I love these questions, because I think it gets at the heart of what is essential. For me, I reflect on how my daughters learned to be literate and that has informed a lot of what I believe to be essential...
I think it starts with our definition of literate. What does that mean? I think (and trying to synthesize some of what Ellin says) it is a person's ability to make sense of the world around them and to use that information meaningfully to create meaning. That's a really short definition, anyhow. I remember when my twins were born, I told my wife that we would ensure that we read to them often and that they would be ready to read by Kindergarten (in my heart, I wanted them reading by then, but that was a secret). She laughed at me, but now that she has seen what they do, I think she understands why I said what I said. So, we started dimple... we read to them often. I think this helps them to understand basic conventions of language, helps them to focus on a book for periods of time. We also encouraged language development A LOT (my girls are chatterboxes, and I love that!). We also encouraged questions and a curiousity for things. I can remember as early as the could talk, we also taught them how to "read the environment". Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Target...those signs became early environmental print that we would teach them to recognize. A lot of what we also did (concepts such as rhyming) were done in the car with games that I made up. The next step was letter recognition. I taught the girls the letters of the alphabet starting at 2, using...books, letter tiles, magnets, etc... I taught them the sounds simultaneously so that they would understand sounds and recognition at the same time. We then began to use familiar books to have our girls tell familiar parts of the text. Repetition and rhyme were helpful here. Then, we began to string letters together to show how sounds can make words. >From there, on to sight words. >From there to decoding. And all along connecting things in their minds and asking and answering A LOT of questions. My point in this post, is that...essential to literacy instruction is a lot of life experiences that maybe we as teachers cannot ensure gets done prior to the children coming to school. Word poverty and lack of background can be seen as deficits, but we must not forget a child's insatiable desire and need to know... we must be able to tap into that and not take for granted that children are sponges and can learn. Ellin gets into this in future chapters. So What's Essential? All of it. But in a nutshell: Book Awareness The lilt of language Having models of good readers all around them Letter recognition Sound acquisition A questioning spirit A curious heart Understanding that letters come together to make words. Seeing the words. Saying the words. Feeling the words. Retelling the words. Reading beyond the words. Connecting with the words. Connecting the words to so many other things. These are the foundation for a reader. ~Peter Carpenter Maryland > > In a message dated 3/28/2008 9:57:51 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > In chapter 2, Ellin begins to show us her What's Essential Model. > The all encompassing question is, "How can teachers focus on the most > essential elements of literacy learning in a context of growing > curriculum and assessment demands?" p. 31 > > Here are some questions to get the discussion going. > What do you consider to be essential in your literacy instruction? > What can you start to let go of in order to focus on what's essential? > What will we focus on in the midst of outside pressures? > > > > > > > > **************Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL > Home. > (http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15&ncid=aolhom00030000000001) > _______________________________________________ > Understand mailing list > [email protected] > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
