A Presentation by Joan Kelley, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Thursday, January 16th
11:00am & 2:30pm
PIFS Gymnasium

Joan Gould Kelley, a former teacher, was part of the Language Diversity and Literacy Development Research Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for over a decade. She did research, wrote articles for the field, and worked with teachers and educational leaders to help them implement the kind of instruction that effectively builds children’s reading skills. Joan believes her most important work, however, is with parent groups, outlining what a child needs to do to read well, and how to work reading skill development into busy lives. The mission to include parents seriously in the learning-to-read conversation led her to found Abound Parenting, and create an app to support families every day. She lives in Needham, MA, and has three adult children.

Why do parents need to care about reading development if children are still too young to read? 

Because the science of reading shows that learning to read depends upon the interactions and experiences a child is steeped in from the earliest days of his/her life. And while it’s science, it’s not rocket science: all it takes is being informed and investing at least a few playful and engaging minutes each day.

On January 16 at 11am and 2:30pm, Joan Kelley will be presenting an hour-long talk to the PIFS community to tell parents of young children all they need to know about setting their children up to be strong readers in the years ahead. She will address the following questions:

• What does it take to be a successful reader?
• Why do parents have to work together with educators each step of the way?
• What can parents do REALISTICALLY in the day-to-day (while also working, food shopping, making meals, doing laundry…) to help children read more successfully in the years ahead?

Joan is doing an early literacy initiative with selected sites in Greenwich and will be collecting short surveys and feedback from anyone who is interested in helping out. See you on November 21st!