Project Director
Dr. Peggy Coyne, Ed.D.
Funders
The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation
John W. Alden Trust
Cabot Family Charitable Trust
Jessie B. Cox Foundation
Esther B. Kahn Charitable Foundation
Sidney & Judith Kranes Charitable Trust
Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation
Anonymous donor
Timeframe
2008-2010
Project Description
Educators and parents know that it is very important to talk to young children when they read to them. The Read with Me eBooks instructional approach guides teachers and parents in how to “talk” to children when they read storybooks to them. CAST is creating a universally designed, research-based emergent literacy curriculum for use with young children with disabilities, dual language learners, and other at-risk children. The digital storybook curriculum, with companion print books, provides strategies and support for early literacy in the areas of phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, book awareness, and reading comprehension. The digital storybooks include animated embedded coaches that provide models for teachers and parents in how to use the use literacy strategies and suggest extension activities that support emerging literacy skills within the context of storybook reading.
The project team is developing the curriculum and providing professional development and coaching to preschool educators, administrators, and parents in Greater Boston Head Start Centers and in the Boston Public School Haynes Early Education Center.
