When you think of language the first thing that comes to mind is speech. Without speech, which is made up of letters, vocal sounds and words, we would not be able to communicate and understand each other’s needs. So in order for educators to help enhance literacy development they must take into consideration the whole classroom and how it should be designed. In this paper, I am going to create a floor plan of my current pre-school classroom and discuss how it fosters language development in the library center, dramatic play center, and the block center including an explanation of how these three areas support language acquisition.
As a child enters a classroom they should be surrounded by literacy in every learning center around the room. “A learning center is a defined space where materials are organized in such a way that children learn without the teacher's constant presence and direction.” (Cited Landry, et al., 2014, pg. 12) These areas consist of blocks, dramatic play, music, toys and games, discovery, sand and water, art, easel, writing, library computer and listening. Each center needs to be set up to ensure supervision is assessable from all areas of the room as well as provide child friendly hands-on activities that generate individual creativity, observations and real life experiences. “Children should also receive multiple opportunities to experience specific linguistic concepts in diverse contexts and experiences organized to foster repetition as an integral part of the classroom routine.” (Cited Justice, 2004, pg. 42)
One of the centers that enhance language development is the library center. In the library center, I have two soft child-size chairs, a variety of child appropriate books, two dry erase boards and mar...
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...So I provided him with tape and watched as he looped the tape around the tiger and the hoop securing them both so the tiger could do his circus trick. The teacher can assess this center with observations; watching creativity form amongst each child’s creation and taking pictures to compare growth throughout the year with dictation of what the child said he or she built.
Furthermore, the library center, dramatic play center, and the block center help expand a child’s imagination by allowing children to create as they go. With added guidance from the teacher the sky is the limits for literacy acquisition in young children. Overall, all centers throughout the classroom should boost language development through a child friendly environment that is labeled to enhance self-motivation, pride in ones accomplishments, and generate friendships and positive peer interactions.
This activity suits the child’s current stage of oral development will interest them and aid in them progressing in their oral development. Children at this stage of development enjoy listening to stories which is good not only for their receptive skills, but also for their expressive language (Fellows and Oakley, 2014), in all four key components of spoken language. It helps with phonemes by getting the child to focus on the phonological patterns throughout the text (Fellows and Oakley, 214). Syntax knowledge allows them to observe the sentence structure and grammar in the book which allows them to develop a stronger awareness of the syntax. Visual aids in storybooks can aid in the child in the understanding of semantics (Fellows and Oakley’s), as the story is read aloud their receptive skills hear those more difficult words, when paired with a visual cue such as a picture in the book the child understands better and thus they are able to gain a better understanding of how to speak these difficult words. A better understanding of pragmatics can also be gained from storybooks as they understand how people communicate in society such as greetings and asking for things (Fellows and Oakley,
Even if a parent reads to his or her child often, the child’s cognitive development is likely to be affected by his or her teacher. If the teacher does not succeed in inspiring the child, then it is likely that the rate of cognitive development will be lower than a child with a successfully inspiring teacher, regardless of parent to child reading rate.
Practitioners should plan activities that follow children’s interests, make up stories about their favourite cartoon or film character. Get down to the child’s level and ask them what they have drawn and praise the child. The practitioner should use different body language, tone of voice, characterisation when telling a story to the children. Practitioners should be singing rhymes along with the children in order to help them learn new words and also increase their confidence and communication skills. It is important to support children in their phonological awareness to help them understand that words can be broken down into different
The “Land of Literacy” is a literacy program designed for Kindergarten students to promote the love of literature as well as build a strong literacy foundation. The purpose of this literacy program is to integrate unique and fun ways to learn literature while taking into consideration developmental and cultural differences. The idea of the “Land of Literacy” program is to show parents and students that through literature we can all connect as one diverse community while sharing and learning literacy. For this literacy program, I have chosen to work with Kindergarten students (JK/SK). I decided to work with this grade level because at this age we are able to build a strong literacy foundation from the start of a child’s education experience.
