Name: Rosalie Reid
Date: 2/8/13
Name of Program/Setting: Head Start/Title1 Prek
Who I spoke with: J. Bringger, S. Redditt, and L. Pena
What I learned:
Mrs. Bringger is the Education
Coordinator for the Head Start program. While talking to Mrs. Bringger she
talked about how important it is to introduce language and literacy skills
early in children’s lives. She said we cannot wait too long to expose children
to the basic elements of reading; and parents must play a critical role. Both
parents and teachers should seek out daily opportunities to read with children.
She also said it is important for
parents to realize they need to be involved in their children’s understanding
of written language. She stated that print is a powerful means of communicating
knowledge and information. What I learned from her is that I should never stop
trying to get the parents involved in their children’s education. Continue to
help them by inviting them to the classroom to see what we do and continue to
encourage them to read and talk to their children often.
The other person I spoke with is
Ms. Redditt, the Curriculum and Instructional Coach for a new Title1 Pre-k
program. Ms. Redditt thinks that early literacy is very important and we as
teachers should support and engage students in developing their oral language
and language acquisition skills. She thinks that building a strong foundation
in oral language and providing children and families with support can help to
improve their early literacy skills. Also, making sure that the curriculum is
rigorous and provide students with the skills to be proficient when they enter
kindergarten, because the common core standards are at the top of everyone’s
list and making sure that the early literacy curriculum is providing students
with all the tools to be successful.
The other person I visited is Mrs.
L. Pena, a Head Start teacher. I observed Mrs. Pena at center time. The
students were engaged in various activities. I asked her about activities she
use to promote early literacy as well as activities for the parents to use at
home. She said they do a lot of shared reading and she also encourages the
parents to do the same. She also said she tells the parents to check the local
library for reading night and encourages them to make use of our parent
resource center to check out early literacy activities to use at home.
While I was in the classroom she
was working with a small group of children and they were “fishing for letters.”
The children had to take turns using a toy fishing pole with a magnetic tip to fish
for magnetic letters out of a basket. After catching a letter the children had
to name the letter and then write it down. So, the teacher was reinforcing letter
recognition as well as practicing printing.
Rosalie,
ReplyDeleteLanguage and literacy skills are very important for a child's future. I thik that all children need to be read to and when they get old enough to read then let them read to you. The old saying "Practice makes perfect". The more they do it the better they will get. Parents play a major role when it comes to reading. Teachers can help when they are at school with them. When they go home they need a support group at home as well as at school. I think the fishing game is a great way to help teach them their letters.
Thanks,
Teresa Smith
Thanks for your comment. At the center that I work we have many opportunity for the parents to come into the classroom and read to the children. I do have some parents that do not read so I tell them they can still "read" the pictures. They make up a story from what they see and they are so happy when they are finished.
DeleteRosalie,
ReplyDeleteI like the activity of "fishing for letters." They were having fun as well as learning the letter and how to write it. Sometimes children have problems just learning letters by being introduced to them in the conventional way and this activity would introduce them in a fun way and want them to learn.
Did the teacher have any of the objects in the room marked with the name of the object, such as chair or table? I have marked all the items in my room in English and Spanish so that they can visually see the name of a chair for example as well as how to spell it. It excites me when I see a child taking their finger, pointing to the letters and spelling out the word.
I also have homemade blank book available for each child to write in at the end of the day or week. They can draw pictures or write down words, it is their choice. They can also use the books throughout the day whenever they want to make a note of something they want to remember. Sometimes it doesn't make much sense to me but they know exactly what they wrote and can tell me about it.
In the classroom that I am observing in, the teacher has a smart board and she wrote their name and date in the left hand corner. She then encouraged them to write their name. After they made several attempts at this activity she saved it and then printed it out to put in their portfolio for their IEP. I am observing in a early childhood classroom with 3 year olds.
Our center is very close to the public library and every week we take the children there for storytime and also to play in the children's area. They look forward to each Friday that we go. The librarian has a list of our curriculum and coordinates the stories that she reads to what they are learning about for the upcoming week.
Good luck on your paper!
In the Head Start program that I work we have to have everything labeled in English and Spanish, so to answer your question yes she had labels everywhere. And there are books in every center and paper and writing utensils.
DeleteTo be frank with you, I too didn’t real get the understanding of how imperative writing skills are to students. I wasn’t until my current director pointed out to me how student won’t be assess oral only through writing, and that is one of the main reasons writing is so critical to a student development. I agree that parent involvement is a must as long as the child and parent are interacting together that what matters. I would too encourage parents to turn anything they do with their child academically into a game and them learn. For instance, my daughter and I play a family game of scramble and this is a learning lesson for both of us. I learn how to spell better and she expand her vocabulary too, and believe me she loves teaching dear old mom a few things.
ReplyDeleteA great way also is songs. children seems to learn songs faster than they learn anything else. So making up songs and putting a tune to what you are trying to teach is also helpful. I have a child in my class that is learning to spell her name, she knows how to write it but did not know the letters of her name until I started singing it to her.
DeleteParents do play a critical role in the child's development. Reading as much as possible both at school and at home is important. parents really need to start reading to them to them way before they enter school so that they enjoy reading and already have an introduction to it. I love the fishing pole idea with the letters. I am going to have to use that in my activity. What a great way to get them to recognize letters.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you got some great ideas to promote early literacy. What would you like to implement within your setting in regards to literacy strategies that you learned about from this interview?
ReplyDelete