Blog # 2

Chapter 4

Heading 1-‘FOSTERING YOUNG CHILDREN’S INTEREST IN LITERACY’(p.161)

Children get their first taste of language at home prior to stepping in a classroom. Metalinguistics is the skill of being able to speak about ideas from language. Reading and writing practice channels ways for children to think metalinguistically. Children are observant about their environment in that they can read signs like the red/white bulls eye means Target. Children usually know the logo of Dairy Queen or even McDonalds. At times however, it can be challenging for children to read the true spelled out word for Target, Dairy Queen or McDonalds. A way for teachers to incorporate reading and writing for children is with play centers.For instance, the game “Book Store” requires reading material such as books, magazines, or newspapers. An employee will help a customer find the reading material that he/she wants to purchase. In turn the student who plays the employee and the student who plays the customer is both practicing on reading. The cashier student practices on reading money and looking at the written material when scanning it for check out. Children who are starting to learn to read/write use phonological, semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic systems. I recall as a child using Sling Lang in language arts. My teacher would call on students to spell a word, for example; lets say the word is dog.A student had to put the letters together from the board that makes up the word dog. Then say the word dog to the class and spell the word dog with two fingers in the air. When I was in first grade, I saw this as a game. I had no clue the teacher was emphasizing on reading/writing/spelling/pronunciation. English language has around 44 phonemes with the exception of c, q, and x. Phonics helps students identify sounds in our English language. Rhythm found with songs or rhymes can strengthen children’s understanding of phonics. Phonics has some rules to help narrow down the confusion. In our textbook on p.177, Tompkins has provided a list of eight rules to distinguish phonics occurrences.

Heading 2-‘YOUNG CHILDREN EMERGE INTO READING'(p.178)

When children are trained to read, they travel through three periods of development. Children scratch at emergent, then beginning to fluent readers (p. 178 Tompkins). Emergent readers tend to be approached with share reading. Teachers will take turns reading with students. Books that have repetition, cumulative sequences, rhymes, and sequential patterns make share reading enjoyable. I always like to read repetition books. When I was younger, one of my favorite books reading with Mom & Dad was the book called Horton Hatches An Egg by Dr. Sues. Through the pages it repeats, “I meant what I said, I said what I meant, an Elephant is faithful 100%.” Dr. Sues placed rhythm in the elephant’s words. Big books are incorporated in teacher’s curriculum. Big books make it easier for students to practice reading. I recollect in first grade making a big book. The title was People. Everyone in the class had a chance to read the People book. Another way to practice reading with children is having older students and younger students as reading buddies. Older students and younger students get a chance to spend time together while reading. Older students can guide their emergent readers by showing them how to approach difficult words that are troublesome for their young buddy. Teamwork is incorporated in a non-threatening way. The school I went to had fifth graders paired with second graders and forth graders paired with first graders in reading. I liked being paired with students to practice my reading. Teachers can also have traveling bags of books. The bags can contain different books that children can read with their parents. The reading bags are a means to have parents participate in their child’s reading journey at home. For the Language Experience approach, teachers write what students want to say. In Kindergarten, I remember dictating to my teacher as she wrote what I felt from her different activities. From my past observations in Kinder, Mrs. Gayle showed me how to hold a utensil and the proper way of writing left to right.

Heading-3‘YOUNG CHILDREN EMERGE INTO WRITING'(p.188)

Just like learning to read, writing takes place from the same type of stages. In the earliest stage for students with their writing involves scribbles. One time I was playing with a four-year-old child I was watching, who scribbled all over her notebook page to represent words.She than gave me her paper and said it was my food order. Invented spelling words become the next stage children go through with writing. The last stage is fluent writing. Fluent writing allows for students to write in a way to communicate with others in an orderly fashion. Writing is a chance for students to articulate their vocabulary or concepts on paper. As time passes, students realize that drawing and creating words are two dissimilar entities of stating one’s self. Teachers can work as a partner with students on how to properly write using special techniques. Interactive writing occurs for the students when they participate with others using different writing materials.

What it means to me

To me it means that learning to read, and write is a process. I struggled at reading. I did not learn how to officially read until during my first grade summer. My Grandma sat me down and taught me how to read. We read all of the ABC books and many other fun stories. Throughout the years, I think reading and writing make learning wonderful experiences. Imagine if there were not a way for people to transfer information down on paper from their own thinking, we would not have books. I think everything overlaps with one another in learning process with reading and writing.

How it applies to the classroom

As a future teacher, I hope to implement the hidden techniques from this chapter into my classroom for students. Spending time one on one teaching students to read sounds exciting. I want to apply using the interactive writing so students can learn how to sharpen their word forming. I think having reading buddies with older/younger children is a great idea. I want to encourage students to use traveling bags filled with books from classroom to home. I liked that idea.