to school, and they've had so much skill instruction that they forget that reading was really, once upon a time, considered a pleasurable activity.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So I think for you and me, one of the things we have to do is, how do we begin to reverse this trend? How do we help children get really excited about reading from the very beginning?

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Here's what the research tells us, and this provides, you know, a compelling reason for our conversation today, and that is 61% of low-income children have very few books in the home.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Versus 61% of children and middle-class children have more than 200. So there is a stark difference in the number of books that children have access to in their home.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And, you know, sometimes we think, well, why is that important? You can get books other places, but the fact of the matter is, having a home library sends a message to children very early on that.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Books are important in our world.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: We also know there was a very interesting study in 2019 that said that children who are read to every day hear a million or more words by the age of 5.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: That's a startling number, because they're getting tons of words when we read to them, and when parents read to them.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And this was a study that was just conducted. It was a landmark study by Borman and his colleagues, and he found that giving books to children caused a significant gain in reading achievement.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: This was one of the first causal studies, not correlation, but

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Dr. Susan Neuman: What he did is he actually gave books to children, and he found that reading achievement improved.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And they found that access to books actually predicts that stronger vocabulary and knowledge and comprehension and school success. And one of the things we know is that books are about vocabulary and developing those kinds of skills that they otherwise would not have access to.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And then finally, we've just come off of this, but summer reading loss is actually real. That in many places across our country, what we're going to see is that programs shut down, summer school shut down, sometimes libraries cut their hours over the summer, and so children's access to books is further reduced

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Dr. Susan Neuman: during a summer, and causing a summer slide, unfortunately. So the skills that children have developed

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Dr. Susan Neuman: prior to the summer decline, when they return in the fall. So this is all together serious to say what we're doing, and what we're encouraging children to read, when we're encouraging children to read, it's really terribly important very early in life.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, we did a very interesting study, and our first,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: study was really designed to say, well, do children have access to print? Do children who come from different kinds of communities, can they find a book in their neighborhood?

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And so we went to two, neighborhoods. This is right near, the, capital, of Washington, D.C, and we looked to add a rather low-income community

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And we found that we could find, over the summer, there were 2.5 books per child. In other words, children could have access to books in this neighborhood, even though it was not a high-income neighborhood.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: But then we went into a poor neighborhood.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And what we found is that there were zero preschool books available to children in that neighborhood. There were 1,411 preschool children in that particular neighborhood, 0 to 5, and we could not find

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Dr. Susan Neuman: any books that were appropriate for those children. Not one over the summer.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So then what we did is we looked at, early education beyond preschool, and we found that, again, in this lower-income community, there were still two books for,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: per child. But then, in this highly, high-poverty community, 830 children would have to share one book.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And that one book was a Spanish dictionary in a primarily African American community.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, when we're talking about building access and encouraging children to read from the very beginning of life.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: We can't really expect children to want to read if they have no access to books very early on. So access is really important.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: One of the things that we know is the gap

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Dr. Susan Neuman: between those children who do or do not have books is not about talent. All of our children are perfectly capable, and there have been landmark studies that say that lower-income children and middle-income children have average IQ, they're all the same. The difference, however, unfortunately, is the opportunity gap.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Where in one community, books are just everywhere, it's language-rich, the child could pick up a book and find something that might be interesting to them, and as a result, their questions grow, their vocabulary grows, their knowledge grows. But then, if we have communities with no books.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Fewer opportunity and greater gaps emerge, very early on. What we found is

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Dr. Susan Neuman: With a 2-year-old child, if they ask questions and their questions are never answered, after a while, they stop asking questions, because they just know that they will not get answers.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So these children have the same curiosity, the same intelligence, the same ability to learn language, yet very, very different opportunities.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And I think, you know, I always ponder, in a country such as ours, where we have billionaires all over the place.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And we… to think that we still have book deserts in our country is really a travesty.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So I say this because this is why you, teachers, and Head Start leaders, and,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And parents are so critically important, because you are the people who are bringing the books to children. And this is a picture of one of our classrooms, where you see the children just mesmerized by that book. The teacher is reading something that is meaningful

