Language Development, Emergent Literacy, & Reading in Young Children

I Already Know How to Read: A Childs View of Literacy

Prisca Martens

CHAPTER ONE

COLLECT & CONNECT

Collect
Quotations from the reading:
What resonates for you?
What portions of the chapter do you find
interesting and/or important?

Connect
My thoughts about the quotations:
What is familiar?
What is new?
What questions are raised for you?
What do you agree or disagree with?


I saw the reading children did of books and
environmental print as precursors to reading,
but certainly not real reading.



I found this interesting because it is true that
before literacy is taught in school and students
are reading real books, most people do not really
view the reading children do as real reading.
However, this reading is more important, I feel,
because it shows the emergence of literacy in
young children and their use of literacy in every
day life before they are taught the logistics.

what I saw in the classroom activity was how
well the children performed what I designed for
them to do.




This is an interesting statement because it raised
several questions for me. It made me think about
the characteristics of a good teacher and if this is
something they should be doing. I realized that
the best teachers teach based off of what they
observe from their students and that a classroom
should be a balance between teacher guided and
child guided approaches. If the students are
merely performing as requested by the teacher,
the teacher is not really learning about the
students and vice versa. Students need to be
curious and explore and to do this, they need to
be active members of their own learning and
developing processes.

I asked lots of questions, listened, and tried to
get inside her head and see and understand
literacy and the literacy process as she did.


I found this interesting because it draws upon the
importance of observation. It is crucial that we
assess students through observing them. Also, it
is important to ask questions and have the


children explain their thought process because
not only does it give the teacher more insight, but
it proves to both the child and teacher that the
student firmly grasps the content at hand. By
asking a child to explain itself, teachers are able
to really get inside his or her head and evaluate
him or her more efficiently.

What if she had a teacher like me, who never
asked and didnt vale who the children were as
literate human beings, who didnt let them teach
him or her what they knew about literacy before
they ever came to school?






This question really made me think because I feel
that naturally, most teachers act this way. I think
that it is instinct for teachers to teach children
rather than inquire, push, etc. Therefore, if it
were not for this chapter in this book, I do not
think I would have ever thought about this
concept. I do not think I would have reflected
upon myself as a teacher this way or adjusted my
practices to allow for students to teach me.