Phonemic Awareness Is Not the Only Important Part of Literacy

Although phonemic awareness is extremely important in learning how to read and write and is also the most prevalent predictor of success in these areas, it is not the only thing to focus on when trying to help children in literacy. Teachers need to remember that children need a variety of different teaching practices and activities to help them learn literacy in the classroom. They also need concrete experiences to connect their learning to. Doing activities such as connecting literacy to writing words in shaving cream, rewriting well known songs and stories, drawing pictures along with writing and reading with older/younger paired reading buddies will help them to create memorable experiences. This way, the students will have an experience to connect their learning with and later on when they have to apply it to something new, they will be able to remember these activities and also remember the concepts that they were practicing during them.

Literacy Dig at Kroger

This week I performed a part of a literacy dig at a grocery store in town. I attended Kroger at noon on a Sunday and took some videos of the types of things that would be found there that would be beneficial for students to learn about. I was actually able to find a lot of interesting things that I could apply to classroom learning and lots of great vocabulary words to use. I spent a lot of time video taping the fruits and vegetables section and I think that spending time talking about the words organic and processed would be great ideas for classroom plans in the future. I also spent a lot of time video taping the meats and deli sections because there were a lot of different types of foods there and many new eye catching foods for children to learn about and try. I think that attending a grocery store as a part of a literacy dig would be a great idea for any elementary classroom because it is something that children do on a regular basis with their parents and giving them the opportunity to look at things from a different perspective will really help students to create a strong third space connection between home and school.

Silent Literacy

            Many people believe that literacy only includes writing and reading with letters and words, however, literacy involves much more than that. Literacy is a means of expression and getting a message across to someone else. This can be done through reading and writing but also through drawing, singing, sculpture, painting and any other type of art medium. I think that art is definitely a part of literacy and literacy is also art. Art is a way for people to express themselves and get a message across to other people and that is exactly why people read, write and speak as well.

            Telling stories and expressing thoughts through art can be a great way to begin conversation and communication between children and teachers who do not speak the same language. Children can use this type of literacy to communicate and help in their journey of learning a new language. When children and teachers are able to communicate in this way it opens up a whole new world of story telling and expression. Children are sometimes able to tap into a part of their creativity that has a more difficult time coming through in writing or speaking. Art is a way of communicating literacy in a new and exciting way.