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Full to the children, and their eyes are right there.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, one of the ways that we can encourage

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Dr. Susan Neuman: book reading. And I think, again, is so critically important, is that we can begin by creating a classroom environment that is very well organized.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And I would have to… the reason… one of the reasons I start with this is sometimes I go into a classroom and it's filled with stuff.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: I'm sure you've seen it. There… it's just…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: filled with so many materials, alphabets everywhere, numbers everywhere, and in some respects, I would say that is not well organized.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, on this left-hand side, this was kind of interesting. I went to an elementary school, which had a preschool setting, and you know that many of our elementary schools now have preschools.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And sometimes our principals are not terribly aware of what a preschool environment looks like compared to an elementary school environment. So he happened to tell me to go into this classroom. He said, this is just wonderful.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And when I went into the classroom, I noticed that it was very hard for the children to move anywhere. It was very, very cluttered. There was visual overkill. You know, alphabets everywhere.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: letters, numbers, the children could hardly move. And the alphabet and many of the,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: displays were at way, way high for the children. And I thought, well, this is an environment that's appropriate for the adult, maybe, but not necessarily for the child who's, you know, really, really small.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, I would say this is not a well-organized environment, that it has too much stuff, and as a result, especially for children, who may have some attention deficit disorder, or some, you know, attention…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Difficulties in some ways.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: This is hard to negotiate.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: This is, again, too much.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So when we look at some of our environments that are well organized, what you're going to see is that there's a more deliberate

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Dr. Susan Neuman: placement of materials. Everything is labeled carefully. There is less is more. You'll see, and we'll talk about a little bit more, open-faced bookshelves.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: We'll… we'll see that.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Children's areas is well displayed. We'll see a comfortable carpet so that children can sit and, and relax and have, their circle time. So this is when the classroom is really well organized. It helps children

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Understand the routines of a classroom, and know that they belong.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: A classroom that invites literacy. I love this title, because one of the things we know, and these are all from, my, my classrooms, my work with teachers and children.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: But one… I love this picture on the left-hand side because, again, the children are so engaged, and the books are sparking children's interest and engagement. They're looking at things, they're involved.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: They also have a wonderful library. And notice that the library is very neat and clean and organized in such a way that a child could literally come and pick up a book and know where to put it.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: It's a cozy area. Sometimes there's pillows and stuffed animals and things children love to read to their stuffed animals.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So the environment really, really matters, because it really, again, says,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: to the children. These areas are

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Dr. Susan Neuman: important. And I always say, and actually, we did a study of this, this was kind of interesting, where we say that a child in a preschool environment, every time they

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Dr. Susan Neuman: lift up their arms, they should find a book in some kind of, you know, close proximity, that it should be near. So they know that there are books appropriate for the housekeeping corner, the block area where you can learn how to reconstruct a city or a particular area. Books should be

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Throughout the environment, not just in the library.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: This is an interesting picture.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And this is actually something we found in our research.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: That when you have an open-faced

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Dr. Susan Neuman: bookshelf, what happens is it invites children to see those books so much clearer.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: more clear, and take those books. It's almost like a toy for them. They see them, they grab them, because they're something of interest. Notice on the left-hand side, there are not too many books out there, and what we're going to do over time is we're going to

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Dr. Susan Neuman: invite different books for different seasons. So we're going to revolve that little book, area, all the time so that children can see something new

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Dr. Susan Neuman: and highlight a whole variety of things. Now, for our very young children, we actually have plastic covers over those books, and the reason is, of course, they slobber a bit. But we really want children to use those books.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And this is in contrast to, having a display like this. Notice that it's not as inviting, is it?

