A young baby girl of about eight months of age, is sitting in a sandpit near her parent's house. Alongside of her is another young child of the same age. The young baby girl has her sand-shoes off and is comfortably engrossed in her play. She picks up a small plastic sieve and watches as the sand gently falls through its many holes. Her small friend emulates her and they both spend a good quantity of time enjoying the warm sunshine and the cool breeze that filters past them, on a pleasant autumn's day. After a little while, the young baby girl reaches for a nearby small plastic measuring jug and adds a quantity of water to her sand pile. Again her friend copies her and they learn the tactile skill of different textures. This increases the children' world of learning and knowledge (literacy). Handling the sieve and the measuring jug is a part of their learning of simple mathematical concepts. The young baby girl's mother places some plastic animals, leaves and plastic objects into the roomy sandpit - further opportunities for the two small children to draw upon their senses of touch, tuning into their fine motor skills.
A balance of literacy and numerical skills is important in the development of very young and older children. As they acquire and "fine tune" the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, children will develop greater understanding of the world around them. It is possible to educate children in a relaxed and non-threatening manner. By opening up the world around them in ways which make the world to be an attractive, entertaining, creative and a joyful adventure of lifelong learning, children will be more likely to develop literacy and numeracy skills, without being aware that they are actually learning at the same time.
Educators and parents can introduce new ideas, objects and modes of learning in such pleasant and non-intrusive ways, so that children benefit from their on-going learning. Literacy skills include texts of a multi-modal nature such as story-telling (oral), reading from and out of books, singing, dancing, listening to music, reading poetry and drama, (whereby different roles are acted out).
According to Mary Mayesky of Creative Activities for Young Children, literacy in its most general sense is a mastery of language. This includes speaking, listening, writing and reading. The learning of literacy begins in infancy and continues throughout life. (P423). To develop literacy, we build on what the child already knows about oral language, reading and writing. Children's literacy grows when we encourage them to see themselves as people themselves as people who can enjoy exploring oral and written languages. Stories, songs and dance, as well as music, adds to children's literacy skills. Colourful books do also help with children's appreciation of the world of wonder and their reading skills. Taken from P494, maths is a part of a young child's life. Maths can be learnt as infants and toddlers notice relationships as they interact with their parents or primary caregivers, through songs, reading and other verbal and non-verbal communication. (P495). Learning about where things are and where spaces fit in with relation to one another, is also mathematical learning. This is a pre-cursor to later understandings of geometry and numbers. On P496 Mary Mayesky describes climbing, ducking under, crawling, reading books that teach maths in a diverse and rich way, helps to encourage them to think and reason mathematically, while building their appreciation for both maths and literature. Drawing art sketches that emulate shapes and objects also build on to children's mathematical experiences. The use of pouring containers for water play, sand, drama and other forms of acting out and experimenting with tactile and sensory objects, builds children's constructive knowledge and understanding. This leads ultimately to confident and interested learners. Ultimately this is what all educators and parents wish to achieve for the children under their care. It is by providing stimulating, safe, enjoyable and creative learning environments that young children will learn best and quickly.
The second book that I have studied on the facets of literacy and numeracy is titled Developmentally Appropriate Practice - Curricculum & Development in Early Education. In this book, Carol Gestwicki states that language is acquired at about the same time and in the same way in infants. Infants require language partners for both brain development and growth in their knowledge of the communication process. They need to discover that speech sounds have value and meanings as a method of communicating between persons. Many linguists believe that children probably learn language by processes that include imitation and reinforcements, but also include an increasing sensitization to interpreting the meaning of a partner in communication.(P331). On P394, the author states that early year's educators can enhance children;s natural interest in maths and their disposition to use it, to make sense of their physical and social worlds. She further maintains that the maths curriculum and teaching practices need to be based on knowledge, that young children learn cognitive, linguistic, physical, social and emotional development based on using teaching practises that strengthen children's problem-solving and reasoning processes, as well as representing, communicating and connecting mathematical ideas. C. Gestwicki believes that it is also necessary to provide ample time, materials and teacher support for children to engage in play: a context in which they explore and manipulate maths ideas with keen interest. It is also important to support children's learning by thoughtfully and continually assessing all children's mathematical knowledge, skills and strategies. Children acquire much of their language in the first three years of life, as their neurons grow and expand. (P321).
