Lidia

Pamela

Arlene Molina

Nydia Morales

Joanne

LTED 606 Jigsaw Activity Group 4

4 Role of Literacy in ECE

Lidia 86-88

    Children that are exposed to verbal communication at an early age will be able to develop early literacy. This early literacy starts at home. According to research, the involvement of parents is one of the strongest foundation of their child’s early phonological awareness. A child from a home that that has been engaged in activities such as: listening, talking and singing songs will most likely be prepared for school. A strong parent collaboration and early childhood education will set the outcome of a child’s ability to read and write. However, there’s no specific training or program that is implemented at home that will help parents to begin  introducing early literacy. This article states, that it is a known factor, that  if early literacy  is present at home it will benefit the child tremendously. A child that is accustomed to hearing conversations with rich vocabulary will most likely become a good reader. A good reader and writer will also be a great speaker.

Subsequently, it is said, that children should be listened to and acknowledged rather than talked to. The use of sophisticated words (new words) will allow the child to build a good sense of phonological awareness. The use of books and prints will  awaken their imagination and visualization process. A few key points of this article is to engage children at an early age with constant vocabulary, rhyming through songs and chants to achieve a better reader and writer.  

           

Pages 89-91

What does DAP look like? DAP stands for Developmentally Appropriate Practice that occurs in early literacy. In other words, how much literacy development happens in the classroom with peers and teachers. It is the integration of literacy and content information blended together to form a thematic instruction lesson for early childhood grades. The thematic instruction can range from any topic and must include activities that are about the information related to that given topic discussed in class. Moreover, literacy skills are embedded in the activities. The activities discussed in the article explain how children are involved in experiences that enable reading, vocabulary, oral language, writing, following directions, and knowledge about the given topic. The article greatly encourages for teachers incorporate play, singing, listening to stories, and engage in creative art.

Furthermore, the articles focused on two very important factors, “is there evidence of reading precocity in high-poverty settings?” and “how do these children differ from same-age peers who are not reading?” They did a study on precocious early readers and found that their ability to read was related to skill development, not aptitude. They discovered that these precocious readers had somehow acquired the critical components of early literacy through their daily activities and involvement with peers and interested adults. The child-care center also played a vital role to the child’s interest and curiosity about learning to read. Overall, it was mainly interest and curiosity about reading that led these precocious readers to take advantage of the rich centers these child-care centers provided these children with.

Nydia Pages 92-94

Two reasons on why assessments have become very important in early childhood education. The main reason is understanding the development foundations of early literacy, phonological awareness, print knowledge, and print motivation. These assessments are necessary because collecting and analyzing the data  will help develop literacy in these areas. The second reason is the accountability that comes with early childhood literacy. Accountability is important because it informs the teachers and the parents of how the children  are progressing through the early childhood program and in elementary school. It also helps establish a baseline for the children's strength and weakness, it is also a way to manage instructional goals and evaluate each child overall effectiveness of learning.

There are many issues that arise when assessing children in early childhood. Danger lurks in assessing children and early childhood because of the mismatch and the misuse of assessment results. Example reading screening for kindergarten. This assessment is to see if children may need more assistance for further diagnosis entering kindergarten (Kame'enui,2002). This assessment  could be a misuse of judgement. The child is either not ready for kindergarten or is placed in a program without a follow up assessment. Another issue is the complexity of assessing early childhood  children meaning mostly preschool and kindergarten children. It is complicated because it is more than just assessing with standardized measurement test. It is assessing and gathering evidence through  different methods in order to see the emergence skills or the concept. Children of that age level can be assessed easier during play and talk and much less writing or reading.  We should have the appropriate assessment for each child according to the grade level. The last issue is not as complicated as the last but how assessments  are carried out in the classroom.  Who is giving the assessments, when is the assessment given, for how long is the assessment, where is the assessments given, and at what will the assessment measure? To answer these questions it needs to be considered the effectiveness of assessing the children that produce high-quality information.

 We should conduct assessment for our children because it could lead to scientific knowledge about literacy development that can help the children. The problem is how can we ensure that we are giving the children the proper assessment to benefit our children.

Arlene’s pages 94-96

An effective early childhood assessment is a crucial tool  to best understand how children are both developing and progressing in their early years. In order for an  ECE assessment to be effective it must be a program that is helping children to learn essential literacy concepts and skills. The assessment must include both formal and informal tools that are monitoring children’s growth and the salient goals of these assessments must be adequately captured in outcome measures to judge child achievement and program results. The literacy curriculum must adhere to the children’s progress in essential areas such as language, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension as well as early print. By creating a well developed literacy program that will enhance children’s literacy development as well as child development our children will be successful in literacy.

JoAnne’s pages 96-98

    When looking for highly qualified Early Childhood teachers they want new teachers to know how to leave no child left behind. The main question that the U.S. government wants to know is “What in teacher preparation, makes a difference in children’s achievement”? The U.S. government is looking for highly qualified teachers

Early Childhood teachers need to have knowledge of the standards for Reading Professionals. The standards define what knowledge level teachers need on many categories in literacy. I feel that the main question that they are trying to find is the children who are taught by Early Childhood teachers who have knowledge in the standards become better readers and writer; then those who are taught by teachers who have little or no knowledge in this area.

Over all i feel that this article states that needs to be more research on how to prepare the Early Childhood teachers on the standards For Reading Professionals