Sunday, January 23, 2011
Emergent Literacy
By Jan. 30 (and after you have completed the required reading on emergent literacy), please post here on: (a) the most important thing you learned from this chapter and why it matters to you; and (b) 1-2 questions you have about emergent literacy based on the readings or your experiences with children.
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After reading the chapter about emerging readers, I have learned that emerging readers and writers:
ReplyDelete-know why we read and write
-build background knowledge and concepts (Comprehension is directly tied to prior knowledge)
-develop concepts about print
-develop phonemic awareness
-learn some concrete words (words that are important to them)
-know some letter names and sounds
-want to learn to read and write
It is important, as a teacher, to read to your students. They benefit greatly from using predictable big books. Reading should be shared. It is helpful to use sentence strips with emerging readers. Ask them what they notice about sentences. Help them to notice when words start with the same sound and what words rhyme.
To help with inclusion, allow students to use counters to count the words in a sentence and read the sentence using pauses. Clapping syllables can help them see how many syllables are in a word.
Language Experience allows the student to speak what they want written and the teacher can write exactly what the student says. Using what they have dictated, you can create a book about the child and use sentence and word strips to help them with their reading.
Just as you want to have a variety of books for students to choose from, you also want to have a variety of options for them to write with and on. Teachers can get creative with writing tools and use things like leftover stationary and postcards. Let students use different types of pencils, pens, markers, etc. They will enjoy the variety and it makes it more fun and exciting.
As a future teacher, I find this information very interesting and helpful. I want to inspire my students to enjoy reading and writing and to be comfortable with their own skills and abilities and build on them. Here are some questions I have after the reading:
1. For those children who are not exposed to books and being read to at home, how do you help them learn more phonemic awareness and concrete words?
2. How do you help inspire those students who do not seem interested in reading or participating in reading exercises?
I would say the most important thing I learned from this article is emerging readers know why we read and write. I guess I knew that in a weird way because I have asked questions to my children asking them why we read and write and I get some of the answers the article provides and then sometimes I don't get any answers. Children are always full of the "why" questions and I think since they can answer why it is important for us to read and write is FANTASTIC! It is hard for children (sometimes) to complete a task and not know why they are doing the task or why they have to! Emerging readers are at a precious time in their lives and we as teachers or parents don't need to put a bad taste in their mouth about reading and writing and sadly some do!
ReplyDeleteOne of my questions about the reading is how do we as teachers get the parents motivated to help their children at home with reading? It seems to me children like to read while they are at school and when they go home they come back to school not liking reading.
Another question is how do we "re-inspire" our children who used to like reading and now don't?
I found this article about emergent literacy to be very interesting and helpful. It is amazing how children pick up on things in the world around them, and how much they can learn by simply watching what others (adults) do.
ReplyDeleteI liked how this article pointed out the importance of children knowing WHY we read and write. If the children do not know how they are going to use a skill, they most likely will not practice it. Kids love to “pretend” to be adults, and when they perform roll plays, they will practice these skills if they know that’s when they are used (pretending to write out a grocery list for example).
This is especially important for us as reading teachers. We can really use this to our advantage when it comes to helping children, not only learn to read, but to love to read. Children love to do things that are fun. If we incorporate this kind of reading into our classrooms, and especially, as this article talked about, during their free time, at centers for example, then they are going to look forward to reading and writing. Even with children who come from low literacy homes, if they see other children reading and writing when they are “playing” they will most likely take this skill home with them and use it there as well.
It is also important that we let the children see how we can read. Just as the article talked about children watching how our eyes move as we read, or how we write from top to bottom, left to right. We should be sure we take our time and not rush through these skills, because our movements are very influential to the way kids learn.
My questions after reading this chapter are: How can we get parents in low literacy homes to become aware of the importance of surrounding their children with reading and writing? This article talks a lot about kindergarten and first graders, but how to you start a child reading and writing who is older (for example, our E-pals who are older beginner readers)?
