Early Childhood Development

Child Care 2

Course Code: CC2/T/A/2 Year of Study: Year 1 No of Credits: 2 Mode of Tuition: Lecture Teaching Hours: 30 hrs Category in Major Programme: Core Unit Prerequisite: Nil

The Connection between Reading and Writing

Reading- The action or skill of reading written or printed matter silently or aloud.

Writing- The activity or skill of marking coherent words on paper and composing text. Many people believe that, upon entering school, children will first learn to read and then learn to write. The process to learning to read and write begins very early in a child's life, as children have contact with many forms of communication right from the start. Most children can identify common signs and logos by the age of 2-3 and they will begin to experiment with written forms of communicating long before they can read by scribbling. Reading and writing develop at the same time in young children and are interrelated. Children do not learn how to read first and then learn how to write, as writing is often easier for some children to begin with than reading. Children love to make marks on paper and, as they begin to realize that the symbols on pages are letters that form words, they will attempt to put their thoughts down on paper as well. The development of writing skills, as holds true with the development of speaking or reading, consists of stages that children pass through. Reading affects writing and writing affects reading. Reading instruction is most effective when intertwined with writing instruction and vice versa. Research has found that when children read extensively they become better writers. Reading a variety of genres helps children learn text structures and language that they can then transfer to their own writing. In addition, reading provides young people with
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prior knowledge that they can use in their stories. One of the primary reasons that we read is to learn. Especially while we are still in school, a major portion of what we know comes from the texts we read. Since writing is the act of transmitting knowledge in print, we must have information to share before we can write it. Therefore reading plays a major role in writing. At the same time practice in writing helps children build their reading skills. This is especially true for younger children who are working to develop phonemic awareness and phonics skills. Phonemic awareness (the understanding that words are developed from sound chunks) develops as children read and write new words. Similarly, phonics skills or the ability to link sounds together to construct words are reinforced when children read and write the same words. For older children practice in the process of writing their own texts helps them analyze the pieces that they read. They can apply their knowledge about the ways that they chose to use particular language, text structure or content to better understand a professional authors construction of his or her texts.

Harnessing the Reading-Writing Relationship to Help Children Learn Simply knowing that reading and writing are intimately connected processes isnt enough. In order to help children develop these two essential skills, parents and teachers need to apply this knowledge when working with them. Here are a few strategies for using reading and writing to reinforce development of literacy skills. Genre Study One of the most effective ways to use the relationship between reading and writing to foster literacy development is by immersing children in a specific genre. Parents and teachers should identify a genre that is essential to a grade levels curriculum or is of particular interest to a child or group of children. They should then study this genre with the child(ren) from the reading and writing perspectives. Children should read and discuss with adults high quality examples of works written in the genre focusing on its structure and language as well as other basic reading skills including phonics and comprehension. Once children have studied the genre to identify its essential elements, they should be given opportunities to write in the genre. As they are writing, adults should help them apply what they have learned from reading genre specific texts to guide their composition. This process should be recursive to allow children to repeatedly move between reading and writing in the genre. In the end children will not only have a solid and rich knowledge of the genre, but will also have strengthened their general reading and writing skills.
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Reading to Develop Specific Writing Skills Parents and teachers do not have to engage in an extensive genre study to foster their childrens reading and writing abilities. Texts can be used on limited basis to help children learn and strengthen specific writing skills. Parents and teachers should first identify writing skills that a particular child or group of children need support in developing. For example, many students in a seventh grade class might have difficulty writing attention getting introductions in their essays. One of the most effective ways to help children build specific writing skills is to show and discuss with them models that successfully demonstrate the skill. Adults should select a number of texts where the authors nail the area that they want to help their children grow in. For our sample seventh graders wed want to find several pieces of writing with strong, engaging introductions and read and analyze these with the students. Once children have explored effective models of the skill, they should be given opportunities to practice it. They can either write new pieces or revise previous pieces of writing emulating the authors techniques. Integrating Sound Instruction in Reading and Writing Phonemic awareness and phonics are two of the pillars of reading. Without understanding the connection between sounds and letters, a person cannot read. The connection between reading and writing can help solidify these skills in young readers. Parents and teachers should help children sound out words in both their reading and writing. When a child comes to a word in their reading that is unfamiliar, the adult(s) working with her can model or guide her in sounding out the word using knowledge of phonemes (sound chunks). Similarly, if a child wants to write a new word the adult(s) can use the same technique to help her choose which letters to write. If the child is younger, accurate spelling is not as important as an understanding of the connection between particular sounds and letters. Therefore helping the child pick letters that approximate the spelling is more appropriate than providing him with the actual spelling. If the child is older and has an understanding of some of the unique variations in the English language (such as silent e), the parent or teacher should encourage him to use that knowledge to come up with the spelling of the word.

