Article Summary: ECE Literacy New Pathways

Makin, L & Jones Diaz, C (2002) , New pathways for literacy in ECE, in L Makin & C Jones (eds), Literacies in early childhood: changing views, challenging practice, Maclennon & Petty Pty Limited, Eastgardens, pp.325-35.


Summary:
The article states that two important changes in society need to influence literacy education are:

* Globalization of communications and competitive labour markets has an impact on linguistic diversity.
* Growth of technology which changes the way people can make meaning and literacy is becoming increasingly multi-modal. Increasing globalization is a factor to why bilingual education may be essential in the long term, both to survive culturally, and for people to remain competitive in the international business world.

Funding from government bodies act as:

o as a method of encouraging compliance
o linked to performance
o linked to program alignment with government directions.

Funding cuts has meant that early childhood services now find themselves under more pressure to prepare children for school literacy (book and print based) and move from child centred orientation. These skills largely ignore techno-literacy, authentic assessment and languages other than English.

* Narratives of popular culture offer a “way into” literacy, such as children who use drawing and model making, rather than words, and that if these activities are regarded primarily as design rather than as communication, then children’s literacy will be undervalued.

* Finally popular culture provide children with a lingua france through which they share other meanings about their worlds.

* A rejection by educators of popular culture merely locks out the potential exchange of ‘cultural’ and ‘social capital’ and connection to literacy beyond that which is provided at the setting.

I believe that popular culture provides many good sources and ideas in developing children’s literacy skills to think critically as well as broadly. Yet, this too entirely depends on the context of which the class the children are situated at.

The teacher in class may have many ideas in wanting to link and bring popular culture into the classroom, but if the context (school and parents) feel that it is not relevant to what they want for both the centre and the parents, the work is fruitless unless the teacher is able to advocate for what s/he wants.
Article:
Linning, L (1999), “Children’s literature: resources for literacy development ‘, in R Campbell & D Green (eds) Literacies and learners : current perspectives, Prentice Hall Australia, French Forest NSW, pp.105-10.

Summary:
The article discusses the role and value of children’s literature in the literacy program, whereby it can assist in the development of literary appreciation. Printed texts in different forms can introduce children to the recurrent structures, conventions and allusions in English literature which attune to their experience, knowledge and stages of reading development.

The different modes of responding to literature vary according to the purposes and natures of the texts. They range from

* Enjoyment of language & story, understanding that print is meaningful.
* Learning to decode- beginning independent reading and practicing skills.
* Losing oneself in books-where readers read their favourite popular series and develop fluency and confidence.
* Finding oneself in books-where readers recognize characters and settings which relate to their own lives.
* Making ethical applications (Personal & social), where books stimulate readers to think about other times, places, cultures, ideas & personal circumstances, in a light hearted but perceptive way accessible to young readers.
* Wide reading- which gives readers a context for approaching and responding to texts new to them and developing their inter-textuality skills.
* Aesthetic response- where readers notice how authors use language effectively and enjoy literary criticism.

I would agree that readers respond to books in a variety of ways. Ways which are relevant to themselves in different contexts and situations. Coming from a context where bilingualism is the norm, yet fluency of mastery of a few languages is barely achievable, I believe that I would not have been able to attain the standard of fluency in English were it not my interest as a young child in reading books such as those by Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl or Lucy Maud Montgomery.
These books enabled me to lose myself in the stories, as well as finding characters similar to my situation, and at the same time develop the vocabulary to express my intents and wants in ways I would not have been able to deem possible.

Literates As Social Practice (Article Summary)

Jones, Diaz, C. & Makin, L. (2002) ‘Literates as social practice’ in L. Makin & C. Jones Diaz (eds), Literates in early childhood: changing views, changing practice, Maclennon & Petty Pty Limited, Eastgardens, pp.7-13.
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Summary:
Literacy is defined as including talking, listening, visual literacies and critical thinking. Traditional perspectives situate literacy in the individual rather than in social worlds in which the individuals actively participate.

The focus was previously on skills on decoding meanings in paper-based texts, devoid of the social influences within which texts are constructed, as it will limit understandings about literacy and about the diverse ways in which children learn.
The 3 so called misleading misconceptions of literacy is:

* That it is a unitary object, but the fact is that literacy is not the same for everyone. It is more of how “technology is used to pursue social goals’ which is intrinsic to literacy.
* That it is neutral, and functions independently of specific social contexts, but the fact is that literacy has been made use to achieve social objectives and used to market to different contexts.
* Finally, the misconception that is responsible for high order thinking & cognitive processes, detached from other social processes, as an independent variable, but the fact is that it has to take into account the connectedness of other literacy factors, i.e. ethnicity, race, age, class, occupation, gender or geographic location.