This article was an awaking article. I was very surprised at some of things that I learned from reading this article. The first thing to shock me was that children who are exposed to reading at home start school with a 1,000 hour bonus. That is amazing. I knew that it was important to read to your kids but I never knew how big of advantage they really have. The next statement that stuck out to me was that of the jargon. I knew how we spoke was important but I never really thought about it relating to terms in reading. Such as a sentence, how a child in a home where mom or dad serve time understand this as "time in jail" and the kid next to him that has a good home knows that it means a writen statement. That hit home to me and how we need to be sure that we understand where our students are coming from.
ReplyDeleteThis article also enlightened me on how teachers can find ways to bring the class together with a book. I took from the article that if you work with small steps and move to the next small step you can work your way through a entire book and ALL your students will benefit from the experience. I found it interesting to learn about how the kids relate real experiences with knowledge of reading and that these experiences make them want to read. I never thought these examples but it is true. My oldest wrote his own list when we went to the store. Last, the main statement that stuck out to me the most was that of the nursery rhymes. It made me happy to know that these loved tales do impact childrens ability to reading!
Questions that came to me while reading this article were:
1. How could a teacher get a parent who is somewhat able to read and write take on a task such as reading a nursery rhyme book to improve their reading ability without making them feel less inferior to you? Or to keep them from thinking that you are making fun of them? I worry about hurting their feelings.
2.What is a good way to help the children that are afraid to read aloud because they are not as good as their friends? Is there a secret way to make them feel comforatbe with reading in front of others?
2.
This article was very interesting to read. It was written on a very important issue. Unfortunately in America we have students in our schools that are not able to read. This is the bases of how to survive in life these days. It was interesting and stunting to see in this article that a new student coming into school has a 1,000 hour bonus to those students who have not been able to read. This is why we (teachers) need to show students why it is so important for students to know why we read and write. As we all know kids love to ask the question why?? Kids are very open to wanting to know how something works, they are very curious to what is going on, and how they can partake in it. We all need to make sure these students know why we read and write; if a kid knows why that is great but if they don’t we need to make sure they get to learning that. Also in this article it says kids pick up on things. This is true they pick up on the smallest things, so if we as teachers take the time to read ALOUD to them, they will feel more out to want to read. The school I’m in I work in the before/afterschool part of it, with my group I read to them 2-3 days a week, unfortunately a lot of the teachers their during the school day have students read silently, while they are off doing something else. If a student see’s their teacher isn’t into it, then why should they? Thirdly you have to make it fun. If you play reading games, or roll play, or give them certain situations into where reading is important, kids like that and will be more out to want to read. Also you should allow helping aids to help students while reading. Allow them to use sentence strips, clapping syllables, help from other students as well. Use any resource possible to help a student achieve.
ReplyDelete1. How can we get parents motivated to help students read, especially those who are from low literacy families.
2. How can you inspire or re-inspire those kids to like reading once again?
One of the most important things I learned was about choosing a book for shared readings. It listed 3 criteria when working with beginning readers that are helpful to know. The book must be predictable, appealing, and should take you someplace conceptually. It was also interesting to learn that echo reading encourages children to join in and read. I go by classrooms sometimes and hear children repeating things the teacher has prompted them to say. I suppose this is a good method however for some reason it makes me think of something cult like or militaristic. I liked the idea of letting children match sentence strips and words to a book. I may have to try this in speech-language therapy.
ReplyDeleteIn becoming a teacher how do we treat a situation involving group work with emergent readers when it comes to a learning disability and they have reached 4th, 5th, or 6th grade and cannot read? Children are not always compassionate or understanding with their peers, especially during group work.
When students in kindergarten or first grade refuse to try and read, how do we know if it is because they are being defiant or if they have real difficulty?
