How Pre Kindergarten Programs Increase Literacy And Prepare Children For Kindergarten

3. Assessment of Literacy Development in Early Childhood is a research that was conducted by Johnson, Peter H, and Rogers, Rebecca. Both authors highly believe in assessing literacy development, since it is a huge aspect in students’ literacy development. Both authors state, “Most literacy assessment occurs in the school years because, at least in most Western countries, literacy learning is considered the responsibility of the school, though when school literacy instruction actually begins…In the United States, since the thirties, literacy-related assessment has occurred in the early years of schooling because of beliefs about the relationship between learning and development” (pg. 1).

Fact that the early childhood years are the most crucial to developing literacy skills among children

Learning to read and write as a child is an experience that all can relate to. The average child learns to read and write at the early ages of three and four. Developing literacy at an early age is crucial to academic development as well as to performance in life. Early development can be just what a child needs to stimulate their minds, which in turn is assisting in the evolution of their future. The early and latter stages of development in a child’s literacy journey are the makings for their reading and writing skills. It also plays part in their analysis of obstacles as well as their developed or problematic literacy future. A child

The article, Literacy-Rich Environments, by The Access Center, informs the reader on the several ways to create a literacy rich environment for early childhood classrooms. Literacy development needs to be supported from the very beginning of a child’s life. Due to culture, some students will enter school without any prior knowledge of literacy (The Access Center, 2007). It is the duty of the educator to facilitate literacy development, and provide students with an environment full of opportunities to develop literacy skills. This article covers why creating a literacy-rich environment is important, what materials an educator needs in the classroom to create such an environment, and how the educator should arrange the classroom to enhance literacy development (The Access Center, 2007).

Next, is the Early Literacy Intervention Literacy Intervention Initiative Act. “The early childhood years are the most Important period for literacy development.” (Freeman, Decker, Decker (2013) p. 231). The Early Literacy Initiative is a joint effort with the State and local government to identify children with reading deficiencies and implement early reading intervention programs. The purpose of Early Literacy Initiative is to reduce the number of poor readers by providing research based prevention programs to ensure that every student can read by the 3rd

This paper is an academic critique of a research article by Karen L. Gischlar and Joanne P. Vesay entitled: Literacy Curricula and Assessment: A Survey of Early Childhood Educators in two States. I was attracted to this article because being an early educator myself, I know how important literacy instructions is in the early years. It intrigued me to read about the types of curricula and assessment used by other educators to assess young children learning. The purpose of the article was to survey early childhood educators regarding their literacy practices and the assessments implemented in their classroom. However, the goal was to determine to what extent preschool teachers addressed literacy skills areas through classroom instructions. (Gischlar & Vesay 2014, p. 298). The authors believed that teachers should be using literacy curricula to teach literacy skills and get proper training in how to monitor students’ progress. If such curricula are not being implemented, then explicit instructions in early literacy instruction should be conducted daily. This paper will provide a critical review of the methods used, the result of the study and the authors discussion of the article.

The challenge that many students face upon entering first grade in a low social-economic status area is low literacy skills. The students represented in this developmental paper come from low income families whose parents were poorly educated, many illiterate. As a result, students would rarely read to at home, either due to the lack of literature in the home or the parents were non-readers and unable to read to or read with their child.

Literacy is the most important skill when it comes to children’s personal growth, culture and development. Literacy is the ability to read and write, and is tied to everything children do, including their social interactions with others. When children don’t develop strong literacy and language skills in their early years, the impact on future educational attainment and employment outcomes are significant, (King-Smith, 2015, p. 5). It is crucial to help young children be ready for school by working with them to develop the necessary early literacy and learning skills, to become confident and involved learners. Educators are in charge of creating literacy rich environments for children, where children will experience effective teaching

“Literacy learning has a profound and lasting effect on the social and academic lives of children. Their future educational opportunities and career choices are directly related to literacy ability. Since early childhood is the period when language develops most rapidly, it is imperative that young children are provided with a variety of developmentally appropriate literacy experiences throughout each day, and that the classroom environment is rich with language, both spoken and printed. Early childhood teachers are responsible for both understanding the developmental continuum of language and literacy and for supporting each child’s literacy development.