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And what we can see is, well, we only see the spine of the book, we don't know what's in it. And because kids can't read yet, they have no idea that one book will be particularly interesting to them. So it actually discourages kind of a browsing and discovery. And it really,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: It can almost be overkill again. Too many books, not clearly defined. We want them to see it and reach it and choose it

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Dr. Susan Neuman: and hang out with maybe one of their friends in pretending to read to children. So, that pretend read that they can do in that

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Dr. Susan Neuman: little book nook or that library is so critically important, because they're… they're sharing, and it becomes a social event for those kids, and they can really experience

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Dr. Susan Neuman: The fun of what it, of reading.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: I also think it's so important for children to see that it is their class, it's not yours, it's not mine. But they see themselves, their families, their cultures, and their communities. So every time I go in

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Dr. Susan Neuman: a classroom, and I see that books are targeted to the children who are living there, so there's, some languages, that are represented, maybe

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Some of the titles actually are either in Spanish or Chinese and English at the same time. We see pictures of the children themselves.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: We might see

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Pictures of the children actually handling a book, and all of this says that their culture is welcome, their culture and books can connect in so much

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Dr. Susan Neuman: so many important ways. So, it really invites a sense of belonging. And every time a child goes into a classroom, and they can feel that their voice and their identity is represented, it becomes theirs, if not ours.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And that deepens their engagement and their love of reading.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: that's access. We've got to be sure that children have the opportunity to see books, feel books. We were in a setting that was so unfortunate. Children were in

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Dr. Susan Neuman: cribs all day and childcare, and one of the things we did is we took those children out and we showed them how to turn a page into a book. It was the first experience they've had. So access is so critically important, but

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Dr. Susan Neuman: what we do with that access also matters. And so I wanted to talk about some of the things we do in the shared book experience.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, again, these are our wonderful children, who are engaged in books. These are no acts. They're actually there. And…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: One of the things we know is that the shared book experience is the most powerful vocabulary and knowledge-building activity that you can do with children

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Dr. Susan Neuman: All the time. It is the most powerful of all the activities you'll do with children on those important skills. And one of the things I say is it doesn't have to be long. In other words, when I work with this teacher, she's a wonderful teacher.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: But I said, you know, a 10 to 12 minute shared book reading event every day, where the children end on the crest of the wave. They want to read the book again and again, and we say, oh, we've got to move to other activities now. So a shared book reading experience doesn't have to be long. In fact, what it should do is it should inspire children.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: To want to hear more.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And keep them excited. So sometimes when I see teachers,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: will, you know, engage the children in a shared book experience, and they think it's going so well that they want to continue it and continue it. And I always say, stop at the crest of the way when the kids are really super excited, and say.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: We'll get to that book either later today in our small groups, or we'll continue it tomorrow.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, I think that one of the things that has important, about shared book reading is that

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Dr. Susan Neuman: What will happen is that you and I talk

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Dr. Susan Neuman: often with our children throughout the day, and that oral language is so critically important. We say it's the foundation of literacy for children. So when you and I engage children in conversation, that is so powerful for their learning.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: But the interesting thing about the shared book experience is that they're going to get different vocabulary, and that vocabulary is outside of the day-to-day speech. So, for example, when you read a book, you might hear, Once Upon a Time.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: you and I don't talk to children well. Child, once upon a time, we don't do that. So the words that they are going to hear in the book are different than the words that

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Dr. Susan Neuman: they hear in the day-to-day, and that's why it's so important. They're going to be learning what we call literary language.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And they're going to be learning academic language. And one of the things that we do is we really focus on a few of words before we ever begin to read with our children. So we'll have a favorite book. Let's say it's about

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Dr. Susan Neuman: oceans, or, you know, marine mammals. And one of the things we'll do is we'll focus on what is a marine mammal, and we'll talk about the vocabulary

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Dr. Susan Neuman: prior to ever reading the book, we'll use an explicit definition. We'll say, sort of like, oh, today you're going to see a shark, and a shark has glistening gills.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And the children may not know what glistening gills are, but even those words, the way I say it, conjures a certain amount of understanding.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And

