Dive Brief:
- About 2,000 New York City preschool teachers will receive Common Core-aligned training on literacy instruction this fall and winter from Benchmark Education.
- The "Early Childhood Language and Literacy" sessions — free to any teacher who wants to attend — are sponsored by The Division of Early Childhood and geared toward Kindergarten readiness.
- The sessions specifically push "read aloud" strategies, which Benchmark Education believes are key for literacy instruction in early childhood.
Dive Insight:
Making sure early childhood students have the supports they need to be successful later in their academic career is key. Literacy starts in these early grades and making sure every student can read by the time they are in third grade is incredibly important — especially if schools want to adhere to the standards designated for each grade. While Benchmark Education is focusing on read aloud sessions with students, other companies also have plans in the pipeline for encouraging early childhood literacy. For example, Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind Sesame Street, recently struck a deal with ToyTalk, a speech recognition company, to research the ability to teach preschool literacy with conversational technology.