For a literacy environment that is successful within the home the text recommends that books should be associated with pleasure and literacy activities should be rewards. The home should be well organized with daily activities. The setting within the home should have social interactions between both adults and children; socially, emotionally, and intellectually. Children who come from these homes express early interest in reading and writing when these materials are accessible within their homes. When these children get to school age they are rated higher than average in social and emotional maturity, work habits, and general school achievements by their teachers.
The following websites are great advice for how to help your home promote literacy development:
Literacy Development Begins at Home, With a Literate Home Environment
Suggestions for Promoting Literacy Development: Toddlers and Preschoolers
What You Can Do at Home
I agree with you Brooklyn. I do think that literacy starts at home. Growing up i can't really think of when we had books in most of our rooms around the house and that may be a small reason why growing up i never enjoyed reading. My mom did a really good job about always encouraging me to practice reading though. Reading just came harder to me so i never enjoyed reading unless their was a reward for me. I really do think that if we had a larger book collection that would have always been out i may be a little quicker ,more fluent reader, and a better writer today. I also had a calk board that we always wrote on growing up. Still to this day when i am home i draw a picture or write a fun note. I think that having a calk board is a great idea to have in your home especially when your children are growing up because it is fun and their is no pressure when you write or read. Your reading and writing because you want to, not because you have to. I absolutely agree that literacy starts at home.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your blog post, I also believe that literacy development begins at home, at a young age. I can also remember stacks and stacks of books that were at my reading level and incorporated my interests. I do believe this is why I should such a great interest in reading at such a young age, because my parents made it enjoyable! I also love the idea of having a chalkboard wall where the children have free reign to use their imagination!
ReplyDeleteLiteracy at the home is vital to the later academics of our students. By having a plethora of different types or reading materials the students will become more engaged and be more likely to be life long readers. While my Mom and dad always had books for me, reading was always something that I struggled with when I was younger. One of my teachers was not the most supportive with my reading as well. However, I do remember how much I loved my mom and dad to read to me. Every night before bed my mom would sit out in the hallway before bed time and read stories to my brother and I. This quickly became something that I looked forward to and a staple of my childhood memories. We also had a tradition of reading the Polar Express every Christmas Eve. It is moments like these that can turn a reluctant reader into someone who loves reading. It is small connections like these that we should suggest to the parents in our classroom by maintaining positive relationships and frequent communication.
ReplyDeleteI came from a home where we had a different type of literacy in every room just like you. My favorite thing to do as a little kid was play teacher so my mom went out and bought me a bunch of workbooks and turned a section of our basement into a school. I loved playing down there and assigning homework to my stuffed animals. Since my stuffed animals were not going to do the homework I always completed it for them. MY mom used this as a way to get me to practice literacy skills that I needed a little more practice in. I am still amazed that my mom got me to do extra homework this way. Looking back at this experience I fully believe that literacy begin in the home. Children that see their parents reading or writing are more likely to imitate the action and want to try to figure out how they can do it. Allowing parents to see that literacy does not come in one form will allow them to see that the simplest things can make all the difference. If a parent would cook dinner with their child by having them read off ingredients or having a child write down a list of stuff they need from the store. I absolutely loved that you had a chalkboard wall at your house my sister has one now and they are so much fun.
ReplyDeleteI love how you connected this chapter to your childhood! If you hadn't had that literacy rich environment growing up, how do you think your life would have changed? There are lots of children that are not exposed to such a literacy rich environment. How would their lives be impacted if they would have grown up in an environment with more literacy opportunities? I loved the pictures you included in your posts. They give simple ideas that families can incorporate in their homes to help expose children to more literacy. I agree with you when you say that children exposed to literacy before coming to school express more interest in reading and writing. I see this in the little boy I babysit! Thank you for the links! They give great ideas for literacy development!
ReplyDeleteHaley, your questions are great and really made me think and re consider somethings about literacy development! I think if I didn't have a literacy rich environment that my experience most definitely wouldn't have been anywhere near the same! For kids who lack this literacy development I think that working different methods into your classroom, allowing for these concepts to be carried into the home ideally is something I would work on with the classroom. Also in notifying the parents of any changes in the classroom with these practices for them to try at home also!
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