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Dr. Susan Neuman: One of the things we know is those nouns, sharks, they'll conjure up, I remember those words in ways that, nouns, or ways that verbs or adjectives will never do. So they learn,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Words that tend to be nouns, because they're the bedrock of the meaning of a sentence.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So if you think about it, children love to talk about whales and dinosaurs, and those are all nouns because they can conjure up an image of those words that they remember even after the reading is over.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, very often, what we'll use is picture supports. We'll show them a picture, and…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Pictures are especially helpful for our multilingual learners, because many of these multilingual learners, they won't hear every word that we speak in English, or even in their language, but the picture will help them

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Dr. Susan Neuman: see and hear and remember those words even more. So we'll start with a few pictures, and again, we'll give an explicit, child-friendly definition. We won't say anything like.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: you know, a dictionary definition, but we might say something like, today, boys and girls, we're going to read a book about caves. A cave is like a hole in the mountain.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So notice that I don't go into elaborate detail, but what I'm trying to do in providing that vocabulary very early on is I'm trying to help

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Dr. Susan Neuman: All children. Some of our children might know those words, some of them might not. So what I'm trying to do is create a shared understanding so that all of our children, have the same information.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: The second thing we do Is we focus on a common topic.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And I'm gonna bring this up a little bit more later on, but…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: One of the things that we know is the way that children can gain knowledge is when they hear about books on a common theme.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So that common theme is very important. What we'll do is, day one, we'll talk about a particular book, maybe baby animals, for example, and the words that they hear in baby animals will likely be some of the same words that they hear in the story the next day, a hole in the bottom of the sea.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And then, the next day, they might also hear some of the common words. So by hearing the same words again and again in different kinds of books.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: What happens is it helps them really develop a deeper knowledge than going from one topic to another to another. And what we try to do

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Dr. Susan Neuman: is we try to take things that are really interesting to children. So we want to make sharebook reading a really wonderful opportunity where they hear about, stories, and they hear about information.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, the way in which we do that, some of our themes, for example.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: are things that they find fascinating. So we'll talk about the mysteries of space.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Or they love hearing about wild weather. And wild weather can, you know, include, you know, something as simple as snow, but it could also, you know, be like a blizzard or hail, and they just love hearing about these different kinds of experiences.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: But they also love to hear about things that are important in their world today. They may even, believe it or not, 3 and 4, want to hear about different climate changes and the issues of climate.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Or ecology, how to take care of our planet. So, one of the things that we do is we always say, we're not going to just improve children's knowledge of vocabulary, we're going to accelerate them by giving them something that really fascinates them and makes them

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Think in, in, new ways.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And the way in which we do this, as I said, is we keep on a particular theme, but we do it with different kinds of books or genres. So, for example, what we do is we always start with a predictable book.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Because predictable books are easy to remember. So if I say to you, brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? Most of the children will say, I see a green frog looking at me. They've memorized it over time. It's very rhythmic.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And one of the things we love is when children hear rhythmic kinds of books, they'll use their whole body to express themselves. They'll totally get into it in very, very,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: full ways. You know, you and I always talk about the whole child, and really what we want the children to do is, when they hear stories, we want them to sing along with the stories, sway, maybe dance along with some of these stories. And then we'll go to storybooks, which are narratives.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And finally, to information. An information book

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Dr. Susan Neuman: don't underestimate some of these information books. They're fascinating to kids, and… because what they want

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Dr. Susan Neuman: if we go back to the very beginning of what we talked about, is they're knowledge seekers. They want to learn about their world, so, it helps them learn. But the knowledge books often are denser and have more concepts.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: But if they hear them at the end of what you are reading in a series, it's easier for them to grasp, and they really, really love these books. And sometimes, they'll pick up the information book before the other types of books as well.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, we want to make that reading experience

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Dr. Susan Neuman: matter. And the way in which we say it is stay with the idea. Don't go from book to book, but, you know, think about a theme that you think the children would really be interested in.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: One of the books that we saw when we were in, Middle America, we happened to be in Nebraska, is they spent a whole week in, about corn, because corn is very important in that area, and the children are fascinated how to grow corn, how to eat corn, you know, different corn recipes, etc.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And we teach a few words deeply, and then we talk about what they're learning, because we really want to spark a conversation through our storybook reading.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, one of the things that we want kids to do is come away with big ideas, and that is another thing that these

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Dr. Susan Neuman: book groupings or themes can really do. They can help children understand not just, you know, a little bit about shark or a little bit about whale, but that all these marine animals, they live in the water, they have different

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Dr. Susan Neuman: habitats or different needs, and they have different ways of protecting themselves, and they have life cycles, just like us. And it might be that you are talking about marine animals,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: One week, and then you have a whole series of books on wild animals. And then you can compare marine animals compared to wild animals outside of the water. So it allows children to come and, examine cross-cutting themes, which are so important.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And then finally, we want to have a discussion that really builds that knowledge. And the way in which we do it is very simple. We don't,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: We… we don't want to…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: assess the children in our asking questions, but sometimes we just ask very, very simple questions, like, how are sharks and whale alike? How are they different?

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And how do you know?

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Dr. Susan Neuman: What have you learned? So, when children begin to say what they've learned, oh, they feel, oh, you know, I am really, really smart. And, children love to feel smart. So this is what knowledge building can actually sound like.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, if I said to you what I would do differently on Monday morning, I would say.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Just a few things. Stay with a topic longer in your storybook reading, choose a text that builds on one another, and treat the vocabulary just giving them a few explicit words, not a list at all, but giving them explicit

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Understanding of some words that you might be about to read about just makes the reading so much deeper and so much more, important to the children.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, as I said, books are even more powerful when they're connected to one another, and we call these text sets.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And they're all designed to help children make connections between books and, and develop an understanding, not only of knowledge, but of different genres or different ways of telling stories, which are so important to children.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, here's an example of the kinds of things that children begin to do when you have those books and themes like this. They begin to understand the connections between all of our words, which

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Dr. Susan Neuman: again, helps them understand and build concepts. So, one of the things we do if we're talking about

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Marine animals or wild animals.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Or, in this case, insects, will say to the children, an insect is a living thing, it needs food and water to survive. So if I say a wasp is an insect, then children will know, and children learn.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: That, a wasp needs food and water to survive.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, if I say a moth is an insect, well, moth is…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: needs food and water to survive. So, you notice that we're building a hierarchy of ideas and words that help children knit together an organizational framework, that builds that vocabulary. And you and I know that vocabulary is the chief

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Mechanism for helping children develop comprehension and knowledge.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, all of this is very important for transfer, for developing deeper knowledge, and making cross connections.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Many times, we can do fun things. We even have book clubs for very, very young children, because every child can enjoy and… enjoy talking about a book, and there are so many different roles that they can play. For example, if you bring children together, they can all illustrate their favorite part of their

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Dr. Susan Neuman: of the book. They can discuss what their favorite part is. They can even focus on what words matter most to them. So all of these ways are ways for deepening children's understanding through conversation, for, opportunities.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, again, another set of recommendations for Monday morning, I say put books everywhere, read with a purpose.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: What are you thinking? What are you wondering? Follow children's questions. Help those children become knowledge builders, because that's what they want to do. Their curiosity is designed to, you know, want to find out more.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And then we're going to connect with schools, home, and communities. And I want to be sure to do this

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Because I think that connection between home and community is so critically important, especially for our young learners.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, one of the things that we know is that relationships matter. So, you and I may do wonderful things in school.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: But what we want to do is we want to build that relationship between the child and home.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Because literacy is a social process. When the child is sitting and reading with a grandparent.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: or a parent. They may be looking at the book, but they're also getting warmth and attachment and love. That love is coming through as they're focusing on the book. We want parents to model

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And, show children what literacy is all about, whether it's, you know.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Making a list or following a recipe.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: But one of the things we also know is that literacy is a cultural practice. It really helps children connect with their culture, and you and I know that culture and identity is a bridge to building powerful relationships.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Helping a child understand who they are very early in life through their storytelling, or your story reading is,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: builds a strength and a sense of identity very early on for children. So literacy is a cultural practice.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And we know that one of the things that we've done more recently, I know this may sound goofy to some of you, is that instead of asking parents to come to our school or our program.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: We have been going out to theirs and figuring out where we can reach parents where they are, whether it's on… in the park, or in a social group, or just an event of some kind.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, one of the things we found is that

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Reaching families where they are, going to where they are, is a sign of respect, that we care about these families deeply, and we want to meet them in their domain.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So, in some of the work that we do, we go to parks, we have storybook reading, we have pop-up events.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Where we might have wonderful food, but we also have books there for the children to enjoy, or we'll invite an author to come and just read to children as we just socialize, because every time parents socialize, and they are working

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Dr. Susan Neuman: They are looking at a book, that is building that important connection.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And so, you… some of you may have heard of our work, and we began to work in places where we knew children would be. And it turns out that many children over the weekend are in the laundromat.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Their parents are going to the local laundromat, and what we began to see is they were sitting and doing nothing, that the parents were very busy with laundry of their own, as well as their families. And, so what we did is we constructed

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Little play areas for them in laundromats, with books, open-faced bookshelves, puppets, we had a whiteboard, we had alphabet letters, we had paper and crayons, and then we invited the local librarian to come and read to the children in the laundromat itself.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Now, this might sound goofy, but one of the things we would see is we would see parents come and watch their children being read to by the librarian. They would take their pictures. They were proud of their child. They noticed that this was an important event for their child.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And what we began to see is, in the laundromat with these wonderful, trusted messengers, we found that children were gaining vocabulary, they were asking open-ended questions, they were taking turns at conversations with these, people that they knew in the neighborhood.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And these neighborhood volunteers, some of them were librarians, but some of them were just volunteers from the neighborhood who really want to help and work with children. One of the things that we found is when they were of the same ethnic status and local community, that the children

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Connected with them in a way that was unique.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: they could tell, things to their, what their trusted messenger. Sometimes, for example, one of the children

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Dr. Susan Neuman: We overheard talking, to the trusted messenger and saying, you know what? Today, I had a terrible day. What was it? I was bullied, and the child was bullied, and, you know, and so,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: The child felt that they could trust that trusted messenger, because it wasn't the teacher, it was someone from the community who cared about them, and they didn't have to know them terribly well, they just knew that they could talk to them.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And this was very important. So we found that local people who can be either senior citizens, maybe just wonderful people from the, neighborhood, librarians, parents, coaches,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: they become trusted messengers in the community. They go out to the community instead of depending on the community to come to them, and then they often have a book with them, and they say, you know what?

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Dr. Susan Neuman: I have a book that I think you'll love, and that makes all the difference.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: So… These local volunteers who come from the community,

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Again, they're similar in ethnic, racial composition and social economic status, and they know their neighborhood, and they serve as trusted messengers. Not only in the laundromat, but what we found is we had them go to the barbershop, homeless shelters.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Intakes, centers, Also, hospitals, dental offices, we've done many different places.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And so, one of the things we say is we've got to, create a 360 surround for these children, so that every place they go, whether they go to the

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Dr. Susan Neuman: the playground, the laundromat, the library, maybe even the grocery store, we're going to see books, and those books say that

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Books are important to children very early on in life, and that the habit we establish when children are very, very young are likely to inspire that child for the rest of their lives. So I know I'm an avid reader, and I know where that comes from.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And I know many of you are. And so I say, together, what we need to do is to build that 360 surround so that every child sees the books and becomes inspired by books.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: And with that, I say.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: It takes a village, where every partner and every member of a community sees children as our children. They're not their children, they're ours. And as a result, they engage in books, conversations.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: All around understanding that children are knowledge seekers. So with that, Karly, I'm going to stop my share and turn it back to you.

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Karly O'Brien: Amazing. Thank you so, so much. I'm gonna reshare really quickly for folks that are still with us.

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Karly O'Brien: Rh… Let's get all of that up here, make sure all my things are ready.

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Karly O'Brien: All right. Can you see my screen, Ms. Dr. Newman?

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Dr. Susan Neuman: I can.

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Karly O'Brien: Amazing. All right, perfect. Well, first of all, thank you so, so, so much for, you for joining us tonight, Dr. Newman, for sharing your incredible expertise. We are very, very grateful for your time and for helping all of us understand, something that might seem really small, such as a read-aloud, but how it can have such a really powerful, excuse me, powerful impact on children's language and

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Karly O'Brien: developing a love of reading, so thank… just wanted to say thank you before we close out really quickly, and I know folks are feeling very grateful in the chat as well.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Thank you.

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Karly O'Brien: Of course, but before we wrap up, I just wanted to take about 2 minutes to highlight

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Karly O'Brien: how what we've talked about today, can, be put into practice through our free reading campaign, Rally to Read. So, as Dr. Newman shared, read-alouds build so many skills, such as children's vocabulary, background knowledge, and comprehension through meaningful, read-alouds. So, our monthly, read aloud, excuse me, our monthly author read-alouds through Rally to Read

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Karly O'Brien: read give kiddos access to stories that they might not have otherwise encountered, while they also receive book lists to encourage them to explore different genres of books while sticking within the same theme and topic that they might already be interested in. So a lot of things that you were sharing earlier.

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Karly O'Brien: So alongside all of these wonderful monthly author read-alouds, you can also find some

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Karly O'Brien: specific book-based activities and cross-curricular resources to extend learning beyond the story. And I know you heard Dr. Newman say many times tonight that reading aloud a story is not simply just reading aloud the story. So, through this program, you can also find reading logs, book reviews, and Spanish language resources, as well as posters and bookmarks to create

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Karly O'Brien: that really joyful, engaging reading space that we talked about today, and certificates to celebrate reading milestones. So, we hope that you'll explore these free resources, and join us throughout the next 6 months as we continue inspiring the joy of reading.

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Karly O'Brien: together. So, one more quick announcement, and then if you were here in the beginning, you did hear me say that this is a live

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Karly O'Brien: raffle that we are disclosing the live attendee who won the sixth Rally to Read books. So, one more quick announcement, and then we will, announce that winner. So, just wanted to quickly share a few more opportunities to continue learning with us here at Riff.

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Karly O'Brien: We have some exciting webinars coming up in November and December, covering topics from oral storytelling to rethinking how we match readers with books.

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Karly O'Brien: To exploring celebrations and traditions through children's literature. So, we hope that you will join us for these conversations, and you can scan any of these QR codes to register. And then if you haven't already.

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Karly O'Brien: Be sure to check out Riff's new Reading Inspire podcast, and we are excited to also announce that Dr. Neumann will be one of the featured guests with her episode releasing in November. So if you enjoyed tonight's conversation, you'll definitely want to continue to tune in as we continue exploring her research and ideas that continue to shape children's literacy development. So thank you again, Dr. Newman and all of you for joining us this afternoon.

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Karly O'Brien: And we hope to see you at some upcoming sessions. But, drum roll, please…

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Thank you.

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Karly O'Brien: Thank you, Dr. Newman. Our winner for today is…

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Karly O'Brien: Lester Jackson! Lester Jackson. So if you were on the call, and you were here with us the whole session, congratulations, you are the winner of our six Rally to Read Books.

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Karly O'Brien: So we got your email through this registration, so I'll follow up via email and get a good address for you to send that. But congratulations, and we hope to do more raffles throughout our webinars, but thank you so much for joining us, everyone, today, and for the 100th time, thank you, Dr. Newman, it was wonderful to have you. We're very honored.

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Dr. Susan Neuman: Thank you.

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Karly O'Brien: Have a great afternoon, everyone!

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Karly O'Brien: Bye-bye.