Date: January17, 2012
Name: Shanda Starks-Douglas
Name of Person Interviewed: Shuniecia Brown
1. I am thinking of focusing my research paper on the following area: Early Literacy.
- What do you believe are some of the related topics?
- Some of the related topics of early literacy are policy and practice in preschool years, oral language, alphabetic code, print knowledge, speech pathology, reading & writing skills, literary analysis and language comprehension.
- What are the current issues related to these topics?
- One of the issues are having children prepared for school, by demanding that parents and teachers are accountable for their role in the child’s education. Making sure the communities have the programs that fit their needs.
2. What other issues do you commonly encounter in your work or in discussions with colleagues?
- Some issues I encounter are parents not having the time or not putting aside the time to read with their child. Also some parents not having the ability/skill to read. Another issue would be language barriers, the parent not having books in their native language at home.
3. What advocacy efforts are currently under way in your area of interest?
- There are much research being done to make sure communities have the programs they need to assist parents and children. It’s being pushed more for parents/family members to read to children. More doctors are informing their patients about the need for them to read to their children in infancy. Schools and childcare centers are doing more activities and workshops on literacy.
4. Which of these topics or issues are of most concern to you? Which do you believe are most in need of advocacy?
- I would say that oral knowledge is the most of concern. Oral knowledge is the time in which children learn to communicate with their parents and others. It is a natural and life long process that if developed successfully will be a great accomplishment for the child. Children learn and form the correct dialect from their environment and the people they are around.
Shanda,
ReplyDeleteWhat direction are you looking to go on your research paper? Are you looking at the parental involvement role or the role that early literacy teachers play? This is an interesting topic and I think that there are many factors that contribute to a child's success or struggle with early literacy development and skills.
Good luck!
Shanda
ReplyDeleteThis is such an important topic to advocate for especially with children form 0 - 5 years old. Early literacy = better readers.
Hi Shanda:
ReplyDeleteThat is such an important topic especially in that emergent reading helps the child to take off in all developmental areas of their lives. I myself, who has a home daycare, am realizing the importance of it. You can never start too young with the children as well. I will have a baby on my lap while I am reading to my two and three year-olds. I teach them also abut the respect of books (not walking on them, ripping them, etc.). I act as though they are something special, and they are.
I am just amazed when my children start kindergarten and how they take off reading and want to know what is this and what is that.
You will do a justice to your circle of people as to being an advocate for reading and explaining to the parents how important that is. Not just for literacy, but for bonding and social-emotional skills as well. Once the child gets it about reading, they will excel in the other developmental areas as well because they have the confidence to go on and experiment and not feel bad even if they have a wrong answer.
It sounds like your paper goes in the direction of making teachers accountable and yet we also have to deal with the here and now of if we have a child who is behind, let's move forward and get that child up to par.
Good luck with your paper! Vickie Chedgy