The idea that kids do as they see is completely true. They may not even know what it is they are doing, but they do understand that they saw a parent or adult doing it; therefore, they should do it too. My 4-year old niece, Kaylee, is the perfect example of this. A little while back she broke down into tears because she realized she didn’t know how to read and really wanted too. The few days a month I see her, my husband and I take the time to incorporate even more literacy into her daily activities. We will write our grocery list with her then go shopping. While being at home or out and a bout we will point to letters and objects and ask her to tell what it is. Most importantly, we read tons of books to her. Our weekend always starts with a trip to the library to return books and pick out new ones. I do, however, have to give her a limit on the amount of books we can check out at one; if I didn’t we would need a cart.
When reading to Kaylee, I had started incorporating ideas I later read about in Fox. For example, I always point to the title and follow the words with my fingers. Following the words with my finger has led me to automatically do reverse sweep to get to the next sentence. In the video below I ask Kaylee to read to me. Take a look at her reading skills!
I was completely surprised when Kaylee started to attempt to follow the words with her finger. Of course she wasn't reading, merely singing and telling a story, but she has a clear concept of how to navigate around a page; including the title. Automatically my mind went back to working with my k-buddy and creating a ELP.
Kaylee
Book handling........CHECK
Title.......................CHECK
Reverse Sweep......CHECK
Letter knowledge...CHECK
Word knowledge...CHECK
I think we are off to a good start!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment