Literacy Playshop

The literacy playshop approach focuses on children's interests, strengths, and abilities as the basis of providing opportunities to construct their own learning through play-based creation. The Literacy Playshops that we have been talking about in class are specifically designed to provide children with an opportunity to create a film that is based on popular media that they are interested in. The children are in charge of their own learning because they are making the film independently using their unique set of skills and knowledge.

This is a fun and engaging way for children to utilize and demonstrate their skills and knowledge in order to create a product that will display what they can accomplish. The process of creating the film will allow children to build upon what they already know and can do with literacy because they are making connections between all of the literacy concepts and ideas that they are using to put together a film. As a result of this project, children will be able to see themselves as capable producers who possess important skills and knowledge that allow them to accomplish such a task. They will also see a variety of ways in which literacy can be used while they are making meaning from the film they are creating.

A haiku about a classroom without tables or chairs

Learning is active

Let us explore and create

In an open space

Sounding Out as a Cultural Model

When a child is reading a comes to a word they do not know, what can you do to support them? For many, the first strategy that may come to mind is to "sound it out." It seems like a logical and useful strategy for developing readers to add to their collection, but what is this strategy actually achieving? Sounding it out may help a child to put the letters and sounds together to decode the word successfully, but is that truly reading? We must first make the distinction between decoding and reading. Decoding is the process of blending letters and their sounds and focuses on accuracy. Reading is receiving information from text in order to make meaning out of it and focuses on understanding. In Catherine Compton-Lilly's (2005) article, "'Sounding Out': A Pervasive Cultural Model of Reading," she states that the strategy of sounding it out "privileges phonetic decoding over other decoding strategies, particularly those that involve the meanings of texts and the structures of language" (pg. 442). We need to support our students in developing strategies to not just decode the text, but to make meaning from it.

So what are some strategies that can help students to focus on the meaning of the text when learning to read? One strategy can be to look at the pictures to search for clues about what the text is saying, if there are pictures present. When text is accompanied by pictures or illustrations, there is a good chance that there is a relationship between them that can provide helpful hints as to what the text is saying. Another strategy to suggest is to have the student skip the word and read to end of the sentence, then read the sentence again. This provides the child with context in which they can draw clues from to figure out the unknown word. Breaking up the unknown word into smaller parts can also be a helpful strategy, especially if it is a relatively long word. There may be words or letter patterns that the child knows that are present within the unknown word that will help them to figure it out. The most important thing to remember when suggesting strategies to children is to keep the focus on the meaning of the text, not the accuracy of how it is read.

In the first grade classroom that I have been placed in for my field experience this semester, I have seen children sounding out words as a strategy. I completed a Running Record with a girl who came to the word "salamander," which she did not know. She began by sounding out the letters and attempting to blend them together. After giving up and skipping it the first time she came to it, the second time she came to it she said, "Sal...sala...salander?" I asked her if that made sense in the sentence and she shrugged her shoulders. I told her that the word was "salamander" and asked if she had heard of that type of animal before. She said, "No, what is it?" I then described it as an animal that was very similar to a lizard. She continued to read the rest of the book fluently. In this instance, because she was not familiar with salamanders, I think the best strategy that I could have suggested here is to break the word into smaller parts. It is a longer word with letter combinations that I think the girl would have recognized. Sal-a-man-der. Looking back, this would have been a better way in which to handle this word than just telling her what it was and explaining it. In my future encounters with unknown words, I hope to support children more meaningfully in developing strategies.

Source:

Compton-Lilly, Catherine. ""Sounding Out": A Pervasive Cultural Model of Reading."Language Arts 82.6 (2005): 441-51. Print.

Focusing on Children's Strengths

So much can be gained from observing and analyzing what a child can do. When we pursue a strengths-focused approach to teaching and supporting children's learning, we encourage students in what they can already do and use their abilities as a starting point for where they will go next. In Kate Foley Cusumano's (2008) article, "Every Mark on the Page: Educating Family and Community Members about Young Children’s Writing," she quotes Calkins (1983) regarding the value of this approach, stating, "children become our teachers, showing us how they learn” (pg. 10). By understanding what a child can do, we are also learning about how they learn, which can positively inform our instruction and support for that child. In terms of a child's literacy development, it is useful to know the skills and strategies they are using when they read and write. This knowledge will serve as a guide for how to support the child in reaching a new level of learning or development. For example, a child who uses their understanding of phonics and visual cues to predict words that they do not yet know when reading could be supported by being shown additional strategies to figure out words, such as using the context of the surrounding words to see what makes sense. If you did not know what strategies the child was using to predict words, it would be difficult to support them in furthering their development in a meaningful way. In her article, "'Sounding Out': A Pervasive Cultural Model of Reading," Catherine Compton-Lilly (2005) states that as educators, "we must constantly reflect on our teaching and the strategies our students apply as they become readers" (pg. 450-451). This allows us to continually improve our instruction by founding it on the abilities and needs of our students. Focusing on children's strengths guides us in being effective educators and supporters of learning and development.



Sources:

Compton-Lilly, Catherine. ""Sounding Out": A Pervasive Cultural Model of Reading."Language Arts 82.6 (2005): 441-51. Print.

Cusumano, Kate Foley. "Every Mark on the Page: Educating Family and Community Members about Young Children’s Writing." Language Arts 86.1 (2008): 9-17. Print.

What does literacy look like in my community and why should I care?

Literacy comes in many forms and serves many purposes. It could be a novel to provide entertainment, a poster that holds information about an event, or a letter mailed to a loved one. These forms and purposes will vary across individuals and even across communities. I can see this when thinking about my own community and how it is different from others. The literacy in my community looks like books, journals, calendars, television shows, music, movies, advertising, social media, photographs, notes, signs, posters, and conversations. The purposes they serve include entertainment, providing information, organization, communication, reflection, reminding, and relaxation. It is important to think about what literacy looks like in your community because it allows us to consider how it differs from other communities and individuals. As teachers, we can use this information and understanding in order to provide our students with experiences that are meaningful and constructive based on what literacy looks like in their communities. We can also help our students to make connections between home and school by understanding the types of literacy they are surrounded by in their communities.

Language Learners

Language acquisition is an important and unique process for everyone. As teachers, we need to understand this in order to provide the best opportunities and support for our students throughout this process. Getting to know and understanding what our students know is an important job for teachers. We can then investigate further and discover the interests and preferences of our students. This information will provide us with what we need to individualize the opportunities and support for all of our students. Teachers also need to understand what it is like for children who are in the early stages of language development. It can be frustrating and discouraging to be in a classroom that does not account for your level of language ability. We need to be sure that we are not making students feel this way by providing appropriate activities and supports so that they can actively participate and engage. When we, as teachers, take all of these things into consideration, it equips us to be effective teachers who can contribute to our students' language development.

Literacy Journies: How We Learn to Read and Write

As teachers, our personal experiences with literacy will affect our attitudes toward literacy and the way we teach it to our students. Maybe we have meaningful and positive memories of learning to write, or negative and painful memories of struggling with reading. Whatever our past holds, it has influenced the way we think about literacy. It is important to reflect on our experiences and remember the process of learning to read and write so that we can better understand how to provide opportunities for our students to have meaningful and positive experiences with literacy. In Pat Johnson's and Katie Keier's book, Catching Readers Before They Fall: Supporting Readers Who Struggle, there is a huge emphasis on the importance of children's construction of a reading process system. This involves a network of literacy strategies that are integrated with and supportive of one another. Some examples of these strategies include predicting, visualizing, and synthesizing. When a collection of these strategies is obtained by a child, they can then integrate them to construct a reading process system that will serve them as proficient readers. Some may think that reading is simply the ability to accurately recognize sequences of letters as words, but it is much more complex than that. "Reading is making meaning" (Johnson & Keier, 2010, 15). Those who have successfully constructed a reading process system are able to read text fluently and make meaning out of the text. By understanding what a reading process system is and how we have personally constructed our own, we can provide opportunities for meaningful interaction with literacy that will best support our students' constructions of their own reading process systems.

Essential Early Literacy Teaching Strategies

In the article, "The Essentials of Early Literacy Instruction," there are 8 instructional strategies listed that have been linked through strong research to early literacy skills. Although this article may have intended these strategies to be used by teachers in the classroom, there is no reason that they could not be incorporated into a child's home life as well. I will list the strategies accompanied with a brief description and some examples of how each can be used by your family at home.


1. Rich teacher talk
          Although the word "teacher" is explicitly used in the title of this strategy, any adult could engage in rich conversation with children. The goals of this strategy are to provide new vocabulary, extend children's language by adding onto their ideas, discuss cognitively challenging content, and listen and respond to what children have to say.
          This could be done at practically any time within almost any context. Seek out opportunities to engage your child in rich and interesting conversation. It might be most productive to begin with your child's interests or an experience that your child enjoyed. Remember to highlight new vocabulary and emphasize the importance of description.

