The Introduction of Books to Young Children

1. Interview with my Mother

I interviewed my Mother who had a great part in my life with learning and how to read. My mom stated out with having books in the household. She was an avid reader, as well as my grandparents (her parents) were also readers. My mom stared reading to me as an infant every night before bed. Once I was at the toddler age the local libraries were we lived had toddler time. Once a week we would go, this was an interactive program which involved rhymes, music and movement.  The program starts from birth to the age of five. They also have an event every Saturday, once a month.  It was called story time, this involved stories, songs and finger plays. After group time was over we were allowed to check out books from the library. At home we also had our own library filled with all different types of books. Some books were on tape, so my mom would draw the cover of the book on the tape cassette, so I would know what tape went with what book. Once I was in the first grade my mom purchased a set of the Word Book Encyclopedias. These books were used to help out with references on papers. Some challenges were that I was a slow reader at first, but then I was able to ketch up to my peers in my class. By doing a lot of reading at home with my mom, this was able to advance me to the next levels in my reading.

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•Do children develop literacy by themselves?  The child will need to have the correct structure around them to develop literacy. The parent needs to provide their child with phonological awareness, such as the awareness of words syllables and phonemes. If the parent does not have any idea on how to improve their child’s learning experiences they can always reach out to a doctor or teacher for references and recommendations on how to improve thin child’s reading. My mom feels that she did not have to do anything different with helping me read. In Elementary school, our school offered incentives for reading books over the summer break.  If you read so many books that were on the approved list you would get a prize for completing the list. This was a huge incentive for me, I enjoyed reading but to add a prize on it made it more exciting to patriciate.  “Guided participation is a collaborative process between children and their caregivers in which they interact and build upon current understanding to reach new understanding, with shifts in the children's responsibility over time.” (Finn &Vandermaas-Peeler, 1999).

2. Emergent Literacy

Literacy skills begin at the child’s birth and builds on relationships and the child’s experiences that occur during Infancy and in their early childhood. The child will gradually move towards becoming more literate. Research has shown that infants and toddlers were emerging naturally into speaking the language they hear spoken around them.  Children will learn by phonemic awareness, this is the “awareness that the speech stream consists of a sequence of sounds”. (Yopp & Yopp, 2000).

• Three examples of children’s progression of reading that are used in the home.

Children at an early age will observe and interact with family members who use words in every day conversations with other family members. The child will construct their own concepts about words and print from listening, observing and being involved in these types of activities in the home. For example, if the child needs a glass of apple juice from the refrigerator, the child needs to know what words to look

for on the label of the bottle to be able to grab the correct item. Children will begin using pretend play to imitate play writing which is scribble. For example they may want to write their Mother a note, so they scribble their words down. This is a form of imitation an action. Children can interact with other adults in the household by playing on the computer, playing board games together and going to a restaurant. All these types of activities involve reading.

• Ways parents can help their child’s reading at home.

The parent can help guide their child though reading the book. Have the parent show the child how to use their fingers to point at words in the book. Give the child an example on how to turn the pages in the books. Several children do not know how to turn the pages in books correctly. So by the parent showing the child the correct way and giving them the opportunity to practice turning the pages will set the child’s reading skills up to be a much better reader.  The young children will learn from voices, by having the child sit on the parents lap and they read together. This is another role that they can do together. When the Parent is reading the book out loud to the child they need to be reading the book at a good pace, pausing at the correct times in the story and using different voices for exciting parts in the story. By doing this, it makes the story atmosphere different and fun. Having parents read to their child can help balance emotions and build personality development with in the child, sometimes having grandparents or an older sister or brother read to the child is a way for the grandparent to enter into the inner world of that child. Sometimes when the child reads with an older sibling this is can be an influential time of them. The siblings are forming a bond through reading.

3. Effective ways of teaching young children about diversity.

Multicultural means many cultures. In today’s classrooms the children that attend are representing several different races and cultures. The teacher will need to treat all children with equal respect and consideration. The classroom should have some visual images of adult role models with differing abilities. A great way to engage with the students is having circle time and reading a book out loud to the children. This activity is so important for building the understandings and skills necessary for reading success. By reading multicultural picture books to students it introduces them to new words. It also helps children store mental images of words in their brains. Reading a book to the students is just one way to teach diversity. Also by having integrating actives about at the learning centers in the classroom, the children will learn about children like themselves from different backgrounds. By having puzzles, puppets and playing dress up and other activities will serve as a dual purpose of acquainting children with other cultures while improving their literary skills. Multicultural literature can be used to help readers identify cultural heritage, to understand sociological change and to respect the values of minority groups. By reading about different cultures it helps the respect children from other cultures, respect children who speak a different language and it will improve their attitude toward people who look difficult. “It is important that students understand the necessity of sharing experiences and ideas as well as listening to and learning from one other. A good conversation as neither a fight nor a contest.  And participants should not view each other as adversaries.” (Chou, Cheng, & Cheng, 2016)

•Book References on Diversity.

