Observing
and Interacting With Professionals, Children, and Families in an Early
Childhood Setting
Name: Christina graves
Date:1 / 24 / 13Name of Program/Setting: YMCA day care
L.C., the director of The Y gave me several reasons to read to children and they include “bonding, develop listening skills and learn to inquire and answer questions relating to reading topics.”
I
also asked a Kindergarten teacher to share her thoughts on this subject and she gave
me a packet that she sends home to her parents at the beginning of the year
that includes information on reading to your children. She wants to encourage
her parents to take part in their children’s education. The package includes a
page that is titled
“How you child learns to read”. It includes a great analogy
about basketball and reading. It states that “if you want to teach your child
about the game of basketball, how would you go about it? If you hand him a
ball, he knows what a ball is. If you teach him to dribble, you have taught him
one skill. If you teach him to pass the ball, he knows another. However, he
still doesn’t know what the game of basketball is.
If you take him to a basketball game where he can see the
players, the coach, the crowd the plays being put into action, the ball being
dribbled and passed, then he knows what the game of basketball. After seeing
the big picture, your child can see where dribbling, passing, and learning the
strategies of the game fit in. It is the same with reading. Reading with your
child lets him know what reading is. …….”
I have found several websites to help me in my research and one of the two insights, experiences, or quotes that I
have learned from one of them comes from one of these and that is:
- Reading together promotes increased communication between you and your child.
- Pre-school children who are exposed to language by hearing words that are read to him/her and in conversation tend to do better in school.
- Reading to your child promotes longer attention span.
http://blogs.greenbay.k12.wi.us/sullivanlmc/2010/12/16/youre-never-too-old-too-wacky-too-wild-to-pick-up-a-book-and-read-with-a-child-dr-seuss/)
the other is of a personal experience that happened to me this week which incorporated
books into everyday experiences to help the children understand what is going
one better…….Thursday night, my two dogs went missing. They got out of the
backyard and when I got home from work they were gone. After looking for an
hour or so, I found out they were out the pound and I had to get them in the
morning. I was late to work the next day so I had to tell my class what
happened. To make it easier to understand and help visualize, I brought in 3 or
4 dog books to read.
Christina,
ReplyDeleteThat was a great idea reading some books about dogs after you told them about what happened to your dog. Children need to see the big picture and many times we tend to forget that they have not had the experiences in order to see the big picture and that is where we have to come in.
I like to do book units with my class, some last a few hours, some all day, and some last a week. Some of the books that are popular with the children are "The Very Hungry Catepillar", "The Little Red Hen", and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." These three books provide so much visualization for the children that they can image what will happen next. When doing "The Little Red Hen" we make bread just like the hen does in the book and after it is finished they all get to taste it. The children love it.
What does the school or teacher do to promote parental involvement in regards to literacy or at home reading programs. Many schools require books to be sent home 'daily' for parents to read and discuss with their children. What is being done for students who are ELL - how does the teacher or school empower parents to read, even in their native tongue?
ReplyDeleteChristina,
ReplyDeleteI really like that the teacher sends home the packet at the beginning of the school year. Does she encourage the parents and the children to maybe bring in their favorite book to read so that the other children can be a part of the reading? I think that if the parents and children are reading stories together at night it is great but unless you can see the difference and the children are interested in the books at school, how do we really know that they are reading together. I believe it is important for the children to read as much at home as at school. I tried to make sure that we always had books at home for my son when he was younger but not everyone has that advantage. Does the teacher, do you know, send books home for the children that may not have the books at home to read? Just wondering how she can encourage the reading at home for those students and parents. Great blog and looking forward to learning more about how to get parents more involved in the children reading.
Hi Christina!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great analogy! I will definitely use it when talking to parents about reading to their child. I feel that reading to children is extrememly important and will help build strong relationships, improve their speech skills, and communication skills. If parents and teachers read to the children then it prepares them with a foundation for academic excellence.