Emerging Literacy

One of the most eye opening experiences of my life occurred in the second grade. I would have never thought that doing one simple assignment in elementary school could change my whole perspective on literacy. My understanding of literacy was sparked when I had read my first real book. I remember sitting down on the vividly colorful carpet day dreaming about playing Mario Cart on my Nintendo 64 while everyone was obediently listening to the teacher read a book out loud. It wasn’t that I did not know how to read or listen, I just didn’t care. Reading to me used to be tedious because I did not understand the purpose of it. I did not grow up with the luxury of my parents reading to me because they weren’t literate in English, so I had to figure out for myself why literacy is vital in everyday life. My ongoing learning experience with literacy can be traced back to one simple visit to library.

I am currently a Kindergarten teacher at Our Lady of Trust Academy. Although it is a wonderful private institution, my goal is to teach at a public school. I have chosen this career path because I am passionate about working with children, while they are developing their foundational skills. I believe that by receiving a high quality education; that goes beyond remembering and understanding, students can master the core material through analyzing and creating. This will give learners a strong base to build upon, setting students on the path to be successful in high school, and go on to be career and

America has an ever so slowly changing literacy rate; 32 million people in the US cannot read. High poverty countries have lower literacy rates and stricter countries have a proficient gender difference in literacy rate. The United States is a booming country, surrounded by new technology and communication. The impact this new generation has on illiterate people is so devastating, it comes to the point where you can’t fully live because verbal communication is not always available. Some people are unable to read drug labels, or have access to healthcare. It is also costing taxpayers 20 billion dollars a year. Parents who are illiterate are having a huge impact on their children; without having being exposed to books outside of school their

Young children imitate what they see adults do in society. On such thing is reading. Children will take up any form of literature and pretend that they are reading. To enhance and cater for this behaviour parents and teachers can:

My chosen concentration in Literacy stems from my love of reading. However, I have not studied literacy until enrolling in this course. My orientation toward literacy theory and practice is beginning to take some form of shape. Learning the new theories and models as well as reading the post of my peers is very intriguing and interesting. In this proposal, I will expand on my personal ‘lens on literacy” in reference to readings throughout the course while answering the question, “How does this lens influence, to paraphrase Paulo Freire's words, "how you read your world and the words in it?"

Emergent literacy is important because the literacy development begins earlier than formal schooling. Phonological awareness, letter names, and letter-sound knowledge are essential for beginning reading instruction. Phonemic awareness is a strong predictor of success in the first two years of schooling. Additionally, letter knowledge is the first step to learn the alphabetic principle and one of the most important early reading skills. Several studies investigated Visual Phonics with preschoolers and revealed significant improvements during these fundamental early years.

Everybody has a moment that puts their life into perspective; a moment where everything just clicks, but sometimes that moment can open up more questions than answers. A person’s life can depend a lot on their surroundings, but regardless of the circumstances they’re in, it is up to them to decide how it will affect them. One event could affect each person differently in such a way that there is an indeterminate amount of possibilities in one person’s life, and they will have to be the ones to take it upon themselves to decide. My moment made me decide to learn new languages, to learn about cultures, to communicate. I wanted to live in a world where there would be no hassle in traveling, no language barriers, and no discrimination.

Explain how this vocational arena impacts society at large, and how this vocation is strategic to Christʼs kingdom. Please explain why you believe your chosen field is under-represented by Christians and tell us how you plan to impact your field for Christ

During my childhood my comprehension of the word “literacy” was not as developed as it is now. Back in those days I thought literacy was a person’s ability to read and write, but as I progressed in age that understanding augmented. Today my grasp of literacy is far more intricate. Literacy expands further than just reading and writing; it is the foundation of how everybody learns and processes certain information, it also has even been integrated with technologies of the modern world. Thanks to the internet we have access to any information that we want, but you need literacy to understand it in the first place. Personally I feel as if literacy cannot be mastered it has no end, you learn more about it until you die. My justification for this

It is 6am on Saturday morning, and you roll out of bed before everyone else, hoping to get a jump start on the day, before the chaos of life rings the opening bell. You can smell the coffee as it begins to percolate through the filter. You sit down at your computer and take a deep breath, trying to find the frame of mind to get this work completed, when suddenly you are awoken 2 hours later by your son jumping on your lap, hysterically ringing the aforementioned bell. Just like every other time before, you are late out of the starting gate. Stumbling trying to find your footing, desperately trying to gain that stride. Eventually you hit that stride, the words you are trying to find flow through your fingertips like water rushing out of the great Mississippi. It has not always been this easy oh how you wish it were. Ultimately, my literacy journey albeit fairly uneventful, shaped and molded me into the person I am today.

New literacy are new forms of literacy which is gained from digitial technology developements ( Gunter & Gunter, n.d.) . In our world today we use form of literacy daily. Since I have enrolled at GCU, I have used technology more than I ever have before. New literacy is very important for teachers to learn, since the schools are turning this way more and more everyday. Not only can digitial technology help me as instructor advance more, but this also teaches children on a whole new level, helping them achieve and learn better than ever before.

This session will share how one group of educators developed agency through co-constructed learning experiences utilizing inquiry and critical literacy, while creating spaces for ongoing social justice community movements. Participates will experience an interactive panel, and will discuss, reflect, and design new pathways to support education for social change.

I firmly believe that my experiences working with children, as well as my experiences as a student, facilitated my growth, knowledge, and understanding of literacy throughout this course, as I found myself relating my own experiences to those presented in the required readings, chats, handouts, and assignments.

Emergent literacy is used to describe how a young child interacts with books and when reading and writing, even though they could not read or write in the usual sense of way. Emergent literacy is a process that takes place over the timeframe from birth until a child can read and write in what we think to be a standard sense. The key to term literacy is the consistency of all parts of language: speaking, listening, reading, writing, and viewing. Some people believe that, up until a child starts school he/she will first learn to read and then learn to write. The process to learning to read and write has to start early in a child's life. Right away they have contact with different types of communication from the start.

During the last 3 decades, increased attention has been focused upon the effects of emergent literacy in an early childhood education environment and children 's later knowledge (Roberts, Jurgens, & Burchinal, 2005). It was once believed that children learned to read and write only when they entered elementary school and received specific instruction. However, most research now indicates that a preschool environment is critical in the development of a variety of cognitive and linguistic skills and that it is an important factor in early literacy development (Levy, Gong, Hessels, Evans, & Jared, 2006; Rashia, Morris, & Sevick, 2005; Weigel, Martin, & Bennett, 2006). Research has shown that home experiences need to