All students can benefit from a deeper understanding of how our language works. Playing With Language shows elementary school educators (K–6) how to think about, talk about, and manipulate language out of context. This cognitive skill set, known as metalinguistic awareness, is an important component of reading ability. This practical guide scales activities and teaching suggestions to students’ age, linguistic background, and individual strengths and challenges. The authors offer suggestions for introducing metalinguistic concepts like phonological, semantic, and syntactic awareness with fun activities like games, songs, rhymes, and riddles. The book also identifies and explains research that supports using metalinguistic teaching with diverse students and English learners to build skills in multiple areas, including reading comprehension and decoding ability. Teachers will find that students introduced to language play become continually engaged with language, finding real-world examples with wonder and delight. Book Features: Compiles information on all forms of metalinguistic awareness (MA), spanning different linguistic units and developmental reading levels.Contains personal anecdotes and classroom-testedÊinstructional recommendations for encouraging language play. Presents research on how individual language skills affect reading ability.Offers suggestions for full lesson plans with small groups or whole classes of children, as well as ideas for infusing MA activities into everyday exchanges and book choices.

Covers every aspect of a child's language needs from kindergarten through middle school.

Drawing on her 22 years of experience as a kindergarten teacher, Cindy Middendorf has compiled this amazing resource packed with research-based activities, lessons, and strategies to increase students’ oral language skills. She shares rhymes, chants, action stories, and songs that kids adore—and that hone phonemic awareness and build vocabulary. She demonstrates how to boost oral language use in centers, how to foster social skills through language, and how to encourage language development at home. Her differentiated approach and classroom-tested ideas will help every student in your classroom get ready to read. For use with Grades PreK–K.

Contains 106 activities and 21 "Try This" exercises.