I agree with the authors whereby literacy does not just mean knowing how to read and write, and decode words, but using it in context of the student’s environment, and context. I feel that many Malaysian as well focus too much on learning how to read and write, and neglect the importance of developing social skills where their literacy skills could be employed to communicate their needs & wants.

Literacy: Kindergarten activity review.

Task 4: Implementation of a Finger Rhyme activity.

Lesson plan: Finger Rhyme (5 little Lady Bugs) and reading of a story.
Purpose of activity: Do a finger rhyme with children (on an insect the children are familiar with): The lady bug.

- Illustrations will give the children contextual clues to what the rhyme is trying to communicate.

Equipment:
- Finger Rhyme poster (5 Little Lady Bugs) by Rita Galloway.

Five Little Lady Bugs:

Five little lady bugs sitting in a tree, (hold up five fingers)
The first one said, “ I’m glad I’m me”.(wiggle thumb).
The second one said, “I feel great too”.(wiggle pointer finger).
The third one said, “How about you?” (wiggle middle finger).
The fourth one said “It’s time to fly away”. (wiggle ring finger).
The fifth one said, “We’ll talk another day”. (wiggle little finger.)

Evaluation: I shared this activity with a group of 3 year old children in a childcare centre. The children responded quite well where they showed this by following along and imitating the finger movements. I read the rhyme to them three times. The children were very familiar with ladybugs, as the classroom’s name was LadyBeetles!

I personalized the poem by adding the children’s names after holding up each finger, and the children giggled when they heard their names being mentioned.

Task 5: Evaluation of a computer learning program.

Title: JumpStart Kindergarten: Teaches Essential Skills for School.

Age Appropriateness: Good

• Only appropriate for pre-school age children (4 years and above as per the target age group of this program).

Multi-Cultural: Good

• Dolls: Rearrange dolls from smallest to biggest. (multi-cultural dolls )
• Has toys and manipulatives from other cultures. A calendar that shows the different seasons and festivals, i.e, Chanukah according to the computer calendar.

Interactive: Satisfactory

• It requires a lot of reliance on audio instructions, which may not be appropriate for deaf children.
• Cupboard: Which has random objects on the shelves. When the cursor clicks on it, it will say the name of the object as well as the label of the object in capital letters.

Child-Friendly Functionality: Excellent

• Only needs the mouse to work and click on the activity.

Literacy: Good

• Chalkboard activity: A sentence will be said out and the child has to click on the corresponding pictures. The name of the object will be said out when it is clicked on and its labels will appear. Introduces names of objects with the label.
• Rhyming: Introduces rhyming of objects in a visual manner.
• Aquarium with a hamster: To look for hamster in the room. The hamster will give verbal instructions. Children learn to develop listening skills.
• Introduces the letters of the alphabet
• Matching of shapes.

Classification: Good

• Colouring paints activity: To find the “odd man out” and then colour, or paint the pictures.
• Outdoors: Take pictures with a camera for painting/ colouring purposes
• Sequencing: From the smallest to the largest doll.
• Counting skills: 1-20 (on the mat).
• Classification skills: Extends and practices classification skills: shapes in the right box, “odd man out”,

Different modes of language: Very Good

• Radio: Singing and dancing on the mat. Click on the pictures to start the music
• Music: Songs from the radio as well as the letters of the alphabet which is fun, and the ABC song is something familiar to a lot of children.

Children’s Interests: Satisfactory

The activities provided are fairly interesting, but could be better.

Related links:

Literacy Tasks (2nd Year Studies: Part 2)

Literacy: Cross-Cultural Literacy Practices

These activities are more suited for those in the early years, and in preschool as well as for beginner readers. These are among the tasks besides just doing article summaries that students have to undertake ias part of the assessment tasks for a literacy unit for 2nd Year studies.As said before, the more elaborate & detailed the explanation for a task, the higher a student can score.

Task 1: Comparison of the beliefs of two different sets of parents and their literacy practices at home.

Parent: Mei Ling
Ethnicity: Chinese.
Background: She comes from mainland China and has an elder son, who is 15 years old. Mei Ling has been in Australia for almost 5 years now, and is currently undertaking a two year undergraduate teaching training programme.
Age of child: 2.10 years.

Parent: Steven
Ethnicity: Chinese.
Background: He spent his childhood and growing up years in Brunei, but did his tertiary studies in Australia. He has been in Australia for almost 12 years. His wife comes from Taiwan. He has two children.
Age of child: 4.10 years.

Summary:
Understanding of own children’s personalities: Both parents show much knowledge and understanding of children’s personalities. Steven says that his son has a strong will, and therefore has to cater to his son’s interest and tries to individualize his responses accordingly.
Mei-Ling states that her son is still in the midst of developing his personality, and his speaking skills.

