Literacy consists of a range of ways to understand and decode symbols for communication in a community (Barratt-Pugh & Rohl, 2000, p. 25). Emergent literacy is a term used to describe how young children interact with books, reading and writing (What is Emergent Literacy, 2006, p.1). Emerging literacy is an ongoing process and to ensure this process is successful children need to be stimulated through active engagement with books and writing opportunities.
Children start to learn about and experience reading and writing in infancy, particularly when they start familiarising themselves with print media. From an early age children are able to read and recognise signs such as fast food logos, ect. (Alleyne, n.d. p.2) In addition, when young children are engaged in reading books and writing opportunities their ability to learn literacy is enhanced.
Teale and sulzby (1989) pointed out that almost all children who come from literate families begin to develop skills in reading and writing from an early age through active engagement (Alleyne, n.d. p.2).
Reading Aloud to Children
Children’s stories never get old, they can be re told over and over. The more a child hears a story the greater they come to understand its meaning and purpose. Reading books to children is a means of demonstrating how to read and gives students a model to follow when they read independently. (Barratt-Pugh & Rohl, 2000, p. 124-125).
Parents play a large role in encouraging children to read and enabling them to become confident readers. Parents are aware of what motivates their child and can choose books that will stimulate their child’s interest. Research shows that by parents reading aloud to their children is essential in order for them to become successf...
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...o actively engage student in reading and writing into a daily 2 hour block, these include: reading to children, shared reading, guided reading, modelled writing, shared writing and oral language. (Tackling Literacy, n.d).
In summary, children develop into proficient readers and writers from a large range of engagements and experiences with books and writing opportunities. Not only is it the responsibility of primary school teachers but literary development should also be considered by early child care workers and parents. Research has proven that children from low socio economic background have lower literary skills and knowledge. This is due to the lack of print material available to them (Crawford, 2003) This again proves the importance of engaging children with print media such as books and providing adequate opportunities to experiment with writing.
… Being read to has been identified as a source of children’s early literacy development, including knowledge of the alphabet, print, and characteristics of written language. By the age of two, children who are read to regularly display greater language comprehension, larger vocabularies and higher cognitive skills than their
Support from parents has proven to be of extreme importance in the literacy success of a child. This often begins with the simple ritual of “bedtime stories” in the home. Studies show that children who are read to as infants perform better in literacy later in life. From a young age, children begin to understand the workings of the written word if they are exposed to it frequently. Babies who are nowhere near having the mental capacity to read and comprehend a book are still able to “follow along” when their parents or caregivers read to them. These children understand that each segment of writing represents a word and they are even able to recognize when a text is upside-down because they are accustomed to the appearance of writing. This puts the child significantly ahead when the time comes to learn to read.
This detailed text provides an understanding of reading and writing through detailed case studies, reflective questioning and further reading; in addition to links with the Early Years Curriculum (EYFS)(DCSF, 2008) provide informative information accessible to both practitioner and parent. As pointed out by the authors, literacy relates to fifty % of the early learning goals, therefore highlights the importance by the practitioner to make the acquisition of literacy exciting and meaningful through a multitude of role play scenarios, stories, rhymes and oral language, thus providing opportunities for the child to put life experiences of literacy into context, while scaffolding existing knowledge.
Deborah Brandt (1998) wrote “Sponsors of Literacy”, a journal where she explained her findings of the research she has done on how different people across the nation learned to read and write, born between 1900, and 1980 (p. 167). She interviewed many people that had varying forms of their literacy skills, whether it was from being poor, being rich, or just being in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
With such high numbers of adolescents falling below basic in reading, illiteracy is a battle that must be fought head on. The largest dilemma with the struggle is the number of variations that cause adolescents to become reluctant, unmotivated or struggling readers. Fortunately, a large number of strategies exist to encourage and strengthen readers of all ages, proving that adolescence is not a time to give up on faltering students. Rather, it is a time to evaluate and intervene in an effort to turn a reluctant reader into an avid one (or near enough). Ultimately, educators must learn to properly assess a student’s strengths and weaknesses (Curtis, 2009) and pair them with the proper intervention techniques. If one method does not work, countless others exist to take its place.
