About

“Literacy For Young Minds” began as a culminating project for one of my literacy graduate courses. It is still a work-in progress and aims to create an accessible birth-through-second literacy resource for parents and educators alike. I hope this blog spurs ideas on how to use children’s literature to teach foundational skills of reading and writing and also how to use literature in a interdisciplinary way.


My style of teaching heavily incorporates the visual and dramatic arts. Many of my commentaries on these books underscore how to create teachable moments that touch on spatial awareness, color theory, visual contrasts, illustration techniques, and kinetics processes while still remaining developmentally appropriate for younger students. Of course, many of the things contained in this blog go beyond the scope of visual/dramatic arts and as this resource develops more books will be included to address a bevy of different subjects.






How to Use this Blog:


The “Themes” section on the left hand side of this blog will help you navigate different sections of this blog. Each idea is a clickable link and all blog entries are tagged with several “Theme Tags” to make finding the right book simpler. For example, clicking on “Preschool” will direct you to all the books geared towards preschoolers.




The "Books" tab at the top of this page will also lead you to the most recent additions to this blog.


About the Author of this Blog:

My name is Christina Spencer and I'm an early childhood educator, mother of an ever-inquisitive daughter, and all-around enthusiast for instilling appreciation for literacy and the arts at a young age. I have been working with children and families in the early childhood realm for over a decade. My teaching experience covers a wide spectrum, both in traditionally academic and more casual settings: from caring for and documenting the developmentally abilities of infants to teaching elementary school students. I am currently pursuing a MsEd in Early Childhood Education at the College of New Rochelle and teach visual arts to toddlers and preschoolers. On occasions, I also moonlight as a fitness instructor :).