Mrs. Hamm discussed that she actually uses three different programs to help teach language and literacy to her students. The first program, which is actually her favorite of the three programs, is called “Read Aloud Library”, the second program is called “Language for Learning” and the third program is called “Reading Mastery”. Mrs. Hamm discussed the programs as being very helpful tools in helping children develop their reading skills. Mrs. Hamm integrates literacy in her classroom in many different ways. In the different programs, the students read one book together in which they work on for the week by breaking down the chapters so that children can retell the story and learn th...
Children are vastly influenced by their elementary education. The fundamentals and basics of a child’s education begins with language, more specifically, reading and writing. These children are the future cognitively, socially, and physically and they should be provided with the most effective educational techniques available. While children are young, they should be provided with those techniques by starting at the beginning: foreign language. Children should learn a foreign language at the elementary school level.
Literacy has a strong impact on ones life’s in many reasons such as it can open doors for an individual to become successful in the world. Literacy is never easy to develop but once it is developed it is something that can never be forgotten. Achieving the quality of literacy can determine your efficiency in life. An individual environment throughout early childhood has an impact on the quality of literacy they develop.
In doing so I had chosen two activities based on the learning domain literacy, the first resource exposes the child to blocks and the second was an alphabetic sensory table, both of theses resources provided the basic understanding of how literacy can develop from play based learning. Blocks can be placed in any part of the early childhood setting either indoors or outdoor play spaces, however the sensory table can be used in any indoor play space area. As educators we all know that the first few years of any child’s life is essential to their learning, development and growth, and with theses activities we can give new meaning to the interactions young children have towards language, communication and their
One of the most often over looked yet essential part of literacy development is developing a child’s speaking and listening skills. If a child has a very limited vocabulary it will be harder for him or her to express what happened in a story. Being able to hear the play on words in rhyming a book, or noticing the subtle differences in word choice can change how a book is enjoyed.
Play is important for a child’s well-being, but it can also be a vehicle to learn literacy skills. Very few things are learned just by watching someone else do something, which means the majority of things have to be experienced in order to grasp the concept. This is true for literacy as well. When children play they are attaching meaning with toys, the same is true when reading; meaning must be attached to the written words (Roskos, et al.
We use language in a variety of ways, for example, to tell people how we feel, to talk about things that we like and to be able to question and understand the world around us. As well as giving children a sense of identity. Language can be diverse and standard, for example, language can be diverse amongst cultures with different English accents and language can be standard when the majority of people in a country speak a variety of English. Language can be seen through reading and heard through oral language. Halliday and Piaget 's functions on language indicated the important roles of language in children’s lives. Language has been outlined in this essay to play a major role in children’s lives. Most importantly it gives children the skills to learn to communicate and exchange information with others around
The class I visited is comprised of 24 five and six year old children, a lead teacher and a ‘Para-Pro” who assists the teacher and provides support and guidance for the children. Within the classroom itself, there are 6 tables organized in the center of the room in a grid formation. Children have their own workspace at a shared table. Around the perimeter of the room are ‘centers’ where each day, the children work on tasks such as listening, story development, gross and fine motor skills, math, reading and other important skills that are needed to develop socially and academically. In several places on the walls, there are displays or ‘brag boards’ where children can post their work that they feel best represents their efforts. The walls are brightly decorated and are filled with pictures, letters, numbers and other basic elementary school information. It is energizing and interesting without being chaotic or overstimulating.
Vukelich, C, Christie, J & Enz, B 2002, Helping Young Children Learn Language and Literacy, Allyn & Bacon, Bosten MA.
“The single most important activity for building knowledge for their eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children,” a report from 1985 by the commission
Two days a week in the morning, the children participate in a reading and writing block called “literacy and writing workshop.” The classroom is organized into five different levels with one group having one extra person; the levels are based on scoring of reading assessments. The groups are rotated so that each may spend 15 minutes cycles with either the teacher or Para-educator. The groups not with an instructor were to work on the “Daily-5” (explanation later) until their scheduled lesson. After the students finish their lesson, they are to fill the remainder of the workshop time working on “Daily-5.” This workshop is part of a regular routine. The students understand that after a reading a story with the teacher, they are verbally given a writing assignment. The assignment is usually to write a five sentence paragraph and color a picture related to the reading.