2. Storybook reading

          This strategy is simply reading aloud to your child. The goals are to expose children to numerous enjoyable types of literature, provide supportive conversations, and build familiarity with books by repeated readings.
          Perhaps your child already has some favorite books or stories, and these are great choices for read alouds. Another option is to take a trip to the library with your child to explore and choose books that you could read together.


3. Phonological awareness activities
          Phonological awareness refers to the awareness of the sounds of language. The goal of this strategy is to provide experiences and opportunities to increase children's awareness of these sounds.
          These experiences and opportunities include games, stories, songs, and poems that involve rhyme, alliteration, and sound matching.



4. Alphabet activities
          The goal of this strategy is to engage children with materials that promote and support the identification of letters of the alphabet.
          This can be done with ABC books, magnetic letters, alphabet blocks/puzzles/toys, and ABC charts.



5. Support for emergent reading
          This strategy means to encourage children to attempt to read books and other types of print.
          At home, this can be done with favorite books, repeated readings, environmental print, and any other print that your child is either familiar with or interested in.

6. Support for emergent writing
          The goal of this strategy is to encourage children to use emergent forms of writing, including scribbling, random letters, and invented spelling.
          This can be done by providing fun writing materials, shared writing demonstrations, and writing down what your child says as they watch. Let your child watch as you write down a grocery list and then ask for their help.

7. Shared book experience
          Though it sounds similar to storybook reading (strategy #3), this strategy focuses on introducing and drawing children's attention to the basic concepts of print. These include the distinction between pictures and text, proper reading directionality, and book concepts/parts.
          This can also be done using favorite books or stories in which you are reading aloud and pointing out these basic concepts.

8. Integrated, content-focused activities
          This strategy calls for providing opportunities for children to investigate interesting and engaging topics. The goal for this strategy is for children to use oral language, writing, and reading to learn about the world.
          Some ways to use this strategy are to collect informational books about a topic that your child is interested in. You can then read these books and help your child to gather more information about the topic through observation, experiments, and research. You can also encourage your child to record their observations and the information that you collect. Dramatic play is another in which your child can consolidate and express what they are learning.

Using these strategies at home is a great way to support and extend your child's literacy development and build connections between home and school.

To read this article and learn more about the implementation and benefits of these strategies, follow this link:
http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200303/Essentials.pdf

#Kinderchat: February 10, 2014 - Helping families and children in need (North America)

The topic for the #kinderchat archive that I decided to read was "Helping families and children in need". It was explained that these could be any type of needs. Some teachers mentioned needs that they were currently wanting to address with their students, including a death in the family and a divorce. One of the initial ideas about the topic was that we have to know and understand the needs of families and children before we can help them. I think that this is a really good point because without fully understanding the needs, we are prone to make inaccurate assumptions which leads to unhelpful suggestions and ultimately results in a failure to meet those needs. I think open, honest, and frequent communication is a key part of supporting families and children and helping to meet their needs. Another teacher suggested that having a strong class community helps meet the needs of families and children in a classroom. I agree with this because I believe that it is easier to face and deal with issues together with others rather than alone. We can also teach our students the idea of empathy and compassion through building a strong class community.


During the #kinderchat, one teacher asked for any resources that could aid her in supporting one of her students whose father just passed away. A book, a camp called Comfort Zone, providing meals, and classroom discussion were all suggested as possible ideas for the teacher to use to help the child and family that is in need. I am glad that I got to read this because now I have a resource that I can go to when I am looking for suggestions related to teaching. By using #kinderchat, I would have the opportunity to hear from teachers all across the continent and receive a variety of diverse and interesting perspectives. I think that #kinderchat is something that I will be using in my future teaching career.


To view this particular archive/conversation, follow the link below:
http://storify.com/happycampergirl/kinderchat-north-america-feb-10-2014#publicize

Writing Development in Young Children

Learning how to write is a process that consists of multiple stages of development. In an article titled, "Let Me Tell You a Secret: Kindergartners Can Write!", one teacher uses the Gentry Writing Development Scale. This scale contains a series of five progressive stages: non-alphabetic (markings and scribbles), pre-alphabetic (letters without meaning), partial alphabetic (letters begin to represent sounds), full alphabetic (letter for every sound), and consolidated alphabetic (2/3 of words spelled correctly). It is important to be familiar with these stages and their progression in order to not only assess students' writing development but also to predict "the type and timing of instruction for literacy development" (Gentry). Both families and educators can effectively support writing development in young children by understanding the process and using strategies that help to scaffold learning about writing.

