In this essay I will address the importance of reading in a classroom setting and how teachers can engage learners and enable them to develop their knowledge and skills in reading. It is important that teachers allocate time for learners to encounter reading in its two forms, fiction and non-fiction, therefore I will address both of these forms and how both enable children to develop knowledge and skills.
Throughout my time in education, I have found that fiction is the most common form of text used in a primary schools as it is presented in many forms, including stories, pictures and poems. Fiction is considered important as it is a way of teaching phonic rules, specific words and spelling conventions. It also allows learners to develop analytical skills and inspires their imagination and creativity. Singer (1981) makes a critical link between how much children are exposed to reading and the development of their imagination, he says that, “children who have been exposed to a considerable amount of reading by parents show increased imaginativeness.” This argument has been developed further by University of Warwick who have carried out studies about the effect of parental involvement and the home learning environment on literacy. The results of the studies have shown that “children’s literacy levels are strongly linked to the education levels of their parents,” and that if a child’s mother read for her own enjoyment everyday then the odds of that child being rated below average in reading was reduced by 85%. (Hartas, 2012)
Teachers can help their pupils develop readings skills by setting a side a time each day to read to them and by setting up a classroom library. (Neuman, 2001) Through setting up a classroom library the teach...
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.... The importance of the Classroom Library. Early Childhood Today. 15 (5), 12.
Rumelhart, D.E. (1994). Toward an interactive model of reading . In: Ruddell, R.B.; Ruddell, M.R; Singer, H Theoretical models and processes of reading. 4th ed. Newark: International Reading Association. 864-894
Schnellert, L Datoo, M Ediger, K Panas, J (2009). Pulling Together: Integrating Inquiry, Assessment, and Instruction in Today's English Classroom. Canada: Pembroke Publishers Limited. 107-111.
Singer, J and Singer, D. (1981). Television and Reading in the Development of Imagination. Children's Literature. 9 (10), 126-136
Wolf, W. King, M.L and Huck, C.S. (1968). Teaching Critical Reading to Elementary School Children. Reading Research Quarterly. 3 (4), 435 - 498.
Wray, D and Lewis, M (1997). Extending literacy: Children Reading and Writing Non-fiction. London: Routledge. 30-91.
Critique of Nell K. Duke and Victoria Purcell-Gates' Genres at Home and at School: Bridging the Known to the New Nell K. Duke and Victoria Purcell-Gates insightful article, "Genres at home and at school: Bridging the known to the new" reports on genres found at home and at school for two groups of young children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. Duke and Gates identify genres commonly found in both settings, as well as those commonly found only in one setting or the other. Children encounter many different kinds of text in their daily life. There are many different kinds of written language used for many different reasons, especially at home and at school. This article suggests ways that being aware of genres young children encounter at home and at school offer opportunities to bridge home and school literacies and enhance children's literacy development.
Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Tenth edition. Edited by Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. New York: Longman Publishers, pp. 371-377, 2008.
This detailed text provides an understanding of reading and writing through detailed case studies, reflective questioning and further reading; in addition to links with the Early Years Curriculum (EYFS)(DCSF, 2008) provide informative information accessible to both practitioner and parent. As pointed out by the authors, literacy relates to fifty % of the early learning goals, therefore highlights the importance by the practitioner to make the acquisition of literacy exciting and meaningful through a multitude of role play scenarios, stories, rhymes and oral language, thus providing opportunities for the child to put life experiences of literacy into context, while scaffolding existing knowledge.
Literature is a gateway for people to expand their knowledge and learn new things. It gives us a sense of our self’s when we are able to travel to different places by just sitting in one place. But school boards and education leaders think that fiction will limit our
Beach, R. & Myers, J. (2001). Inquiry-based English Instruction: Engaging Students in Life and Literature. New York: Teachers College Press.
Literature is a key component when speaking of literacy. Teachers need to provide students with endless amounts of practice experiences in reading to build their fluency rate. This should be done with different genres of texts and different levels. Reading a wide variety of literature help children develop rich vocabularies.
Subject The main idea of this essay is how literature is not being taught in a format that will allow students to fully understand how to correctly read and comprehend literature. The subtopics are the books used repeatedly, the methods used to teach the literature, education system/curriculum and teacher motivation, Occasion The occasion that caused the creation of this essay is the rise of apathy among high school students towards reading that may have increased due to the rise of technological advancements throughout that time period such as free email and faster internet. Audience The intended audiences are parents, young to middle aged adults, school organizations, and teachers.
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
Jones, Marnie. "The Threat to Imagination in Children's Literature." International Journal of the Book 3.2 (2005/2006): 71-76. Print.
Every child deserves a positive, safe, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment where they will grow academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. My role as an educator is to provide my students with this type of environment as well as an education that will help them succeed academically and become life long learners. It is the responsibility of a literacy educator to provide students with this type of environment, but also to provide instruction that will help students become successful readers and writers. There are numerous programs and philosophies about literacy and reading. Through years of experience and research, one begins to develop their own creative approach on teaching these skills. After looking at different programs and seeing the positive and negatives of each, an integrated and balanced approach of literacy seems to be the best way to teach the differing needs of each student.
There are many different definitions of children’s literature and even varying definitions for literature and children! Before the nineteenth century, very few books were especially written for children. Since then, changing attitudes towards childhood and children’s development, along with the increased sophistication of print technology, have led to the development of children’s literature as a major industry. There is, however, no simple, straightforward definition of children’s literature that can be applied with equal validity at different times and in different contexts. Just as concepts of ‘child’, 'childhood’ and ‘literature’ have changed over time, so too have definitions of ‘children’s literature’. It is not a simple matter to define ‘childhood’ or ‘literature’. Some writers maintain that children’s literature differs from adult literature in degree only (Lukens, 1995); others (Lesnik- Oberstein, 1996) maintain that it differs in kind, that is, that the word ‘literature’ when used in the context of ‘children’s literature’ cannot necessarily be related in any straightforward way to the word ‘literature’ as used in other contexts. Thus, for example, Bottigheimer argues that children’s literature is “an important system of its own”. To complicate matters further, there are those who maintain that to be included in the category of ‘children’s literature’, writing must be of ‘good quality’. Thus, for example, Hillman would exclude from the category of ‘children’s literature’, writing that is “stodgy,” “too predictable,” or “too illogical.” Precisely how one determines whether a work meets these extremely vague criteria largely remains an open question.
Peter hunt’s ‘Instruction and Delight’ provides a starting point for the study of children’s literature, challenging assumptions made about writing for children and they are trivial, fast and easy. Children’s literature is a conservative and reading it just to escape from the harsh realities of adulthood. It’s probably the most exciting for all literary studies, and a wide range of texts, from novels and stories to picture books , and from oral forms to multimedia and the internet , so it presents a major challenge and can be considered for many reasons. It is important because it is integrated into the cultural, educational and social thinking for the success of the publishing and media, and it is important to our personal development. Things that may seem simple at fist, how children understand the texts, how these differ from the
readers: A perspective for research and intervention ―[Electronic version]. Scientific Studies of Reading, 11(4), 289-312.
Picture books, novels, short stories, plays and poetry offer all children opportunity for enjoyment and satisfaction. At every age, children can gain pleasure from the humour of texts, the entertaining plots, characters, situations and use of language. They can find reassurance in encountering familiar situations and feelings or enjoy escaping into different worlds and broadening their experience. They also can gain satisfaction from being challenged to consider issues and reflect on preconceptions and prejudices.
Literature has an enormous impact on a child’s development during the early years of his or her life. It is important for parents and teachers to instill a love of reading in children while they are still young and impressionable. They are very naive and trusting because they are just beginning to develop their own thoughts, so they will believe anything they read (Lesnik, 1998). This is why it is so important to give them literature that will have a positive impact. Literature can make children more loving, intelligent and open minded because reading books gives them a much wider perspective on the world. Through reading, children’s behavior can be changed, modified or extended, which is why books are so influential in children’s lives while they are young (Hunt, 1998). Literature has the power to affect many aspects of a child’s life and shapes their future adult life.