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Child Care 2

Choice in Another effective method for using the relationship between reading and writing to foster literacy development is simply giving children the choice in their reading and writing experiences. We learn best when we are motivated. If children are always told exactly what to read and what to write, they will eventually either come to see reading and writing as impersonal events or will shut down. Often in classrooms, teachers allow children to select their own books to read during independent reading time, but they rarely give them the opportunity to pick their own writing topics. In order to encourage ownership over their reading and writing, children should be given chances to read and write what is interesting and important to them.

Talk About It! While it may seem like common sense to adults that reading and writing have a lot to do with each other, the connection is not always as apparent to young people. Parents and teachers should explain how the two skills reinforce and strengthen each other. Young people (especially adolescents) often ask their parents and teachers, Why do I have to learn this? Here is a perfect opportunity to show the relationship between two essential academic and life skills.

WHAT DOES THE TERM VOCABULARY MEAN?

1. 1. The body of words used in a particular language.

2. 2. A part of such a body of words used on a particular occasion or in a particular sphere: "the vocabulary of child development".

Early Childhood Development

Child Care 2

Building Childrens Vocabulary Skills 1. Read to them- learn to understand their language 2. Get them to read 3. Engage children in rich oral language 4. Encourage reading and talking at home and while in school 5. Raise word consciousness 6. Teach important words 7. Teach conceptually related words 8. Relate new words to known words 9. Expose children to words multiple times in multiple meaningful contexts 10. Enjoy words

A good vocabulary is necessary for accurate thinking. "We speak not only to tell other people what we think, but to tell ourselves what we think. Speech is part of thought" (Hughlings-Jackson). A good written vocabulary is essential to logical, sequential reasoning. Words are most effectively taught in the spelling lessons, and in order of their frequency of use in the language (not in categories). The importance of spelling rules must be taught by examples, when they are met in the writing of words being studied.

Words written from dictation in a normal conversational voice force children to think about what they are doing and apply the rules they have learned. Each word is followed by a meaningful sentence containing that word. This develops the habit of the mind needed for writing a sentence. These serve

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Child Care 2

as standards for the types of sentences required in their own verbal and written sentences. The mental work habit of analysing any new word into its phonograms and sounds is of high value in all other studies. It is the basis upon which the student's advanced education in most other subjects depends. The contrast between the process of reading and writing needs to be understood. In writing, saying the sounds of a phonogram or syllable precedes the writing of it to permit the mind to direct the hand in forming the correct phonogram/s. In reading, the eyes must see first the phonograms in proper sequence, then take these to the mind to interpret them before saying the word. The eyes must be on what is being read.

The formal education of children should be centred on developing their ability to reason, to think for themselves and on inculcating a desire to learn. This ability along with the desire to read well written books that expand the student's horizons and knowledge of life is one, if not the major goal of language teaching. Teach from the best written books at every level. Fine books fill the minds of children with a wealth of knowledge - of character and philosophy, of history and science, of humour and wit.

Early Childhood Development

Child Care 2

Early Childhood Development

Child Care 2

As children become writers, they begin to invent spelling for the words that they wish to put on paper. Invented spelling is sometimes referred to as "temporary spelling" because it is used by children until they learn the conventions and rules that adults use when they spell. Invented spelling is a developmentally appropriate step in the process of learning to read and write. It does not interfere with a child's ability to spell correctly in later years. When children first learn to speak, we welcome the attempts they make to reproduce the sounds that they hear. This is exactly what beginning writers are doing with invented spelling. Benefits of invented spelling include: *encourages children to make vital connections between letters and sounds * helps children to become independent writers as they ask for less help spelling words * gives them the ability to write anything they say, leading to longer and more interesting stories * allows children to write more words than they know how to read * encourages children to take responsibility for their own learning as they have more control over what they write *allows for extensive practice of phonics as they use letters to represent the sounds that they hear

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Child Care 2

Notice in the examples below that children begin invented spelling by reproducing the phonetic sounds that they hear. They usually leave out vowels and letters that don't make a distinct sound in a word.

Early Childhood Development

Child Care 2

My dog almost ran away. My family went swimming.

My birthday is coming soon. I'm going to have balloons.

I am good at playing football.

We don't fight. We listen to our teacher.

I like to catch snow flakes.

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Early Childhood Development

Child Care 2

My birthday is coming up. I will invite Rachel. I like my Mom's dress.

I like to pick flowers in the spring. It is fun. I like red flowers.

Children will move toward more conventional spelling as their exposure and learning increase by adding vowel sounds, digraphs, etc. As their confidence grows, they will begin to put sentences together to tell a short story. This one, by a Kindergarten student in March, says: Last year my mom and me planted a tree. We grew it from a seed. The seed already had a tree growing in it.

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