When children are taught to read at an earlier age, their emotional and mental development is positively impacted. The exposure of literature to young children helps them become smarter and allows them to understand more about the world. They learn simple yet valuable lessons that allow them to make wiser decisions and display better behavior around others. Psychologist Raymond Mar held a study in 2010 on children who read books when they are younger. Mar’s results showed that reading boosted their “theory of mind” and understanding of people’s feelings. This shows that children can benefit when properly taught to read books at a younger age. It also aids children in school and increases their intellectual engagement. Kids can develop the skills to question the emotional and mental aspects of books when they start reading at a younger age. Overall, children can be greatly influenced when they read at a younger age and their mental and emotional development is affected by the positive impact of
In recent years the meaning of literacy has become much more than that. Now literacy includes things such as, numbers, images, and technology. Literacy can be something that developed through things like Books, the internet, television, family, and many other resources. In this literacy narrative I will discuss the origins of my current attitudes about writing, and reading.
Literacy is most commonly understood as reading and writing. But before children can read and write, they need to learn about sound, words, language, books and stories (Raising Children, 2015). Children begin to develop and gain knowledge quite differently and with support and developmentally appropriate learning skills children will also come to understand the connection between letters and sounds. Literacy development or early literacy is the most essential in the first three years of life as it the earliest experience children have with language, sound and the positive interactions between child and adult. Vygotsky (1978) believed in how children developed, and the important role of adults in leading child’s early development. The interactions
The purpose of my annotated bibliography is to help you understand the research behind my research paper. This annotated bibliography focuses on how exposure to reading and writing skills early play a role in the successfulness of a child’s literacy abilities. Moreover, the focus question for my paper is, does exposure to reading and writing skills before school help a child become successful in literacy. The reason I wanted to research this is because I wanted to see if exposure early to either skills will be beneficial for a child literacy. The articles in this bibliography will give you some background on the research I have done to support my research question in my paper.
This literature review was compiled to investigate the question: what effective strategies in reading can be utilized by parents to second grade students to assist and improve their children’s reading fluency? When a child was a baby, both mother and father read aloud short story, poetry and nursery rhymes to make them feel the spirit of learning to reading. According to Lawson (2012), “The parental practice of readi...
The teaching of reading has gone through numerous transformations and controversy continues over what is the best reading instruction. However, there is overwhelming evidence that the use of authentic literature and time for children to read, discuss what they have read and hear fluent readers, are critical to success.
While I believe every child is a reader, I do not believe every child will be enthralled with reading all the time. All students have the capability to read and enjoy reading, but just like any other hobby, interest will vary from student to student. The students in my classroom will be encouraged in their reading, be provided with choice, taught how books can take you into another world but, my students will not be forced to read. This paper will illustrate my philosophy of reading through the theories I relate to, the way I want to implement reading and writing curriculum, and the methods I will use motivate my students to read and help them become literate.
Winch, G., Johnston, R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L., & Holliday, M. (2010). Literacy: Reading, writing and children’s literature (4th ed.). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.
Reading aloud helps a child’s memory, curiosity, and it builds their motivation (“Importance of Reading Aloud”). “Reading aloud introduces the language of books which differs from language heard in daily conversation, on television, and in movies. Book language is more descriptive and uses more formal grammatical structures”. Children learn many things while being read to. The more books that are read to children, the more their vocabulary expands. Reading to children can introduce them to different literature they might not find on their own (Koralek). Another essential skill that children need is the ability to listen, which they learn while being read to (“Importance of Reading Aloud”). Not only does reading give children the ability to listen, it gives them the ability to understand how stories work. “The more a child knows about and experience the joys of reading before kindergarten, the easier it will be to learn to read,” (“Why Reading to Children Is Important”). Reading is fun and the more it is done, the more children will enjoy it
Our readings reference many previously researched benefits of Interactive Reading which include (but certainly are not limited to) developing children's joy of learning, art of listening, vocabulary, concepts of print, patterns and structures of written language, understanding of different genres, oral language expression, and understanding of the components, structure, and function of narrative discourse, connection with others and the world. (Fisher et all, 2006, p. 8-16).