I found it very exciting to interview my family about literacy when we were children because I have heard past stories about the experience. I had a reason to interview them now which was interesting. All of my family were early readers, and becoming interested in literacy at a young age. Despite my challenges, I still learned to understand and comprehend literacy and I was able to read at an early age and was advanced when it came to reading for my age.
A little history to know is, I come from a family who has multiple teachers in the family, therefore they know quite a bit about how children learn, I believe that was an advantage that we had. My cousin Tyler was reading chapter books around the age of five because as soon as he was able to talk he was learning to read, my aunt is a teacher so that was an advantage for him. I learned to read around the same time, but had a difficult time because I had an issue with speech, I was able to comprehend the literacy but pronunciation was difficult for me.
I briefly remember the struggle I went through with speech as a child. When I got into second grade, I was advanced with literacy skills, and reading was my most advanced subject when it came to learning. Children develop literacy through experiences that their family impacts. It is based on their experiences when it comes to literacy. Communicating with the child always, and encouraging language helps when it comes to literacy.
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My family taught us to read early by introducing us to books at a very early age, ever since before we could talk they read a book to us every night before bed. I knew that my parents were hesitant on getting me speech services because they thought that my speech was going to improve on its own. I truly believe that if I had services for my speech impediment earlier on, I wouldn’t have a challenge with reading and I would have been more advanced.
The most important aspect for a parent when it comes to reading is making sure to encourage reading and communicate with your child. I am a strong believer in reading to a child even when they do not understand it yet. I have a two year old, and I read books and point out objects in the book to encourage language while we are reading. It gives him an early understanding of reading and comprehension of what is going on in the book.
Emergent Literacy
Emergent Literacy is, child development with reading and writing and developing independently. This can happen independently through play and other experiences with the child. Children learn from experience and play based learning. This can happen in home, or at a daycare based environment. Parents can always have a positive impact on the emergent literacy for the child. Children learn language when they hear others communicate and speak their primary language. Children learn reading and writing by seeing someone else doing the reading or writing and learning that way.
The first steps of emerging writing in my opinion starts with learning to utilize a pencil, and learning how to hold it and use it. This could just be scribbles, it doesn’t have to be anything specific. One way of developing emergent learning in the home is allowing the child look at a book, turn the pages and “pretending to read”. Developing the interest is important in emergent learning. Depending on the home environment emergent literacy might not come easy to some, if the students aren’t engaged and influencing their learning.
Children test what they learn such as writing and reading because they see it done so they are imitating through play. Observing their environment is one way of emerging with literacy. By observing children learn at an early age how to interact in different environments. There are activities that parents can do with their child to assist emergent of literacy.
One way of doing this is teaching labels and signs in the environment around them such as “stop”, “do not enter” and “danger”. Pretend Play with children is a great way of engagement with the child, it allows them to play and learn to communicate. When I was younger to help with my emergent learning I did “pretend play” with my dad, when he was typing on his computer at work I was “typing” on the laptop. Any environment can be made into a learning experience, it just takes the right knowledge and understanding of age appropriate activities. Having Storytime at a young age will benefit them as they grow older, and they will have the focus to be interested in storybooks during Storytime when they do get into school.
From my family’s experience, because we all started getting stories read to us at a very young age, it became something we enjoyed doing. We enjoyed reading therefore most of my family was advanced for their age when it came to the reading level in school. It’s never too early to teach a child different concepts when it comes to reading or writing, they may not catch on to it and understand immediately. But, consistency is key to gain ability of learning something that is new and unfamiliar, the child will catch on the more and more it is introduced and taught.
Teaching Children About Diversity
There are a couple different ways to teaching children about diversity in the classroom, this topic is very important because bullying is a real problem in todays world. There are children committing suicide because of bullying they are dealing with. As an educator it is our job to teach the children to the beauty of diversity, and to teach them how to appreciate it. You have the ability to teach children about their own culture, and giving them the ability to share, and the other cultures in the classroom too. Multicultural books are one way to teach diversity in the classroom.
You can have different colored dolls to represent multiculturalism. Being able to have circle time where the children can share about their different cultures allows the students to recognize the differences and the beauty of diversity. Make it an important topic in the classroom that everyone should be treated equally, and treating others poorly is not tolerated. I am an advocate for special education, therefore in the elementary school I work in I make sure the children understand and respect the diversity.
My students are nonverbal but I make it my job to have the other children look beyond the differences. They still can communicate their needs, just in a different way. They need friends, just like anyone else and they should not be left out. This method of teaching diversity in the classroom creates a positive attitude towards others. When they are taught about diversity and they appreciate it, they can look beyond the differences. If a child understands diversity, the differences among their friends will not matter. Multicultural storybooks are an easy way to teach preschool about diversity.
The best types of books to promote diversity is, books featuring physical differences, and that are picture books so the children have a visual. It is ideal to always have a discussion after the book so you can “dig deeper” than just the book itself. A game that is associated with the book helps keep the children engaged and learning. “Special People, Special Ways” by Arlene McGuire, is a great book that teaches children about disabilities individuals can have.
I found that teaching children about disabilities is very important, because sometimes all they understand is the physical differences related to culture. We’re Different, We’re the Same by Bobbi Kates is a great children’s book that teaches all the differences with hair, skin color, and physical features and then teachers how alike everyone is as well.
Bonding with Book Characters
Children can bond with book characters that relate to them especially related to diverse cultures. The child might relate intimately allowing them to bond with the book character, and their characteristics and life. If there is a book about children with disabilities and that child can relate in one way or another they might bond with the book character. Before taking this course I never realized you could bond with a book characters but it is just like relating intimately to lyrics of a song.
As mentioned in the textbook on page 28, if the child likes the book they will read it over and over, and have a bond grow with a characte. You can take the plot of the story and make an activity out of the storybook without reading it, and the children would really enjoy a fun activity. As mentioned in the textbook, children can pretend play and be a character in the book. Taking a multicultural picture book is a great way of a child bonding to a character. Also, taking a fun children’s book that the children can relate to is another great option for early literacy.
The same concept goes for bonding with characters from television shows and movies. If they feel a connection with the character they will relate and enjoy that book, movie, or television show more than other shows. I have never related to a book character, but I have related to a character in a television show. As an educator when you are reading a book you can ask questions, allowing the child to get more involved in the story you are reading. Books are a great way of teaching many different lessons and aspects of different lives.
Books about how to treat others while in school is a great way of making it know that there is no bullying tolerated in the classroom. Learning about how children can bond with book characters has made me more empathetic in making sure I understand the bond between them and the book character. I will make sure as an educator to meet the students needs, and allow them to read the book in repetition because I imagine, the character in the book is just as comforting as a stuffed animal for them.
