This chapter of our text was a bit overwhelming for me this week. It is
heavily content based, and contains a lot of information. The chapter was
centered around the importance of writing, spelling, and literacy development.
After reading the chapter, I feel much more informed on how to help children
read and write. I thought that the chapter had a great introduction to
this specific topic of literacy development. Growing up, "I Know an Old
Lady", was one of my favorite stories. Reading this chapter brought back
memories I have from my childhood involving this book, and how much I loved
it. I remember thinking this story was so funny, as a child, and I loved
hearing my teacher say such silly lines from the book. Back then, I had no idea
that I was developing problem-solving skills, or developing vocabulary.
While reading the chapter, I highlighted a few
sentences that I found interesting, and wanted to share in my blog post. One of
the topics that I found interesting to read about was the importance of drawing.
As adults, when we look at children's scribble marks, we just see scribble marks.
As future teachers, though, we know better than this. When children are
drawing, we know that this is a huge step in a child's journey through emergent
literacy. This is the beginning of them learning to write. What may look like just
"scribbles", means much more to the child. They are starting to
make connections of letters with objects, and what they see. As a child, I
loved to draw and write, before I actually knew the alphabet. As awful as this
is, I would "scribble" in my favorite books. I believe this was somehow my way
of understanding the story. Children need time to express
themselves through play and drawing in the classroom. A good teacher knows
that they aren't just playing, but they are in the beginning stages of their
literacy development. I also really enjoyed the pictures throughout the chapter. I thought that they were great examples of children's work, and helped the readers envision some of the work they might see from future students.
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ReplyDeleteI do agree that drawing is just as important as writing. I was talking with a kindergarten teacher a month ago and she was explaining to me that when she is teaching her students how to read she always first focuses on pictures as a way of reading for them to start out. I thought this made sense with what you were talking about. If looking at pictures can be seen as a way to read, then why isn't it seen as a beginning step of writing? Just last week I had my little 5 year old cousin show me two pictures he had drawn. He had a full story to go along with both of his drawings, and the stories were super detailed. I feel like this shows that drawings aren't usually random for students. They usually have a background to the picture, or a story to go along with it. This is a beginning step of being able to write full stories on their own.
ReplyDeleteI like how you focused a good portion of your text on the drawing aspect of writing. It is the start of them conveying their thoughts. I like how you brought up how we need to really praise that they are making scribbles as words. They understand that these lines are there to communicate their thoughts and what they want to tell someone and that is so important. I think it could be helpful on occasion if you have conferences with your students is have them draw a short story and sit down with them and write the words that they were trying to convey. This way they can read their very own story at home. This will still praise them for all their hard work but also work with them to take that next step into writing but in a fun way. What is one of your favorite ways to help your students move from drawing or scribbling into that next step in writing.
ReplyDeleteHi McKenzie! I really enjoyed your post, and I agreed with everything you had to say. The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly was one of my favorite books as a child too. My dad really liked it and he would always read it to me and I thought it was the funnies thing in the world. I also really like what you said about the scribbles. Now that I look back, I realize that when I would play pretend or play school I would always scribble, but I would do it left to right and in lines. I would always imitate my parents or other adults in my life. It's so interesting how I catch things that I learn in this class and I see how I have done them in my own childhood. Thanks for your post!
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