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Importance of written communication
Reading habits among students and their effect on student performance
Importance of written communication
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Every year, I have concerned first grade parents coming to me about their child’s reading performance. “They just are not as far along as their brother/sister was at this age”, “how do they compare to the other children”, “they don’t like reading at home and we aren’t sure what to do.” Parents will ask how they can help their child in reading; and it’s no wonder they are so concerned in this area as it is an essential part of their education and future well-being.
Here are some suggestions that teachers can give to those concerned parents and hopefully empower them to do more at home.
1. Can I Teach Them Too Young?
No, you can’t! The sooner you introduce your child to literature the better. Parents need to be reading to their children and introducing them to language and storytelling at a young age. This will boost
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Talk To Your Children
The average child’s vocabulary when he starts school is roughly 5000 words. This means that between the ages of one and five, children learn approximately 3.5 words every day! In order for this to happen, children need lots of exposure to language. It’s not just how much children hear, but also what they hear that matters. Use words that are unfamiliar to your child, this will grow their vocabulary bank and prepare them better for reading down the road.
3. Encourage Them to Write
Literacy is not just reading it includes writing too. Having books and magazines available for your child is a good idea, but it’s also helpful to have pencils, crayons, markers, and paper. Encourage your child to write the letters of the alphabet, numbers, notes or letters to somebody. Perhaps you could write a message to your child and they could try writing back to you.
4. Read To Your Child
Ya, ya, ya, we’ve heard that before. Yes, but it’s true! Kids who are read to have better school readiness skills, develop a love for school because they are confident there, they learn to love books and it creates bonding time between the parent and the
The fact that we wait so long to start to teach our children literacy is absurd. Teaching reading and writing should be done to all children in day care facilities, child development centers as well as head start programs and preschools. We cannot however just take the programs currently used in first grade classes and apply them to children in day cares and preschools. These would be developmentally inappropriate. (Strickland and Morrow 5) The program used for these younger learners must be based around “meaningful activities that involve reading and writing in a wide variety of ways.” The children should want to participate in the literate society that they are surrounded by everyday in their classroom, home and community. If this is accomplished there will automatically be a connection between literacy and experience, which is very beneficial to the learning process. Most importantly in the early childhood literacy curriculum that we apply the focus should always be on the child’s learning and not on the teaching. (6)
Watching my child struggle to read was hard. I even did a small prayer asking for this to work and even gave thanks about someone was willing to help. She got out alphabet flash-cards for an assessment. She gave us a book and told us to read it 20 minutes a day, but use the same book each day without telling us why. When we came back two days later she asked how thing were going. I told her about how David seemed to read the book better each time. April worked with David twice a week most of that summer. We used flash card, site word cards, games, letter blocks, and so much more. Miss April helped teach him and I different techniques like multi-sensory. She even found others willing to help us like Kingsland
Literacy learning that occurs in the early years before age eight, helps prepare the child for school and life success and produces long term developments. The amount of language a child hears in their first years of life contributes to their cognitive development and human interactions that include language form the foundation for their ability of reading comprehension later in life. “Vocabulary development at age three has been found to predict reading achievement by third grade” (Lesaux, 2013). Later in the literacy learning process, when the child begins to read, they begin to learn new words beyond the familiar words they hear their family use in their daily life. They begin by being read to out loud from their parents.
Introducing literacy to children at a young age is important. The child may not be reading yet but they can gain a lot from being read to; such as directionality, the front of the book, picture word relations, and even how to turn the page. Most of the children in the kindergarten classroom I am observing in are learning to read. They have small groups daily and one small group is always a reading group where the teacher and the children all read the same book multiple times. This reinforces directionality, page turning, and letter and sound correspondence. As stated in the webinar it is also important for children to be exposed to routines. In the classroom I am observing in during morning meeting, some call it circle time, the children go over their schedule for the day. Going over their schedule for the day reinforces the predictability for their entire day and children need that to feel secure about their school day.
Children show their development through their enjoyment and interest in subjects as well as through exploration (EYLF, 2009; QKLG, 2010). It is important for educators as well as parents to provide decent numeracy and literacy vocabulary when discussing children’s ideas to support their development (EYLF, 2009). Ways in which the verbal explanation of literacy and numeracy skills can be achieved is by making sure to use words to explain when they are creating something or just by exploring their surroundings as these skills are powerful and contain the necessary foundations for children to become literate and numerate (EYLF, 2009). Children’s involvement in literacy activities with parents or relatives relates directly with literacy knowledge and is important for student to develop the basics of literacy skills (Skwarchuk et al., 2014). These skills can include singing songs, reading books, playing with blocks, doing puzzles, and having visual aids/pictures on certain objects around the house (Skwarchuk et al., 2014).
As a teacher, you need to encourage all attempts at reading, writing, speaking, and allowing children to experience the different functions and use of literacy activity (The Access Center, n.d.). Moreover, it is crucial for educators to understand phonological awareness and phonics; know what constitutes good children’s literature and how to use it; know children who need additional assistance with beginning reading and writing (Cunningham et al, 2004 as cited in McLachlan et al, 2013, p. 112). Educators also need to plan effective activities to assist children experience reading aloud, listening to other children read aloud, listening to tape recordings, and videotapes so children have opportunities to integrate and extend their literacy knowledge (The Access Center, n.d.). Morrow (1990 as cited in The Access Center, n.d.) notes that classroom with greater teacher facilitation promote literacy behaviours, so it is educators’ role to provide literacy rich
While I believe every child is a reader, I do not believe every child will be enthralled with reading all the time. All students have the capability to read and enjoy reading, but just like any other hobby, interest will vary from student to student. The students in my classroom will be encouraged in their reading, be provided with choice, taught how books can take you into another world but, my students will not be forced to read. This paper will illustrate my philosophy of reading through the theories I relate to, the way I want to implement reading and writing curriculum, and the methods I will use motivate my students to read and help them become literate.
This gives a further implication that if children are made to read during age period, they would adopt it and continue the practice throughout their life. For this to happen, it is totally dependent on the parents to get their child read more and more during this age period. Reading out books to children is another great way to enhance the reading skills, this would develop the interest of the child for books and reading; which is quite a necessity for achieving a good level of reading skills (Armbruster, B. B., 2010). There is also a specific technique called ‘Speech therapy’. In this process, parents or any counsellor diagnoses the problem with the child.
As you read the book, run your finger along the bottom of the words. This will slowly help your child to learn spellings and understand the integrations of words with time. Stop and let your child imbibe when a difficult or a long word comes up. While doing this, it is important to tell your child how much you enjoy reading together. Kids loose interest easily, and the moment they realize it’s getting monotonous; you won’t be able to read them again.
In order to succeed in the twenty first century, one must absolutely have reading skills. Reading is so much more than just a hobby. It is absolutely essential if one wants to survive in today’s world. Since it is such a crucial skill, it should be more heavily placed on children. Children, at the latest, start to learn how to read as soon as they enter the education system.
“Study says reading aloud to children, more than talking, builds literacy.” EdSource, www.edsource.org/2015/study-says-reading-aloud-to-children-more-than-talking-builds-literacy/82045. 3 Oct. 2017.