In thinking about emergent literacy I remembered an Andy Griffith show that relates. You can view it on YouTube. It’s listed as “The Andy Griffith Show – The Education of Ernest T. Bass (S5E04)”. It has 3 clips about 9 minutes each; to see the whole show. It’s about an adult that wants to get some education and learn to read and write. It’s funny, but kind of sad that it could also be true. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V25WglII1nI At the end of the first clip it will say “up next” click on this to see the next clip. Think you will enjoy it.
After reading this about emergent readers, I understand the importance of introducing printed material and reading to children at an early age. Just by the experiences of these two things, children are able to enter the school arena more prepared. As parents, my husband and I read to our children as a way to settle them in and prepare for bedtime. I honestly had no idea that reading and re-reading those favorite books was actually having such an impact on their ability to learn to read and write.
ReplyDeleteFrom this chapter I learned the seven crucial understandings about print that children who have had many print experiences share.
-know why we read and write
-have a greater knowledge base from which to draw from and to make sense of the information that they read.
-understand the conventions (how to read, ie., front to back, top to bottom, left to right) and print jargon ( the words we use to talk about reading and writing)
- have higher level of phonemic awareness (the ability to hear when words rhyme)
-can read some words
-know letter names and sounds
-are eager and confident in their attempts to read and write.
I also learned that leaning to read early and easily is associated with a variety of print materials in the home, adults and older children who read, easy access to print materials, and people in the home who respond to the child’s reading and writing efforts.
In comparison, children who are not exposed to printed material, or have parents who are not literate will need even more help because they simply do not have the foundational base that the other children do. This is why I really liked the ideas that were mentioned in the chapter about introducing a big book in the group reading and then using multilevel activities to talk about various points. Teaching patterns, sentence structure, the use and meaning of punctuation, and the difference between fantasy and informational text can all be discussed with the students. This method of teaching seems so natural and I think the teacher can use this to involve the students in a way that doesn’t seem so boring. At the same time, all students are being exposed to print in a way that will model the 7 crucial understandings about print mentioned above.
By immersing all students in a print rich environment in the classroom, the teacher can reach all students on the various levels of emerging literacy. Books, magazines, newspapers, names on the desks, labels on just about everything will communicate to students that writing is valuable. Modeling is also important. Students should see the teacher reading for enjoyment as well.
Reading this chapter made me wonder about the children who really don’t have the support at home. I do remember the many nights my boys had to read to me and sometimes it was a chore because they really didn’t like the books they had to read. We just read to get through it.
As a beginning teacher, will I have the freedom to allow my students to read for “fun” as long as they are reading?
How will I accommodate the ELL reader in my classroom? Does immersion in print in foreign to you language really help them as well?
It is extremely hard to narrow down just one important aspect that I have learned from this chapter on Emergent Literacy. This chapter is very realistic to the needs of early readers and writers. I was unaware of the cardinal principle regarding the Language-Experience Approach (LEA) recommends teachers should write down exactly what the child says. I had always been under the assumption that the child’s spoken dialect must be demonstrated as standard written English. The article states: “When teachers are using language experience with an individual child to help the child understand what reading and writing are and that you can write and read what you can say, then the child’s exact words should be written down. To do anything else will hopelessly confuse the child about the very things you are using individual experience to try to clarify”. The key word to be noted is individual. This type of approach should only be used as an individual student approach. It is imperative to note that when working with a class or small group of children to refer to standard written English. I am now aware of my former misconceptions concerning this individual approach. I would never purposely confuse one of my students. This new knowledge will help me to guide my students in a positive learning environment. My desire is to make the best possible use of individual time with my students.
ReplyDeleteQuestion:
When discussing Develop Phonemic Awareness and Letter-Sound Connections making references such as: “Learning the common sound for h by trying to remember it or by trying to remember that it begins the words hen and horse when you can’t read the words hen and horse requires rote learning”. What should be the role of rote learning with regards to learning to read or write?