The first book I would use is called Same, Same but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw. It's about a boy who lives in the US and another boy who lives in India. They become pen pals and they start exchanging letters and pictures and they both learn that they like the same things in life. But the things look different but they are similar. As a class discussion we can use a T chart and highlight the similarities and the differences between the two friends. This is a great book that shows that cultural differences do exist, but people are still the same.

4. Children Bonding With books.

It is so important that teachers and caregivers read to their children. Several studies have shown that early reading with children helps the child to learn to speak, interact and bond with their parents. By adding reading into the child’s life it helps them understand the world around them a lot better. When the adult is reading to the child it is always good to get into charter with the book. By creating different character voices is a great way to engage the child. One way a child can bond with different books is if they enjoy a certain subject like cars and trucks. Children will gravitate towards those types of books.

•Activity’s to do with books.

I like to always have an activity that goes along with the book. If it is a worksheet that we can all do together as a whole class or put the worksheet at one of the centers as a center activity. One book I like is the book called “Dragons Love Tacos” by: Adam Rubin. This book comes as a toy set, that has a stuff animal as a dragon. Children love stuff animals. The children will get excited right away when they see the stuff animal and they will want to learn about the book. Before reading the book I would pass the stuff dragon around to each of the students and have the students tell me some describing words about the dragon. After reading the book we can color the activity sheet, cut out the tacos and place them on the sheet from the smallest to biggest. We are combining reading and math together. On a Tuesday we can have a taco Tuesday party. Every student will bring in an ingredient for the tacos and the whole class can make tacos together. This is a great way to bond with the book and the students.

Second Book: I would start off by reading the children the book set "Children of the World”. The students will learn about everyday lives of children around the world. They will learn about land forms, animals, food, and music and about diverse places. For example, after we read as a whole class, the book on Mexico. I would have a packet of worksheets; in the packet would be coloring pages of the map of Mexico, the Mexican Flag and land marks of Mexico. Each country will have their individual worksheet packet. 

•Types of Books.

I do like the old classics to teach to the class. The first book is called The Three Billy Goats Gruff. This is a pattern story that the scenes are repeated with some variation. When reading this book to the class you can use dramatic tones of your voice and use movements with props. For example, a flannel board which will bring the story to life.  The Billy goat story goes in a sequence and you can use different voices for the goats. Footsteps over the bridge "trip, traps”. And when the troll comes out you can use a scary voice. The children enjoy these voices. Besides the flannel board activity, there is a Three Billy Goats Gruff problem solving kit that can be used in the block center area.  The students can construct the bridge to keep the three Billy Goats safe from the troll. The kit also comes with instruction cards, with pictures to help construct the bridge. With this activity we are connecting STEM with reading.

The second book would be if you give a Mouse book set. The set comes with five books. The following books are:

If you Give a Mouse a Cookie

If you take a Mouse to the movies

If you take a mouse to school

If you give a moose a muffin and

If you give a pig a pancake.

This book set is By: Laura Joffe Numeroff. This type of story is a chain or circular story. The plot is interlinked so that the ending leads back to the beginning. This set of books is a great way to introduce the children to how books are put in series and that there are different and the same charters in the series. On Amazon Prime Video, there is the series “If you Give a Mouse A cookie season. When it’s bathroom time you can put a video on about the book and it ties to the books charters. Another grate time to put on a video is at the end of the day, especially when the students are putting on their backpacks.

References:

• Chou, M., Cheng, J., & Cheng, Y. (2016). Operating Classroom Aesthetic Reading Environment to Raise Childrens Reading Motivation. Universal Journal of Educational Research,4(1), 81-97. doi:10.13189/ujer.2016.040111
• Dawson, G. (2013). Using Conversational Learning to Enhance Teaching of Diversity. E-Journal of Business Education & Scholarship of Teaching,7(2), 31-38.
• Finn, L., & Vandermass-Peeler, M. (1999). Young Children's Engagement and Learning Opportunities in Cooking Activity with Parents and Older Siblings. ECRP,15(1). doi:1524-5039
• Yopp, H. K., & Yopp, R. H. (2000). Supporting Phonemic Awareness Development in the Classroom. The Reading Teacher,54(2), 130-143. doi:10.1598/rt.54.2.2