The most eye opening experience was in class when we were “learning to read.” I NEVER knew the importance of knowing the alphabet until that day; I guess I just have taken the knowledge of knowing letters for granted all these years. It brought back some serious anxiety, now I am older and know how process that anxiety it makes me feel so sorry for those children who experience it everyday in school. I am curious to know what you guys thought during that lesson in class? This brings me to the section in the book about learning the alphabet. Here is a quote from our text, “It is not necessary to be able to identify and name the letters of the alphabet in order to develop an initial sight-reading vocabulary.” When it came to learning to read those symbols in class, how do you think this quote applies?
I am a huge supporter of learning through play. I fully believe when children play they make experiences meaningful to them which results in learning. I like how our text has a whole paragraph on how children explore, play, and then identify with letters. They offer many suggestions such as finger painting, shaping out of clay and their bodies, and using food to associate with letters. I was wondering if anyone has other ideas where children can learn and begin to identify letters through play?
Heylee-
ReplyDeleteGreat post full of great questions Heylee I could talk about some of these things forever! The environmental print makes total sense to me, I think students have daily routines that they know and throughout those routines they encounter many words and logos that they begin to remember without even meaning to. For example on the drive to school they may pass by a Marsh Supermarket and they know that that is the "grocery store" because they have been there to buy food. They may have Fruit Loops for breakfast every morning and even if they could not tell you the first letter if you were to just show them the box or the logo I am sure they could tell you that it is cereal and that it is called Fruit Loops. I do think that depending on the environmental print it can have an impact later in life in that it may remind them of a certain time in life like how much they loved Fruit Loops and ate it every morning or just that their family always shopped at Marsh. They may remember a companies logo because they saw it at a friends house or at a birthday party. I think it really depends on the student because I know even I have some really random memories brought on by random places or objects that you just forget about but when you see them you say to your friend "hey remember when we were little...". The "learning to read" activity we did in class was very eye opening! It has been so long since we have all had to do something like that and I think it was a really great introduction to this emergent literacy class. The quote you mentioned from the text is interesting because I am sure some sight words students may just know but I also think it is fair to say that it is totally "unnecessary" to be able identify letters to successfully read sight words. If a student is having an off day or week they may forget some sight words but if they know letters just by recognizing one or two from the word would help them get back on track.
I agree with a lot of what you have to say. Before this class, I never wondered about different print the children are seeing everyday and how they associate them, but it does make sense that they learn to recognize the names of stores or cereal, even though they might not understand how the letters work. Parents can interact with their child and show that each word is made up of individual letters. When they recognize environmental print, they are understanding that when letters come together, they form words and have meaning.
ReplyDeleteIn class, when we were “learning to read,” I found myself getting very nervous because I don’t think I understood the symbols as well as other people did, and I was really hoping that I wouldn’t get called on to read. Some of our students might feel this way, because they won’t have any background knowledge on what we need to teach them.
The quote you mentioned from our text, “It is not necessary to be able to identify and name the letters of the alphabet in order to develop an initial sight-reading vocabulary” is true, I believe. There are some sight words that children will learn, without having to know the letters of the alphabet, and there are sight words that you just need to know because they don’t follow any rules. During our “learning to read” lesson, I did learn some words just from memorizing them.
I think that children are able to recognize environmental print at a very young age. The head teacher of the classroom where I completed my first internship in the United States at had a how I think great idea to make the children but also the parents aware of this environmental print. She asked the children to bring in examples of environmental print that they found but she also asked teachers and parents to be looking for them. I have never seen a project having so much success in such a very short amount of time. Everyday the children brought in new items and they were always very proud when someone in the class was able to identify the environmental prints meaning.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many symbols and influences out there that have an influence on the children and that they are able to understand and recognize. I think that this might even be an overstimulation for young children because there are just so much of them in our everyday environment. But from what I experienced when children learn about the different environmental prints with explanation and supervision they are able to use it in their future life.
To be honest during that day of class I was really nervous. The most I thought was don’t call on me to read, please don’t ask me. I was so confused, but I also have to say that that experience made me realize how young children might feel when they start learning how to read. Some of them might be as scared as I was to fail and make a fool out of myself in front of the whole class. I hope that when I am teaching in a classroom I am able to reduce that feeling of failure and can help the children have a better experience. I have not yet fully figured out what strategies I can use to complete this but I am confident that I will be able to find a way.
I believe that you have to be able to identify and recall the letters or symbols before you can really read and understand a written text. If we would just present children with a written text and ask them to read it to us they will probably have no idea what we ask of them and how to complete the task.
One way children can learn and begin identifying letters through play that I thought of would be the sand or water table. The teacher could easily include letter shapes in the sand or water so that the children are repeatedly introduced to the letter shapes every time they are at the specific play area.
Helyee- I agree with a lot of what you are saying. Before this class I didn't realize all that went into how we learned to read. Its crazy to think about all that goes into this process sometimes. I also didn't really know about all the different prints we experience. From what we talk about in class I can realize how even when we are infants we are learning language and recognizing symbols and words. I liked the quotes that you discussed in your post. About the day that we "learned to read". I was kind of nervous about the whole thing, definitely when she started calling on people. I was reading ahead so I would be somewhat prepared to be able to read. But then she said that we shouldn't read a head and that just kind of stressed me out. I struggled with reading when I was learning to read. I had dyslexia and luckily my 3rd grade teacher would never call on me to read anything and so that was helpful. But the activity in class definitely made me think back to those days, when I didn't know what I was trying to read and I didn't know how everyone was reading everything so well. It was just a struggle, but also a very good experience of what not to do in your classroom to your students. I believe that children should definitely learn through play. Another way that children could learn through play is dramatic play. During this dramatic play children communicate and use what they know from their environment to interact with each other. That is a great way to learn.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post. I think that a lot of environmental prints that children see at a young age are road signs. Children see road signs everywhere they go when they are riding in the car with their parents. This can have an impact on them later in their life when they begin to drive. The children will be able to understand the signs when they are old enough to drive. I am also a very big supporter in children learning through play. Children have to learn through experiences that they have had throughout their lifetime. When I learn new things I usually fail once or twice before I really understand something.
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