Risley, describes 42 children from various socio-economic backgrounds with extraordinary disparities between the sheer number of words vocabulary. Through this survey, they find there is a lot of different in rates of vocabulary growth among 3-year-olds and the different rates of vocabulary in children’s early experience that will affect their performance and change their whole lives. After reading this article, I know children’s vocabulary skills are connected to their economic backgrounds. And also, I know that early childhood education is really important. In my own opinion, I misunderstand about their survey. Sometimes, more is not always means better and the child in high-income family doesn’t represent that they are better than the child in low-income family depend on the 30 million word gap. We can find a lot of examples to reject this point. The most common example is some students in college with student loan earn better grades than some students who do not apply for student loans. So, in my mind, I think the most attention is early childhood education. Before the age of eight, child’s brain goes through rapid growth and development. They can learn a lot about themselves and the world around them. Parents are their first teachers; they have a huge responsibility to educate their children. Parents teach children how to walk, how to speak, how to feed themselves, give them safe, secure and warm in their family. Children at an early age with a good education can improve social skills; earn a better grade, and no need for special education instruction during their school year. So, early childhood education is crucial to one’s life and this is the most vital foundation to become a better and more knowledgeable individual in the adult

Literacy is important for young children. It’s so much a child has to know before entering kindergarten. The Essentials of Early Literacy Instruction stressed the importance of teaching literacy. Early literacy is an emerging g set of relationships between reading and writing. Today a lot of terms have been referred to for literacy development for preschoolers the term that’s mostly used is early literacy. The term was chosen because the earliest forms of literacy development are forming reading and writing concepts. Linking early literacy to play is the most effective way to for young children to learn. There are many ways educators can teach literacy activities such as rich teacher talk, storybook reading, phonologic awareness activities, alphabet activities, support for emergent writing, shared book experience, integrated, and content-focused activities, Young children understand print by oral and written language. Asking students to help read a book and turn the page help them understand the basics of a book. There are at least three critical content categories in early literacy: oral language comprehension, phonological awareness, and print knowledge. Children need to learn phonological awareness, alphabet letter knowledge, the function of written language, a sense of meaning making texts, and vocabulary. Alphabetic writing is quite difficult once children understand the language of their community they learn which words stand for which concepts in that language.

Through these early years of literacy development, the teacher or adult takes on the role of providing the child with learning opportunities that address the child’s needs as they are developing. This means that the adult must be aware of the child’s learning level, have an understanding of the child’s previous learning, observe how the child learns best, and be knowledgeable of the content that he/she is teaching. Once the adult has this knowledge of the child, they can provide meaningful learning experiences for effective development. Literacy should be taught with a well-constructed instruction that scaffolds learning to allow children to pass through the stages.

There is evidence that early childhood who belong to minority groups (African American/Hispanic) have considerable difficulty with literacy, including reading, letter identification, reading comprehension, and vocabulary (Hart & Risley, 1995; Washington, 2001; Whitehurst & Fischel, 2000). Further, lower reading skills during preschool predict higher school drop out in next years and low levels of academic success (Entwisle & Alexander, 1999). Therefore, much consideration has been paid by researchers, administrators, and policymakers to interventions in early childhood for improving young children’s emergent literacy skills (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001; Camilli, Vargas, & Yurecko, 2003; Fitzgerald et al., 2002; Hall,

Pre-k provides many children their first opportunity for learning and provides many others with enrichment activities that enhance the opportunities they have already been provided. This learning environment should be structured so that children who are impoverished can explore and those more advanced can excel. This includes academics, socialization, and motor and communication skills. Research indicates programs such as preschool and Head Start will accentuate these skills in all students if they are cognitively ready to progress. If students are not prepared both socially and academically at this level their school career will be hampered.

Reading is a skill often taken for granted but it is essential in order to progress in life. For a child being able to read well helps them learn new things, give ideas and enables use of imagination. National literacy trust (2015) suggests that children’s early language skills can have a major impact on a child’s development of literacy skills. Five-year olds with poor language and literacy have a higher risk of underachieving at age seven and beyond. Reading skills encourage more opportunities in life and it can affect a child’s wellbeing if they do not achieve this effectively (Finnegan,2015).