After reading the chapter about emerging readers, I have learned that it is very important that emerging readers and writers:
ReplyDeleteknow why we read and write
build background knowledge and concepts develop concepts about print
develop phonemic awareness
learn some concrete words
know some letter names and sounds
want to learn to read and write
It is also very important to read to young students. Students benefit from “lap style” reading. They also benefit from predictable books.
Language Experience allows the student to speak what they want written and the teacher can write exactly what the student says.
As a future teacher, I find this information very interesting and helpful. I want to make sure my students learn to enjoy reading and writing.
The questions I have after reading this chapter include:
How can I as a teacher get parents motivated to help their children at home with reading?
How do I as a teacher help motivate the students who don’t have a support system at home to like reading?
How can I as a teacher help to inspire or re-inspire those kids who have lost liking to read, to like reading once again?
a) Because my personal emergent literacy background was very rich it never occurred to me that all children did not have the same print rich background. Until I mentioned a well-known fairytale to a 3rd grader who had no clue to what I was referring and it really hit home. There are kindergartners who have never heard a nursery rhyme in their lives—which I thought were standard childhood fare. It broke my heart.
ReplyDeleteb) Why can’t we teach them this jargon? It seems to be a bit “dumbing down” to have them call a syllable a beat. According to Debbie Miller they should know schema and other such words, which worked in our school system, so why stop at word, sentence and letter sound?
And why can’t we post our class LEA writing and just label it appropriately as “spoken English” rather than “standard English”? Why couldn’t we use that to invite parent participation in their kids’ learning and turn that negative into a positive?
The article provided excellent points regarding emergent readers. I was interested in the five key ideas concerning emergent readers. I had never taken into account the amount of experiences required in order to create students that want to read.
ReplyDeleteThe most important thing I learned from the article concerned the teacher’s role in emergent readers. When faced with the fact that even though many emergent readers have a strong literacy background at home, many students in today’s classroom do not. The spotlight on teacher’s roles in helping to foster emergent readers was particularly important to me. The article presented information that offered hope that all students can become emergent readers regardless of their home exposure.
By offering solid advice and activities to strengthen and help emergent readers, I feel the article provided great tools for teachers. It offered helpful solutions to combating the lack of literacy experiences many students face. Language-experience approach, shared-writing, and shared reading activities (with additional ideas to use to accommodate struggling students) give teachers and teacher candidates’ solid practices to take into a classroom setting.
This is important to me because the article didn’t just tell me what went wrong when students were not exposed to literacy experiences in the home; it provided teachers with methods to use. By offering methods and approaches, the article exposed that teachers can make a difference.
Questions I have:
* The article suggests introducing phonics after students have been introduced to reading, words, letters, etc…why?
* With a lot of the focus on first grade learners and a student’s mental readiness, why is there such a push to have children reading before they exit kindergarten?
* What are some ways to get parents more involved in their child’s literacy development?
(A)From the reading emergent literacy I learned:
ReplyDelete-Literacy develops gradually and through a variety of experiences with reading and writing.
-Children born into homes where someone spends time with them in reading and writing activities experience an average of over 1000 hours of quality one-on-one in these areas.
-Comprehension is directly tied to prior knowledge.
-Using some jargon is essential to talking with children abut reading and writing.
-Children’s level of phonemic awareness is very highly correlated with their success in beginning reading.
-Children who are allowed and encouraged to “invent spell” develop an early and strong sense of phonemic awareness. Children who are encouraged to use invented spellings become better decoders and spellers than children who are not allowed.
-The words children learn are usually “important to them” concrete words. Children just learn them because they want to know.
-This “can’t wait” attitude is a legacy of their literature environments, and the motivation sustains them through some of the work and effort required to become an independent reader and writer.
-Teachers should read a great variety of books to children such as poetry and nursery rhymes. One of the best indicators of how well children will learn to read is their ability to recite nursery rhymes when they walk into kindergarten.
-The most important reasons for reading to young children relate to the powerful role of read-alouds in concept development, the understanding of what reading is for, and the development of the desire to learn to read.
