In chapter 5 there is a lot of new
information that is covered. It focuses on strategies to help children learn
about print in direct, meaningful and functional ways. Which seems to be a
common theme in this textbook. Making connections to a child’s experiences
helps make new information like phonics, which involves learning letter sounds
and combination of letter sounds more meaningful to them. In my English 311 class we are also learning
how the goal of language processes is making meaning. I think that as teachers
it is our job to draw connections and interests from our students lives and
incorporate these things so that when they are reading, writing, or learning
about another subjects they can make meaning out of it.
Teaching a child to read is not an
easy task and there are many word-study skills and standards that need to be
covered. I also noticed quickly how this chapter also relates a lot to the
reading horizons program that we have been working on. It talks about blends,
digraphs, consonants, vowels and other phonics aspects. Combining what we have learned in reading horizon
with a combined analytic-synthetic lesson I think would be beneficial to students.
If I were a parent I would want my
child to go into school being as prepared as possible and the book mentions
things like pointing out words in the environment, encouraging children to
write in their own way, and seeing how print is tracked from left to right
across the page are all things that parents as well as teachers can do to help
children learn about print. How important do you think these parent involvement
activities as well as other mentioned in this chapter really are for children?
I know that all throughout college I have learned that parent involvement is
very important and is more likely to succeed academically.
I was a little surprised that
physical development (large motor development and fine motor development)
played a roll in reading readiness and literacy development. For me when I
think about reading I often forget the many precursors that must come before
picking up a book or looking at letters. What are your thoughts on this?
The section about using environmental print in particular stood
out to me. In todays world if you are not able to recognize the various prints
that surround us, you will have trouble functioning in the world. It is
impossible to walk outside or be driving on the highway without seeing some
sort of sign or visual representation that producers expect you to understand.
And if you cannot pick up details to help you understand these billboards,
magazines, posters, road signs, food labels, and logos then you probably did
not have a teacher that explained the many different ways that you can thinks
about these images and what they are portraying by looking at the picture as
well as looking at the print. Tying back into parental involvement, parents can
help their children by pointing out these environmental prints even from the
first year of their child’s life!
Lindsey-
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I really agree with all of your thoughts on the importance of parental involvement in a students' early literacy. I also love the comment about making connections to a child's experiences. I know I can remember many times during my childhood where I recognized something outside of school and was so proud of myself for being able to recall something that my teacher had taught me! I think having those experiences help students remember certain subjects or even just words because they think back to a certain experience where they used the word. I hope that all made sense! I also find it surprising that physical development has a role in reading readiness because I think as preservice teachers we always think the first thing students need to know is how to recognize letter names and sounds but really an important first step is to explain the importance of reading to students and talk about the different ways we read, other than just books. For example you could explain to students that we read the television, billboards, graphics, on the computer, all in addition to books and novels.
Lindsey – I completely agree that it is important to be making connections to the students’ lives. I believe that doing this will make the less more memorable for students. Parental involvement is important and there’s so much that parents can do. It’s important for parents to interact with their child, and find opportunities to talk to them and make connections about the alphabet, letters, and words in a fun way. I also found it surprising that that physical development was part of reading readiness. It’s just not something that I would have thought of.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that teachers have to be observant to what the children are going trough in their life at the moment and use this information in their teaching to make the lessons interesting and applicable for the students. This makes it easier for the children to learn new information and to get involved in what they are learning in school.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your idea what you would do when you are a parent and I believe that we can always use more parents that are as invested in their child’s life as you are planning to be. The parents have a huge impact on their child’s development and for me teaching a child does not only happen at school but it is a joint activity by parents, families, teachers and schools.
For me teaching children to read is a long progress. There is no way a child will just pick up a book one day and will be able to read perfectly. Teachers have to do their best to help their students acquire this skill and give them time to practice it. But it is not only teachers who can support this development.
Lindsey- I agree with a lot of what you are saying. It is extremely important to make connections to a child’s experiences. I feel like that is always going to make the learning process easier if they are interested in what they are going to be reading. Teachers should be observant of their students and know what their interests are and then form lessons around that. I also believe that parent involvement is very important to the student's likelihood to succeed academically. Similar to what you said, if I was a parent I would try to get my child prepared as best that I could. I would read to them and encourage them to read. I would help them with their homework and I would probably have a lot of learning games in the home as well. I know that growing up, that is how my home was set up, and I believe that it really helps. Sadly, I have seen students who might not have great parent involvement in their home. Of course the teacher can help with that, but one can see that they are a little behind, definitely in learning language.
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome post. I agree with a lot of things that you talked about in this blog. I really agreed with the part at the end of the blog when you talked about how language and print is all around us. As teachers we need to prepare our students for the real world no matter how hard it is we need to help every student. The part about physical development i think that a students mind and motor skills should develop at the same rate. Every child grows and learns differently but i think that motor skills and language skills should grow just like the child is growing.
ReplyDelete