Foundations to Reading

Children who have encounters with literacy prior to beginning school tend to be more eager to learn to read, as well as, learn a little quicker than those who were not exposed as much to reading and writing. Cunningham focuses on the ways the young children experience literacy in their homes and how to set and build on reading and writing fundamentals in the classroom. At the beginning of Chapter 3, Cunningham explains that parents expose children to literacy in a number of ways, grocery lists, reading stories, reading signs, typing on computers, etc. They all show children how to follow written lines on a page, recognize the sounds of certain letters, learn sight words, and other reading fundamentals. Johnson's article on the Jones family expands this idea, emphasizing that the multiple generations incorporated literacy into the day to day lives. In doing so, they further supported one another and strengthened relationships, knew more about their communities, were able to complete everyday tasks, kept up with their finances, participated in spiritual activities, entertained themselves, and were able to pursue educations. They also provided that middle class, white families were not the only ones exposing their children to literacy; this is significant given the city they lived in. Cunningham continues on in the chapter to discuss the role of literacy development in classrooms.

I enjoyed that the discussion of how to teach reading, sight words, and phonemic awareness also included examples of actives and lesson plans. It made the read easier because I could visualize how the activity worked, how the students might react, and how it could help with mastery of whatever skill was being focused on. I was really keen about the "theme boards", some mentionable were the "Name Board" and an "Animal Board". I think that they are a cool concept because they allow the children to return to them throughout the day (wandering eyes and minds, you know how kids are) and think about what they may have discussed during the lesson and try to imagine or think of other words, sounds, etc. relative on their own. 

This was one board that I found and thought would be good to have, a world map would be even better. I also study Global Studies, so it is important to me that in my future classroom I create an environment that opens minds to what is happening in the rest of the world. This board was for students to pin where the book they were reading was set, but I think it could be good for funny current events or something like that.

I also like the ideas provided for stressing letter sounds and recognizing words with similar sounds, letters, etc. The alphabet song and books, I like because they encourage creativity and push students to think and review what they know and are learning.

This is a page from an "Alphabet Scrapbook", and I think this would be fun for students because they would have the freedom to fill the page with what they wanted for each letter. They also could use stickers, cutouts, etc. to decorate which I think would make the activity more excited and thought provoking on some levels. Different decorative mediums could also encourage them to write or attempt words, they can identify with the correct letter, but may not be able to illustrate with free-hand illustrating.

Lastly, with regard to writing development and encouragement, I liked that Cunningham emphasized that the focus should not initially be entirely on correctness, but rather on effort, curiosity, and creativity. I thought as I was reading that it could be cool to give each student a journal at the beginning of the year that was theirs to write and express themselves in throughout the day. That way if they were at their desks and done with whatever the assignment is, they can choose to write freely sometimes. 

One last example that I could see myself using is a "class directory" in a writing center. I know from my experience in classrooms that students enjoy writing notes and making up stories for their teacher and friends, so I think that something like this would encourage more writing and would reinforce "Name Game/Board" literacy activities done outside of "free time".