-Shared reading is a term used to describe the process in which the teacher and the children read a book together. Predictable books are the best kind of books to use with shared reading. In choosing a book for shared reading a teacher must look for predictability, appeal, and take you someplace conceptually.
-The first reading of any book should engage the children through talking and thinking about what is happening in the book.
-Shared reading also promotes “I can’t wait” and “I can do it” attitudes.
-Young children are natural actors.
-Children view writing as a “creation” and are often motivated to write by various media.
-Make sure children can find the front and back of the books as well as the title and author’s name.
-The progression to reading is a natural one, and children soon develop the critical “Of course I can read” self-confidence.
-Shared writing is a process in which the teacher and children write together.
Language-Experience Approach (LEA) has always been that the teacher should write down exactly what the child says.
-Both shared writing and language experience are valuable tools to use with children whose reading and writing experiences at home and at school have been limited.
-Children learn words by seeing and using them many times in many ways.
-Picture modules area shared-writing selections that are built around a high interest picture.
-Children need to develop a basic understanding that writing is a message across time and space. For most young children, the purpose of writing is to get something told or done.
-Classrooms in which children write have lots of print in them including magazines and newspapers.
-Writing is perhaps a teacher’s best opportunity for developing young children’s print concepts, concrete words, phonemic awareness, and knowledge of letters and words.
-A study specified that a mental age of 6.5 years was the right age to begin reading instruction.
(B) Questions that I have are:
-How do I as a teacher, encourage children to read outside of school?
-How do I as a teacher get parents involved in their children’s daily reading?
-How do I as a teacher, deal with children who have parents that can’t read or write?
-How do I as a teacher, get my classroom to develop a “can’t wait” attitude for reading and writing skills?
Children who are not exposed to reading and writing in the home often don't understand why they need to learn or write if they see their parents getting by without these skills. We shouldn't take for granted that students understand why we need to read and write. Give them good examples and set a good example for how these skills have the potential to enrich their lives.
ReplyDeleteChildren will pretend to read favorite and familiar books at a very young age. They will also scribble and practice pretend writing in attempt to mimic letters and words they have seen.
“Word identification is also closely related to topic knowledge.” In other words, children who have read or have had read to them stories about certain topics are more likely to be able to figure out words based on pictures and context if they have a knowledge base about that particular subject matter.
Children who do not have exposure to reading and writing at home often don't understand literary jargon, such as word, letter, sentence and sound and may need to have to concepts explained. They also may not know how to follow the lines of words and find them to be a jumble.
The natural rhythm of nursery rhymes is a valuable tool for teaching phonemic awareness.
The various writing activities presented made me come up with my own as well. For example, giving groups of students dress-up and play items to use and wear that they develop a story around and write it down and draw pictures for it to share with the rest of the class. Items that seem to go together, or for a challenge, items that don't at first seem to go together may be used to make for some wild storytelling and writing!
I honestly don't think I have any questions right now because this article answered so many of them.
Tonya McDonel
The most important thing I got from this article was the fact that children get a vast amount of knowledge simply by parents (and others) reading to them, interacting with parents and family, and "trying" to write themselves. It amazes me how much children learn from listening and watching you read their favorite book or books. As a new parent, I plan to take this information and run with it! I will read to my son, let him draw and "write", and I will encourage his learning as much as possible. This article just proves that children are literally like sponges that soak up every little thing that goes on around them.
ReplyDeleteA couple questions...
1. If this information is proven, then WHY don't more parents read to their children at home and help young students with reading?
2. What is the best way to handle a child who's parents just "don't care" about their learning?
This article opened me eyes to how most children have an understanding of reading in thier early years. They want to to be like the "older people" that they are around.
ReplyDeleteI also like thte fact that the article talked about how phonics plays apart in the learning process of young children and that print is a huge part.