Foundation in own cultural language: In particular, the striking aspect of both parents interviewed is that they come from chinese backgrounds. As what has been communicated, both families show the intention that they would like their children to master the speaking of the mandarin language.
They said that they spent much time in trying to teach their children speak mandarin at home. Mei Ling’s son is at preschool, and has exposure to English language. She is attempting to develop her son’s foundation in the Mandarin language as she states that she knows her son would no longer use much of that language once he is older, as there will be limited and less opportunities for him to practice his language at school or socially
Steven shares the same sentiments as Mei Ling in that he wants his children to develop his foundation in Mandarin. He states that is would be beneficial for his children to know two languages, and easier to develop it from young. He also stated that he regrets not knowing much of his Chinese dialects as his parents did not speak to him in Chinese, and he is now struggling to pick up the mandarin language as an adult.

Range of different literature: Both Steven and Mei-Ling also share similar understandings that providing different and a range of literature at home will help develop their children’s literacy skills and understanding. Steven states that much of his knowledge of literacy practices that he practices at home is derived from his son’s teachers at schools and the advice that they had given him.

Multi-Media: Steven and Mei-Ling are also very open to their own children working with multi-media. They are also aware of the influence of that the mass media (television in particular) has on the language development skills of their children, and both monitor the kind of television programmes and duration of the shows the children watch.

Task 3: Evaluation of a Television Program.
Title of television program: Sesame Street Visits the Hospital.
Language quality: Very Good

• Speakers speak very clearly and pronounce their words clearly.

Different mode of language: Very Good

• Puppet show and song. So children understand concept of “patients are to be patient
• A “play room” – song “Busy getting better” song,

Pace of the program: Very Good

• The program is paced appropriately where the conversation can be heard and the acting is very clear. It does not rush through the plot.

Foundations for social skills: Very Good

• Multi-cultural: Introduces children to people from other ethnicity.
• Relates more to children in the big city. The video can be used to introduce children who have not been exposed to hospitals. It also prepares children to the concept of hospitals.

• Introduce rules & regulations, routines at hospitals and post hospital check-ups.
• Procedures- health insurance, what adults have to do before registering a patient into the hospital.

• Routines- identification patients tag, blood pressure, looking at tongue (tongue depressors), looking at ears, breathe in and out, appetite, sleeping well, blood tests and x-rays, lunch menu, paging machine.

• Social- people visit their friends who are sick and bring toys and fruits during visiting hours only.

• How the x-ray is to be taken. Children will learn that it is a painless and fast procedure.
• Uses of paging machine which is demonstrated by Big Bird.

Children’s interests: Very Good

• Real life situations- children can relate to their experiences.
• Common cold- a sickness that children have experienced before.
• Children can relate to Big Birds’ fears of going to the hospitals.
• Prepare children emotionally and mentally before going to the hospital.

Dramatic play: Very Good

• Characters introduce themes of “playing hospital” in the Sesame Street with other Sesame Street puppet characters.

Gross motor skills: Very Good

• Use of puppets with the song “Patients are to be patient” song is catchy andencourages movement.

Structured well: Very Good

• The script flow starts from where Big Bird catches a flu and he goes to the hospital then after. It flows smoothly and in a coherent manner so children will understand that it starts with the child having symptoms of being sick before he goes to see a doctor.
  

Literacy: Literacy Partnerships Home & School (Article Summary)

These are some article summaries from my 2nd year Studies. It should be longer (although course requirements state a short summary is only required) but normally if the student wants to score higher, lecturers would prefer a longer summary. At least that is what my lecturers at university did.

Article:
Morrow, L (1997) “Family Literacy Partnerships home and school working together”, Literacy development in the early years, Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA, pp.52-85

Summary:
The article first describes a grandmother demonstrating and taking advantage of the print in the grandchildren’s life that is familiar and extending and using it as a pleasurable experience to enrich the grand children’s literacy knowledge.

* Family literacy encompasses all members of the family, as well as extended family members to make use of the different literacy activities that could be the outcome of spontaneous activities, parent or child initiated, out or routines, using drawings or writings to communicate ideas.

* It is important because:

1) Findings reveal home practices that play a major role to literacy success in school settings and the crucial role a family plays in the development of children’s literacy & on how they as members of the family can help.

2) Leichter (1984) states that families influence literacy development in 3 ways: interpersonal interaction, physical environments, emotional and motivational climate.

* It is important that parents provide a lot of materials for writing in the home as the author believes that learning to read is enhanced by concurrent experiences with writing is facilitated by experiences with reading.
* I agree with the author as I believe literacy should also be a family affair and not just left to the school. When family members engage in a family literacy process, it creates a win-win situation, whereby parents learn more about their children and develop a closer relationship as a result. I believe that the author’s perspective is in line with the current practice in education trends, where educators are advocating for families to once again learn to take responsibility and share for their children’s success in developing literacy skills.