Observing and Interacting With Professionals, Children, and Families in an Early Childhood Setting
Name: Shanda Starks-Douglas
Date: January 26, 2012
Name of Program/Setting: Christopher House/Infant & Toddler classroom setting. The Infant & Toddler classroom is set up into two parts. One side is for the infants that are not mobile and the other side is for the children that are mobile. The classroom has a quiet area, science area, art area, dramatic play area, block area and a water table area. The classroom is well organized and very spacious. The classroom also has artwork displayed around the room that the children has done. The Christopher House is NAEYC Accredited and has just gone through QRS (Quality Rating Scale). The classroom has three teachers; A Master Pre-k, two Assistant Teachers and 8 children.
Who I spoke with: During my observation and interaction I spoke with the Master Pre-k teacher in the classroom. I talked to her about how she felt about Early Literacy. The teacher explained to me that the Christopher House is very big on reading. The teacher explained to me about how they encourage the parents to read at home to their child. The teacher goal is to have the parent to read at home to their child for at least 30 minutes. The classroom has a lending library for the parents to sign books out and take home.
What I learned about …my experience is that the teachers really implement literacy to the children. The teachers have baskets of books in every area in the classroom to help the children to explore books and to be read too. The teachers make sure that reading is also implemented in Creative Curriculum.
Two insights, experiences, or quotes that I will share in my blog this week… One of the insights that I would like to share is that it is very important to start out reading to the child while in the mother stomach. Another insight is that the teacher individualize with the children one on one if they are having a hard time reading.
Shanda,
ReplyDeleteI cannot agree more that literacy is so important to the development of children. From a mom stance, my three year old is already reading sight words and learning phonics of reading. My 15 month old will wear you out reading books every night. I actually joked to my husband last night that I wish we didn't have a zillion books in our house.
I think literacy is so important that I use a literacy base curriculum. I take a new book each week and all of my activities and centers reflect the book that we are reading. I have other books in my book area that support the main book we are reading, but we read the same book everyday for a week. By the end of the week the children are immersed in this book and have learned from it in many ways. Good luck in your journey on your paper.
I agree that early literacy is paramount in a child's future literacy. Research continues to show us that parental involvement with literacy and continued experiences drive comprehension, fluency, and reading ability.
ReplyDeleteHere in Georgia we have some of those same things in our classrooms and literacy encouraged at home as well. In our early childhood education classrooms we also have a lending library and book baskets in each learning center. At my center we have a weekly program contributed to early literacy. The program requires parents to read to their child or children at least three days of each week for thirty or so minutes. Once they have read for the three days, they sign the classroom log book, and the classes who have at least 75% parent participation at the end of the week get special recognitions. I think that as teachers knowing and enforcing the importance of early literacy is the beginning of creating a community of learners.
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