Education theorists such as M Montessori, Jean Pieget and Vygotsky have provided various differing viewpoints on the constructions of young children's learning cognition. M. Montessori recognized the uniqueness of each child, observing particular periods called 'sensitive periods' and an absorbent mind. She saw this as the ease with which young children learn unconsciously from the environment. Using the Reggio Emilio Approach, children acquire much of their language in the first years of life. Infants require language partners for both brain development and growth in their knowledge of the communication process. They need to discover that speech sounds have value and meaning as a method of communication between persons. Many linguists believe that children probably learn language by processes that include imitation and reinforcement, but also include an increasing sensitization to interpreting the meaning of a partner in communication. On P394, J. Piaget states that early years of education can enhance children's natural interest in maths and their disposition to use it, to make sense of their physical and social worlds. Further to this, Piaget states that basic maths curriculum and teaching practices on knowledge is constructive to young children's cognitive, linguistic, physical and social/emotional development. Further to this, it is important to use teaching practices that strengthen children' s problem-solving and reasoning processes, as well as representing, communicating and connecting mathematical ideas. Also providing ample time, materials and teacher support for children to engage in play, as a context in which they explore and manipulate mathematical ideas with keen interest, further supports children's learning by thoughtfully and continually assessing all children's mathematical knowledge, skills and strategies.
Vygotsky stated that intelligence and understanding are actively created, or constructed in the individual through interaction with elements of the environment. This includes objects, people and experiences. Piaget's approach to learning takes place by a constructivist process. He believed that learning (knowledge) is acquired by building knowledge and skills, through a slow, continuous process of construction, modifying the understanding that children bring to each situation. These include the processes of assimilation and accommodation. In 1951 an article titled Sensorimotor Development - Deferred imitation, Piaget described this term as being applicable to children who have seen developments at another time or place. (343).
Vygotsky (1930-1935) stated that play creates a zone or proximal development in the child. In his article on P39, taken from the book written by C. Gestwicki., he also stated that be believed a child always was developing beyond their average age, compared to their daily behaviour. Vygotsky also believed that play contains all developmental tendencies in a condensed form and it itself a major source of development.
Finally, the article written by Freebody & Luke (e-reading) emphasised historically and culturally determined contexts. These are based on shifting civil, socio-cultural and job-credential demands. They maintain that reading and indirectly, writing also, reinforces the nature of the relationship between spoken sounds and written symbols and the contents. The English vocabulary is made up of an alphabet containing 44 sounds and 26 letters. It is important that young children grasp the meanings of these sounds and letters at a young age, during the formative years. Without this firm foundation of knowledge and understanding, they will be unable to articulate and reasonably understand literacy and mathematical knowledge at further expanding levels, in accordance with their progress.
Stanovich, 1986, mentioned that the source of failure is failing to acquire proficiency with the structured nature of spoken language. This is in comparison to Johnston (1985), who believes that early readers remembered pictures and stories, yet became illiterate adults as they were not able to engage in the technology of the script. He believes that basics are needed in particular forms of literacy. Teachers can help by displaying a student's 'comprehension' and processes used to encourage literacy and numerical skills.
As a text user, it is important to be able to participate in social activities, whereby written text plays a part. These resources are developed in our society mostly by instructional contexts. Text analysis in comparison to critical readers. indicate that all discourse holds a particular construction or 'picture' of its readership, not only in the sense of the reader's knowledge, but also in the ideal position of the reader. Sense-making procedures exists within an ideal perspective.
In conclusion, there are four roles that characterise successful reading in our society.
(a) How do I crack this?
(b) What does this mean?
(c) What do I do with this?
(d) What do I do with this here and now?
Finally, planning must be taken into consideration so that good learning outcomes are obtained. Planning creates a framework of learning choices and possibilities. It is based on observed developmental abilities and interests,educators being aware of where children are in the developmental sequence. They then plan experiences that support the level achieved and help children move on to the next level. Consequently, stories, songs, also solitary exploration and self-determined tasks stimulate young learner's curiosity. Providing some novelty along with the familiarity of known objects and activities already included in children's literacy and maths skills, further fosters confident learning and building skills.
Reading is intertwined with particular conceptions and ideologies about what literacy should be used for. Distinct programs affect distinct literacies.
References:
Peter Freebody, Allan Luke - E-reading
Creative Activities for Young Children, 10th Ed. Mary Mayesky, Cengage Learning (Wadsworth). U.S.A. 2012
Developmentally Appropriate Practices -
Curriculum & Development in Early Education, 5th Ed. Carol Gestwicki, Cengage Learning (Wadsworth). U.S.A. 2014, 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment