Educating Young Children Volume 1 - Winter 2026 | Page 79

› Planning playful, hands-on activities that relate to the targeted skills; for example, creating visual story maps or making feeling faces connected to a book’ s themes.

› What books in my class library lend themselves to interactive read alouds, repeated reading, and in-depth explorations? Do I need to seek out additional titles?

› Once I select a book, what specific aspects of it can I focus on during each small-group discussion to deepen children’ s comprehension, oral language, and print awareness?

› What small-group activities can I create that will support each child’ s growth in key literacy areas?

› How can I observe and assess children’ s learning during small-group time?

Norline R. Wild, PhD, is a former preschool and prekindergarten teacher and currently an assistant professor in the College of Education at Niagara University, New York. Her practice-based research focuses on the power of picture books to promote social justice.

Photographs: pp. 32, 36 courtesy of the author; p. 38 © NAEYC Copyright © 2026 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See permissions and reprints online at NAEYC. org / resources / permissions.