It's funny to hear parents say that their child "knows" thier ABC's. Recognizing and saying them are two differnt things. This article helped me see that chidren need to be shown what to do not just told songs and learn to repeat things.
I like the idea also about taking the writings of children and not criticing everything about it. It gives them that more push to keep trying.
I do want to know how teachers are suppose to find the time to do all these great things when there is no time to do it.
And lastly, what is the best way to help children with uninvovled parents?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis week I have started thinking about children and their reading. This also includes my son. He is 2 and "reads" his books. I love how he makes up words and reads the story. In this chapter, it really hit home the importance of parents reading to their kids. Children want to be like grown-ups. When they see an adult reading they want to be like them.
ReplyDeleteI also like the point of letting the kids act out the story that you are reading. You don't have to have alot of props if any because kids know how to use their imagination.
Also model writing. Model writing on the board. Kids take hints from seeing you write. Scribbling is a form of writing. A scribble can bring back to memory the task you are writing down.
This article is very informative and educational. It is full of information that I had previously had no knowledge of. I like how it gave examples of the different ways that emergent literacy starts at home. I find this very important because this is where a child will get their foundation on literacy. It starts at home with the parents by reading to their child or showing them pictures. The emerging readers and writers know why we read and write, Emerging Readers and Writers Build Background Knowledge and Concepts, Emerging Readers and Writers
ReplyDeleteDevelop Concepts about Print, Emerging Readers and Writers
Develop phonemic Awareness, Emerging Readers and Writers
Learn Some Concrete Words, Emerging Readers and Writers Know
Some Letter Names and Sounds, Emerging Readers and Writers Want
to Learn to Read and Write. The one that really sticks out to me is that the emerging readers and writers know why we read and write. Children pick up on things very quickly and why we read and write is very important for them to catch up on. This is something that they will be doing for the rest of their lives. This matters to me because if a student of mine does not know why we read and write, then it is my job to help that child understand the importance of reading and writing. Reading and writing will and understanding why we read and write is detrimental for a child to learn to be successful in life.
A question that I have is how do I effectively teach a child why we read or write if the child has no previous knowledge of this? And another question I have is how do you approach a child’s parent and share with them the importance of reading with their child at home?
The most important thing I learned from this chapter and why it matters to me:
ReplyDelete- Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds.
- Children must understand that words are made up of speech sounds.
- Emergent readers understand that print carries a message
- Emergent readers know that we read left to right
- Emergent readers to know how to read some concrete words.
- These concrete words are words that are important to them.
- Emergent readers began to use some letter sounds.
- Emergent readers invent text and pretend to read. This are important to the reading development of emergent readers.
- Emergent readers began to know high-frequency words
- Chilren that read at home are more ready to learn how to read and they want to learn to read. Teachers need to level the playing field in early grades so that children that do not have exposure to text can also learn to read.
It is important to know that when children enter Kindergarten they have different experiences with reading. Some children have not been exposed to text at home and may not realize the importance of reading. It is the teacher's role to model reading in the classroom to show students the importance of reading. Teachers need to read aloud to students and ask questions about the text as they read. I thought about my two oldest sons when I read this article. I thought about the different paths my sons took when they learned to read. I read to both my boys and we have various text available to read at home. My oldest son was already reading when he entered Kindergarten. I stayed at home with him until he went to Kindergarten. I spent my days reading various books to him, taking him to the library for storytime, and I spent countless hours teaching him the sounds of letters. He was wanting to read and write almost a year before he started Kindergarten. I spent alot of time doing reading instruction with my oldest son. I spent time teaching him other things, but I wanted him to be good at reading more than anything. I did not have the luxury of staying home with my other son. I read to him and tried to incorporate some reading instruction, but not as much time as I did with my oldest son. My younger son entered Kindergarten not knowing how to read and he has struggled to learn how to read and write. I think that it is evident that reading instruction is very important in the early years.
I wonder:
- Are some students just natural readers?
- How do I encourage parents to read to their children at home?