The first person I
interviewed was a child care teacher.
Her program has a 3PreK half day program that has a total of 28 children
throughout the week. I wanted to know if
they had a program for literacy and reading development. She told me the she creates her own program
based on the needs of the children.
Their goal is to have the children familiar with the alphabet and to
understand that each letter has a sound.
They also work on an environmental print project where the children
bring in their favorite labels from food or from places they know like McDonalds. The children also work on recognizing their
name and the names of their friends.
They also work on writing their name by signing in each morning. Finally, they have two story times a
day. One story is for pleasure and one
story is a big book where they children can see how to track print.
I did ask if what she felt were topics
related to literacy and she told me that it encompasses story time, phonemic awareness
and pre-writing skills. She also told me
that when she meets with other PreK teachers, one of the things that concern
them the most is the lack of fine motor skills children seem to have today
which leads to a poor grip of writing instruments and a lack of interest in
writing/drawing.
The second person I interviewed is the
teacher hosting my internship, who teaches 3rd grade in a Lutheran
school. The first thing that comes to
her mind when you ask her about literacy is phonics and phonemic awareness even
in 3rd grade. One of the
biggest issues she feels is the balance between phonics and whole language
because phonics is the basic building block in reading as they grow. The second issue that she thinks about is
reading comprehension. One of the
biggest issues she faces with parents is the fact they are more concerned about
their child being a fluent reader that they forget that comprehension is vital!
So what
are the advocacy efforts? The
PreK teacher told me there were conferences that offer suggestions for those
that struggle. She is unsure if the
school district offers help for 3 PreK students unless it is a speech related problem
and at best it is rough to get them help.
The 3rd grade teacher knows that libraries offer different
programs to try and aide families and children in the area of literacy. She does attend sectionals at conferences on
the latest trends in reading when they are available. She does enroll children in reading
incentives such as Pizza Hut Book-It, Great America’s Read to Succeed to
encourage daily reading. She feels it is
important to keep the read goals reasonable and attainable and one way to do
this is to conference with the children about their reading goals and have them
help set the monthly goal. She feels this way the child will be more willing to
read.
One of the insights that I gained is the
role of the parents. Some parents are
willing to help their child and follow the suggestions of the parents but there
are some that are not. There are parents
that care more about the quantity read verses what they are reading. I know that comprehension is vital in
reading after all if a person is reading something for information it is
important they KNOW what they are reading.
But the most interesting thing I found is the fact the 3rd
grade teacher did not mention writing. I
plan on talking to her about this because I want to know if there is correlation
between good readers and good writers.
I can also see how the 3 PreK’s
environmental print project can empower children to become interested in
reading which can lead them to become readers by 3rd grade. I can also see the value of empowering
children which can lead to confidence in their abilities to learn!
So now I am thinking about writing my
paper on one of the following topics: advocating
for the strong connections between reading and writing or the value of literacy
in the preschool sector or advocating for parents to help their children with
comprehension.
Here are my questions:
1. Are the topics I am
thinking about of value?
2. Are these topics viable to write about? Can I
find enough material?
I think the topics you have chosen are worth pursuing. I am writing my paper on early literacy in the early years before formal schooling. Family involvement is so important for children’s early literacy development. Families need to support their child in reading, writing, listening, and communicating. Unfortunately, for some families, their own literacy skills are not strong, so they may shy away from helping their child. This is where teachers need to not only offer support to the children when learning literacy skills, but for some families as well. Also, some families may not know how to read to their child. What I mean is, read to children like we as teachers read. I am sure you understand what I am talking about. As teachers we make reading a book into a fun, interactive activity which supports children’s thinking, comprehension, listening, etc.
ReplyDeleteI know there is quite a bit of information about the topics you are thinking of basing your paper. Have you taken the early literacy courses at Kendall? I know I am using some of the resources I learned about for those classes in my own research.
I think that is a great topic for a paper. I do think that you will be able to find plenty of information on the subject. I am not sure how far you are at Kendall, but the topic of literacy has been brought up in every class I have taken here. And that has been for 3 years now. If you are stuck finding information you could always look at some of the articles that you had to read for the classes you have taken. But I know that there is more than enough info. out there on this subject. There are also a lot of teacher workshops on this subject. You might be able to sit in on one of those and get information, and talk to the other people there about the subject. They also have a lot of different hand outs and literature at workshops that you can take home to read.
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