In the same article, the teacher incorporates writing lessons into the classroom to model and scaffold writing development. These lessons begin with a read aloud, followed by modeling and teaching how to write a response to text, and end with the students creating personal responses to the text that they will share with the class. When the students are writing their independent responses, they are divided into same ability groups and the teacher is available for assistance. The teacher assesses the students based on observational notes and a Writing Development Stage Recording Sheet. The structure of these lessons is advantageous for a few reasons. The article states, "Rosenblatt's theory (2005) on reader response suggests that student motivation is increased when teachers elicit a personal response from students."  Another advantage of the structure is that by grouping the students based on writing ability, the teacher is able to scaffold their writing in a way that is specific to the particular need of each individual student. The assessment in this structure is also beneficial because both components provide the teacher with a well-rounded picture of each student's writing development.

By understanding the stages of writing development and incorporating some of these strategies at home, families can support and extend their child's learning of writing outside of the classroom. This is yet another way to bridge the gap between home and school and effectively support children within the many contexts in which they live.

Additional resources:

Kindergartner Writing Milestones and Tips
http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/reading-language/reading-milestones/kindergartner-language-development-milestones/kindergartner-writing/

Extending Literacy Learning: Take-Home Literature Packs

It is of great importance to consider the whole child when thinking of children's development and learning. In order to best support children, we must not think of them in one specific context, such as student, son, daughter, etc. Each child lives within a combination of contexts with a variety of influences. If we can build relationships and connections between the contexts in which children live, then we can more fully support each child in their development and learning. A very significant connection that we can make is the one between school and home. This is especially true in regards to literacy, since a child will be immersed in it both at school and at home. One approach to creating this connection is to implement a take-home literature program, mentioned in Gretchen Owocki's book, Make Way for Literacy!

A program such as this would involve creating a variety take-home literature packs and sending them home with children based on a rotation schedule. Each pack includes a set of books that share a common theme along with materials and activities that extend the ideas of the theme. The intention is for children and their families to explore and interact with the literature together and share meaningful experiences through the activities and materials provided. Ideally, a take-home literature program benefits everyone involved. Children benefit from the experience of collaborating with members of their family to interact with literature and further their learning and development. The program allows families to directly support their children's learning in a meaningful and enjoyable way that is specific to the abilities, interests, and needs of their children. It provides a method for teachers to connect and work with families in order to share expertise and ideas that will benefit the learning and development of the children.

For further reading about the benefits of reading at home with your child, below is a link to an article on the website for Scholastic.

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/reading-together/make-connection

Fostering and Supporting Literacy Development for Young Children

The early stages of literacy development begin long before a child walks into a classroom. When children are enrolled into a childcare center, preschool, or school, they have already begun to develop communication skills and make connections between concepts and language. So what role does a parent, caregiver, or educator have in the literacy development of young children? One way in which we can support this development is discussed in an article titled, "“Why do you like this page so much?” Exploring the Potential of Talk during Preschool Reading Activities," written by Efleda Preclaro Tolentino, an early childhood assistant professor at the University of Vermont. In this article, she discusses the potential of talk and conversation in preschool reading activities. One of the main points of the article is that children communicate their knowledge through talking, which allows them to share ideas and make meaning. If we wish to foster and support literacy development, along with many other areas of development, then we should provide an environment which lends opportunities for children to engage in talking and conversation.


How do we provide such an environment? The key aspects of this environment include physical space, materials, and context. When deciding these aspects, it is important to keep in mind the atmosphere you desire to create for the children. In order to encourage communication and interaction, the children need to be free to explore their interests and make personal connections. This can be supported by setting up an appropriate space, providing varied literature, allowing the children to choose the literature in which they will interact with, and contexts that children can relate to. An environment such as this will promote not only interaction with the literature, but also interaction with others. As a result, children are free to explore literature, share their knowledge, and communicate with others to construct meanings that are inspired by the literature.

Link to the article mentioned:
“Why do you like this page so much?” Exploring the Potential of Talk during Preschool Reading Activities" written by Efleda Preclaro Tolentino

More ideas for supporting your child(ren)'s early literacy development:
Supporting young children's early literacy development
Department of Human Services — Koorie Early Childhood Education Program

Connecting Literacy at Home to Literacy in the Classroom

Cultural background plays a significant role in the construction of one's identity and, therefore, the way that they learn and communicate. The environment in which one is submerged in at an early age will largely influence their methods and ability in regards to literacy. Since no two people come from the exact same experiences, literacy is different for everyone. It is imperative as an educator that I understand how to get to know each student as a unique individual and discover ways in which I can best support them in their growth and development. Understanding the literacy that a student experiences at home will allow me to help them make connections between school and home so that learning can occur both in and out of the classroom.