Preservice educators' attitudes and beliefs towards families can have a profound impact on family-centered practices (FCPs) and family-professional partnerships (FPPs); unfortunately, negative beliefs about families can surface during preservice early childhood preparation and can be a challenge for faculty in higher education to address. This…

Family engagement and family literacy are two of the most important or components for building a strong foundation for children's academic success. Family engagement is about spending quality time with children every day by talking, playing, and asking questions, which builds bonds and promotes language development. Family literacy supports…

In this article, we introduce instructional choice as a simple, feasible, effective strategy for teachers and families to increase student engagement as well as decrease off-task and disruptive behaviors in range of contexts. We provide step-by-step guidance to illustrate how instructional choice can be used by teachers in in-person and remote…

The US is becoming progressively diverse and so are our classrooms. Home-school partnerships are essential to supporting diverse learners. It is critical both new and veteran practitioners make intentional efforts to provide culturally proficient practices when building home-school partnerships. Cultural awareness is identified across disciplines…

The aim of this essay is to reflect on an alternative pedagogical model, family workshops, and see how they can serve as an unconventional approach to family engagement, as well as provide a practical recount of the work developed by the LISELL-B Project. This alternative and innovative model may serve as a practical guide for educators,…

Social studies in general, and Black history in particular, are marginalized at the elementary level. The ways Black history has been taught are problematic, focusing on either celebrating civil rights heroes or lamenting the oppressive treatment of Black people, thus flattening the rich and varied histories of Black people. An almost singular…

Classrooms today have an increased number of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. The ability to provide high quality instruction for a diverse group of learners goes beyond simply knowing good instructional practices. Teachers also need to be aware of how a student's culture and background impact classroom performance.…

For students to be able to read and comprehend, they must first develop phonological awareness, the ability to recognize and manipulate the segments of sound in words. To develop this ability, students must be able to identify the following: individual sounds (phonemes) in words; print letters of the alphabet; and corresponding sounds for each…

For students to be able to read with greater fluency and comprehension, they must first develop their understanding of morphology, the knowledge of meaningful word parts in the language. To develop this understanding, students must learn the following: letter patterns and word parts, the relation of sounds to letters, and high-frequency word…

This is the third special issue of "Primary Science," and it is one that offers primary school teachers an insight into an initiative that does wonders for primary science leadership, learning and teaching -- the Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM). In this article, Shaun Wingrove describes the transformation from dull to shiny science…

"Continuous Improvement in High Schools" gives educators and policymakers an accessible, actionable framework to address one of the nation's most important educational priorities: improving high school graduation and postsecondary preparedness rates. Martha Abele Mac Iver and Robert Balfanz, national experts in dropout prevention, apply…

This chapter outlines the role of vision-specific service providers for young children with visual impairments. The responsibilities of teachers of students with visual impairments (TVIs) and orientation and mobility (O&M) specialists in special education programming for young children with visual impairments are overviewed. Basic information…

Many students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also have reading deficits. These reading deficiencies in students with ADHD are likely to be more severe than those of students with only reading difficulties. To intensify reading instruction to improve reading and behavioral outcomes for students with ADHD, this article…

Although research is somewhat limited, Rivera et al. (2019) provide some guidance for successful practices for young children who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) with significant cognitive disabilities (SCD), more specifically those who are identified as English learners. Across their literature review, common themes for…

Reading connected text--that is, multiple sentences related to each other-- requires greater skill than reading isolated words. To read and understand connected text, students must quickly recognize words, integrate what they are reading with their background knowledge, and monitor their comprehension. This document provides a summary of…