Talking Is Teaching
“Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing” was first brought to Michigan in 2018 through the Great Start Collaborative of Wayne County. While the target area for GSC Wayne was initially the City of Detroit, the campaign began to expand and grow. Rachel Pritchard, Great Start Programs Specialist for the Michigan Department of Education was invited to a meeting with GSC Wayne and representatives from Too Small to Fail in Detroit to learn more about how they were implementing Talking is Teaching within the community. Around the same time, Livingston County, Saginaw Great Start Collaborative and COOR-Iosco Great Start Collaborative were also starting to implement Talking is Teaching in their communities. The success and momentum of the GSC Wayne campaign, the growing interest across the other Great Start Collaboratives and the availability of Preschool Development Birth-5 (PDG B-5) funds focusing on early literacy and family engagement made the timing right to launch in more communities through a statewide campaign.
Talking is Teaching aligns with not only the early childhood outcome that children are prepared to succeed in fourth grade and beyond by reading proficiently by the end of third grade, but also with the Top 10 Strategic Plan goals of expanding early childhood opportunities, improving early literacy achievement. Both are achieved by utilizing trusted messengers, environmental prompts, and tools to create a continuum of awareness, attitude, and behavior change that is incorporated into the lives of families with young children in everyday situations within their community, as well as within early learning and care environments.
Resources
When you talk, read, and sing with your child – even before they can use words – you’re helping them learn. The more words and conversations you share together, the better prepared they will be to learn. The following materials were developed under a grant awarded by the Michigan Department of Education.
Let’s Talk About the Earth!
Teaching children about the environment is an opportunity to help them appreciate the world around them and make a difference [...]
Video: Learn Through the Senses
Talk to your baby as you walk together to help your baby build vocabulary. Discuss the colors of flowers, [...]
Talk, Read, and Sing Together Every Day!
When you talk, read, and sing with your child – even before they can use words – you’re helping [...]
DJ’s Busy Day
Talk, read, and sing with DJ during his very busy day in this colorful book by Too Small to Fail and Scholastic. [...]
Let’s Talk, Read, and Sing About Books!
Five books that will help instill a love of reading in your child Lola Reads to Leo [...]
Supporting your Child’s Social-Emotional Development: Parenting is a Journey
As a parent or caregiver, you know that having a young child comes with both joys and challenges. You [...]
Track Your Child’s Developmental Milestones
Learn more about your baby by watching for developmental milestones. Smiling, cooing, and babbling are just a few. Your [...]
Talking is Teaching Storybook
Join other parents and babies as they fill their day with talking, reading, and singing in our Talking is [...]
Everyday Fun with Engineering and Technology
From birth to five, children develop an understanding of engineering and technology as they: Experiment with solving the problems [...]
Supporting your Child’s Social-Emotional Development: Understanding your Child’s Behavior
Your child’s behavior says a lot about how they’re feeling at that time. The way they express their feelings depends [...]
Sing To Your Baby: Create Your Own Lullaby
By Emily Eagen, Singer/Songwriter and Teaching Artist, Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project and Elizabeth Snodgrass, Director, Family Programs, Carnegie Hall’s [...]
Let’s Talk about Art!
Imagination develops early in life, laying the foundation for a lifetime of creativity. There are many wonderful ways you can [...]