About WIL
Webbing into Literacy (WIL) is a downloadable program designed to provide rural Head Start teachers with materials and instruction that will launch America's young children on successful academic careers. WIL began as a component in a "best practices" study conducted by Dr. Laura B. Smolkin, Principal Investigator in CIERA, the national Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement.
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The web of Webbing into Literacy carries 3 distinct but related meanings. First, of course, web refers to the World Wide Web without which we would be unable to reach or offer this program to so many Head Start teachers across the United States. Second, as you can see when you first come to the WIL home page, web calls to mind Miss Muffett and her spider, reinforcing the important role that nursery rhymes play in the WIL program. Third, and perhaps most important, we at WIL are committed to weaving a web. We have come to recognize that children's eventual school success cannot be attributed to one single factor. Instead, there are many fine threads that, when woven together, provide the support children need. Threads that are important to us at WIL are caring teachers, strong instruction, involved and active families, and researchers who look and listen carefully.
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Working with Head Start teachers at one of New Mexico's Rio Grande Pueblos, we have desiged a multifaceted program that addresses in-class instruction, home-school connections, and, with our University of New Mexico colleague, Dr. Joseph H. Suina, transition support for Head Start children entering kindergarten.
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WIL, stressing a developmentally appropriate, balanced approach to literacy instruction, provides teachers with guidance and suggestions for literacy development both in the classroom and at home.
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A-Rhyme-A-Week, designed to develop phonological awareness
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and
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A-Book-A-Week, designed to introduce children to the playful world of printed text.
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At WIL, the web we weave to support our children includes their families. The Home Book Reading Program is designed to enable teachers to easily supply families with strong literacy-development support.
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