Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Print Awareness


            Children start learning about literacy from very early on in their lives. They learn from all different kinds of print: such as newspapers, cards, magazines, books, calendars, and much more. Children develop a sense of print awareness at very young ages. They see writing everywhere and understand that these lines and shapes on paper must be important. Children watch adults and they see how important print is in their lives. They see families reading and writing and notice print on different things in their environment. Children see words on their favorite cereal box and on the family computer. This inspires an interest in young children to explore and learn more about literacy. Children come to realize that these shapes and forms have meanings to them. Children will start to see that “letters can be named” (pg. 28). It is a very big step for a child to realize that letters can help people communicate. This causes children desire to know what the print around them is saying. They want to take these shapes and forms and give them meaning. Children learn examples, such as understanding that a stop sign says stop. Children will explore how alphabetic symbols are organized. Children will make guesses about patterns of words based off of examples they have been exposed to. Children play with ideas of size and length of words or letters to better understand print. Children may notice mom and dad read left to right and top to bottom; these observations will inspire knowledge and lead the child in the right direction. Exposing children to different types of print and encouraging their curiosity is important when children are developing literacy skills. Being able to observe what the child knows instead of only seeing what the child does not understand is a helpful tool in guiding a child in the right path. Remember that children are making guesses about the world around them and it is important to respond to their guesses in a positive way. You never want to discourage a child from trying to learn or making a new hypothesis. It is important to see the world around you from the eyes of a child.            

4 comments:

  1. This is a very informative post about what children see when they are beginning their literacy development. Also, you made a great point that children need to experiment and make hypotheses about literacy as part of their learning. It is important for parents to be aware of this and to encourage their children as they explore the new world of reading and writing.

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  2. “It is important to see the world around you from the eyes of a child.” I love this quote. If we as teachers could plan our children’s days around this, or keep this in mind throughout our days, I think children may be able to enjoy subjects like literacy much more. I think exposing children to print, which they are attracted to and interested in can only aid their value of literacy. It will be interesting to see how the children respond to our Environmental Print Books.

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  3. It is hard to remember that children learn from things in the environment without an adult having to physically teach each concept. Children are extremely impressionable and keeping this in mind, we can make every moment a teachable one. Simply by pointing out different street signs or other environmental print, children are able to learn new words and concepts every day without even trying.

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  4. I agree that we should respond to children in the positive ways. It is important because children should be encourage to have their ideas and thoughts. I also think because children learn their literacy from their around, we should provide appropriate things for children.

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