Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Literacy and Self In the Early Years

Literacy is not only important for children to learn how to read and write as they get older, but it is also important for them to be able to learn about who they are and what they believe in. When children hear stories being read aloud or just made up along the way, they are relating the characters and the story lines to the happenings of their own lives. They are following what is happening in the story, but they are also using the events to learn about what different scenerios mean in their environment.
Children who are read to regularly at an early age, are more likely to enjoy reading later in life and are also more likely to have an easier time learning how to read. This shows the importance of exposing children to reading and storytelling even before they actually know how to read. Whenever a child hears a story or is encouraged to share a story of his or her own, they are learning who they are and what they believe in. They are shaping their values and beliefs through the process of analyzing the characters and events in the stories they hear. Reading and telling stories to children as they grow is vital for them to be able to learn and form their own opinions.

6 comments:

  1. Reading and literacy help shape a child’s identity along with several other important aspects of their life. I agree that children relate their lives to the stories they are reading. I think children that enjoy reading will do better in school, so it is important to make reading interesting and fun.

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  2. This is such an important point, Nicole. We are often preoccupied with demonstrating that early literacy learning has a "deferred benefit", for instance, showing how a reading practice improves test scores in later grades. However, children use print for real purposes to get things done in their here-and-now worlds. And this is how the most powerful language and literacy learning happens!

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  3. I think this will be very important for us to remember as teachers, especially in preschool or early elementary classrooms. Reading your post made me think about circle time in elementary school when each student gets to share something about their weekend or is just able to talk to the class for a minute or two. This definitely fits into your point about the importance of encouraging children to share a story of their own. I think this really validates each child as an individual and helps them learn so much about themselves!

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  4. Reading... My parents used to read to me, over, and over. I loved listening, and the quality time. As a student, though, I never really latched onto reading until about 7th grade. I always thought it was because reading was "lame," but I now understand that my reading comprehension was not fully developed until about 7th grade. Because I was a little slow to understand the reading literacy, reading was not enjoyable for me. I think it's a great point you make, that teaching a child to enjoy reading young can help them as they move into adulthood. Now that I enjoy reading, I am entered into so many different facets of life perspectives.

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  5. I think storytelling is one of the important reading exercises for children even though they are not enough to read yet. The activity will help child to re-arrange the story and developing new words.

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  6. I like what you said about storytelling a lot. I remember not being able to sleep when I was little and my dad would make me close my eyes and he would tell me a story. They were always really goofy and long (the point was to make me fall asleep before it was finished), but it was great because I would imagine my own pictures as opposed to reading an actual book. I think this was a really great experience that helped me to love reading even when I began being assigned the "books with no pictures" in school.

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